Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent:* Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven: The KING rises and advances. King. My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: Words, without thoughts, never to heaven go. SCENE IV-Another Room in the same. Enter QUEEN and POLONIUS. [Exit. [Exit. Pol. He will come straight. Look, you lay home to him: Pray you, be round with him. Queen. I'll warrant you; Fear me not-withdraw, I hear him coming. [POLONIUS hides himself. Enter HAMLET. Ham. Now, mother; what's the matter? Queen. Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended. You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife; And,-'would it were not so!-you are my mother. Queen. Nay, then I'll set those to you that can speak. Ham. Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge; You go not, till I set you up a glass Where you may see the inmost part of you. Queen. What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder me? Help, help, ho! Pol. [Behind.] What, ho! help! Ham. How now! a rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead. [Draws. [HAMLET makes a pass through the arras. Pol. [Behind.] O, I am slain. Queen. O me, what hast thou done? Ham. Nay, I know not: [Falls and dies. Is it the king? [Lifts up the arras, and draws forth POLONIUS. Queen. O, what a rash and bloody deed is this! *Seize him at a more horrid time. 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, rash, 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 brazed 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 A rhapsody of words: Heaven's face doth glow; With tristful visage, as against the doom, Queen. Ah me, what act, That roars so loud, and thunders in the index ? + Ham. Look here, upon this picture, and on this; ‡ This was your husband.-Look you now, what follows: Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes? Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed, The hey-day in the blood is tame, it's humble, And waits upon the judgment; And what judgment * Marriage contract. The portraits of the two brothers. Sensation. + Index of contents. § Attitude. ** Frenzy. What devil was 't But it reserved some quantity of choice, To serve in such a difference. That thus hath cozen'd you at hoodman-blind ?* O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell, And melt in her own fire: proclaim no shame, 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; || Stew'd in corruption; Over the nasty sty; honeying, and making love Queen. O, speak to me no more; These words, like daggers enter in mine ears: Ham. A murderer, and a villain : A slave, that is not twentieth part the tythe Queen. No more. 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? Ham. Do you not come your tardy son to chide, That, lapsed in time and passion, lets go by Ghost. Do not forget: This visitation Ham. How is it with you, lady? That you do bend your eye on vacancy, Ham. On him! on him!-Look you, how pale he glares! Would make them capable.+-Do not look upon me; Lest, with this piteous action, you convert My stern effects: then what I have to do Will want true colour; tears, perchance, for blood. 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 habit as he lived! 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, Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg; Yea, curb and woo, for leave to do him good. Queen. O Hamlet! thou hast cleft my heart in twain. Ham. 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; That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat That aptly is put on: Refrain to-night; 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.- Queen. What shall I do? Ham. Not this, by no means, that I bid you do: Or paddling in your neck with his damn'd fingers, That I essentially am not in madness, But mad in craft. "Twere good, you let him know: Would from a paddock,t from a bat, a jib,t Such dear concernings hide? who would do so? Unpeg the basket on the house's top, Let the birds fly; and, like the famous ape, To try conclusions, § in the basket creep, And break your own neck down. Queen. Be thou assured, 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 petard: and it shall go hard, I'll lug the guts into the neighbour room:- + Male cat. Toad. Experiments. |