The Dramatic Works of William Shakspeare

And draw you into madness?-think of it;
The very place puts toys+ of desperation,
Without more motive, into every brain,
That looks so many fathoms to the sea,
And hears it roar beneath.

Ham. It waves me still :-
Go on, I'll follow thee.

Mar. You shall not go, my lord.
Ham. Hold off your hands.
Har. Be rul'd, you shall not go.
Ham. My fate cries out,

And makes each petty artery in this body
As hardy as the Némean lion's nerve.-

As meditation, or the thoughts of love,
May sweep to my revenge.
Ghost. I find thee apt;

flood, And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed
That rots itself in ease on Lethe wharf, [hear:
Wouldst thon not stir in this. Now Hamlet,
'Tis given out, that, sleeping in mine orchard, ☀
A serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Den-
Is by a forged process of my death [mark
Rankly abus'd: but know, thou noble youth,
The serpent that did sting thy father's life,
Now wears his crown.

[GHOST beckons. Still am I call'd;-unhand me, gentlemen ;[Breaking from them. By heaven, I'll make a ghost of him that lets I say, away :-Go on, I'll follow thee. [me:[Exeunt GHOST and HAMLET. Har. He waxes desperate with imagination. Mar. Let's follow: 'tis not fit thus to obey him.

Hor. Have after :-To what issue will this come!

Mar. Something is rotten in the
Denmark.

Hor. Heaven will direct it.
Mar. Nay, let's follow him.

state of

[Exeunt.

When I to sulphurous and tormenting flames

Mast render up myself.

Ham. Alas, poor ghost!

Ham. O my prophetic soul! my uncle!
Ghost. Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate
beast,

With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts,
(O wicked wit, and gifts, that have the power
So to seduce !) won to his shameful lust
The will of my most seeming virtuous queen:
O Hamlet, what a falling-off was there!
From me whose love was of that dignity,
That it went hand in hand even with the vow
I made to her in marriage; and to decline
Upon a wretch, whose natural gifts were poor
To those of mine!

But virtue, as it never will be mov'd,
Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven;
So lust, though to a radiant angel link'd,
Will sate + itself in a celestial bed,
And prey on garbage.

[chard,

But, soft! methinks I scent the morning air;
Brief let me be :-Sleeping within mine or
My custom always of the afternoon,
Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole,
With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial,
And in the porches of mine ears did pour
The leperous distilment; whose effect
Holds such an enmity with blood of man,
That, swift as quicksilver, it courses through
The natural gates and alleys of the body;
And, with a sudden vigour, it doth posset
And curd, like eager droppings into milk,
The thin and wholesome blood: so did it mine;
And a most instant tetter § bark'd about,
Most lazar -like, with vile and loathsome crust,
All my smooth body.

Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand,

Of life, of crown, of queen, at once des. patch'd:¶

Cut off even in blossoms of my sin,
Unhonsel'd, unanointed, unanel'd: ++

Ghost. Pity me not, but lend thy serious No reckoning made, but sent to my account

bearing

To what I shall unfold.

Ham. Speak, I am bound to hear.

With all my imperfections on my head:
O horrible! O horrible! most horrible (n)
If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not;

Ghost. So art thou to revenge, when thou Let not the royal bed of Denmark be

shalt bear.

Ham. What!

Ghort. I am thy father's spirit;

Dem'd for a certain term to walk the night;
And, for the day, confin'd to fast in fires, (n)
Till the foul crimes, done in my days of nature,
Are barn'd and purg'd away. But that I am
To tell the secrets of my prison-house, [forbid
Iroid a tale unfold, whose lightest word
Would barrow up thy soul; freeze thy young
blood;
[spheres;
Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their
Thy knotted and combined locks to part,
Lear quills upon the fretful porcupine:
bts eternal blazon 5 must not be
Tras of flesh and blood :-List, list, oh! list-
La didst ever thy dear father love,-
Him. O heaven!

Ghust. Revenge his foul and most unnatural
murder.
Him. Murder?

Ghost. Murder most foul, as in the best it is; Bet this most foul, strange, and unnatural. Ham. Haste me to know it; that I, with wings as swift

A couch for luxury and damned incest.
But, howsoever thou pursu'st this act,
Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive
Against thy mother aught; leave her to heav'n,
And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge,
To prick and sting her. Fare thee well at

once !

it ilead.

Without having received the sacrament. ft Without extreme unction.

$5 Sayings, sentences. (a) This line seems with most propriety to belong to Hamlet, and in all modern representations is spoken by

That youth and observation copied there;
And thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain,
Unmix'd with baser matter: yes, by heav'n!
O most pernicious woman!

O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!
My tables, -meet it is, I set it down,
That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain;|
At least, I am sure, it may be so in Denmark :
[Writing.
So, uncle, there vou are. Now to my word:
It is, Adieu, adieu! remember me.
I have sworn't.

Hor. [Within.] My lord, my lord,-
Mar. [Within.] Lord Hamlet,-
Hor. Within.] Heaven secure him!

Ham. So be it!

Mar. [Within.] Illo, ho, ho, my lord!

Ham. Hillo, ho, ho, boy! come, bird, come.

Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS.

Mar. How is't, my noble lord?

For. What news, my lord?

Ham. O wonderful!

Hor. Good my lord, tell it.

Ham. No;

You will reveal it.

Hor. Not I, my lord, by heaven.

Mar. Nor I, my lord.

shake,

Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase,
As, Well, well, we know ;-or, We could, an
if we would;-or, If we list to speak, or,

Ham. How say you then; would heart of There be, and if they might

man once think it ?

But you'll be secret,

Hor. Mar. Ay, by heaven my lord.

Or such ambiguous giving out to note

That you know aught of me :-This do you

swear,

[you!

Ham. There's ne'er a villain, dwelling in all So grace and mercy at vour most need belp

Ghost. [Beneath.] Swear.

Ham. Rest, rest, perturbed spirit! So, gen

SCENE I.-A Room in POLONIUS' House.
Enter POLONIUS and REYNALDO.
Pol. Give him this money, and these notes,
Reynaldo.

Rey. I will, my lord.
Pol. You shall do marvellous wisely, good
Reynaldo,

Before you visit him, to make inquiry
Of his behaviour.

Rey. My lord, I did intend it.

Pol. Marry, well said: very well said. Look you, Sir,

Inquire me first what Danskers + are in Paris ; And how, and who, what means, and where

they keep,

What company, at what expense; and finding, By this encompassment and drift of question, That they do know my son, come yon more

What forgeries you please; marry, none so As if he had been loosed out of hell,

rank

As may dishonour him; take heed of that;
But, Sir, such wanton, wild, and usual slips,
As are companions noted and most known
To youth and liberty.

Rey. As gaming, my lord.

Pol. Ay, or drinking, fencing, swearing, quarrelling,

Drabbing:-You may go so far.

Rey. My lord, that would dishonour him.
Pol. 'Faith, no; as you may season it in the
charge.

You must not put another scandal on him,
That he is open to incontinency;

That's not my ending: but breathe his faults so quaintly,

That they may seem the taints of liberty;
The flash and out-break of a fiery mind;
A savageness in unreclaimed blood,
Of general assault.

Rey. But, my good lord,

Pl. Wherefore should you do this?
Reg. Ay, my lord,

would know that.

Pol. Marry, Sir, here's my drift;
And, I believe, it is a fetch of warrant :
You laying these slight sullies on my son,
As 'twere a thing a little soil'd i'the working,
Mark you,

Your party in converse, him you would sound,
Having ever seen in the prenominate crimes,
The youth you breathe of guilty, be assur'd,
He closes with you in this consequence;
Good Sir, or so; or friend, or gentleman,—
According to the phrase, or the addition,
Of man, and country.

Rey. Very good, my lord.

To speak of horrors,-he comes before me. Pol. Mad for thy love?

Oph. My lord, I do not know; But, truly, I do fear it.

Pol. What said he?

Oph. He took me by the wrist, and held me bard;

Then goes he to the length of all his arm;
And, with his other hand thus o'er his brow,
He falls to such perusal of my face,

As he would draw it. Long stay'd he so;
At last, a little shaking of mine arm,
And thrice his head thus waving up and
down,-

He rais'd a sigh so piteous and profound,
As it did seem to shatter all his bulk,
And end his being: That, done, he lets me go:
And, with his head over his shoulder turn'd,
He seem'd to find his way without his eyes;
For out o'doors he went without their helps,
And, to the last, bended their light on me.
Pol. Come, go with me; I will go seck the
This is the very ecstasy of love;
[king.
Whose violent property foredoes + itself,
And leads the will to desperate undertakings,
As oft as any passion under heaven,

That does allict our natures. I am sorry ;-
What, have you given him any hard words of

late ?

Oph. No, ny good lord: but, as you did com mand,

I did repel his letters, and denied
His access to me.

Pol. That hath made him mad.

I am sorry, that with better heed and judgment,

i had not quoted him; 1 fear'd he did but trifle,

[jealousy!

Pol. And then, Sir, does he this,-He does--And meant to wreck thee; but, beshrew my What was I about to say ?-By the mass, It seems it is as proper to our age was about to say something :-Where did I leave?

Reg. At, closes in the consequence.
Pol. At, closes in the consequence,-Ay,

marry:

He closes with you thus :-I know the gentle I saw him yesterday, or t'other day, man; Or then, or then; with such, or such; and, as you say,

There was he gaming; there o'ertook in his

rouse;

There falling out at tennis: or, perchance,
I saw him enter such a house of sale,
(}idelicet, ; a brothel,) or so forth.-
See you now;

Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth:
And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,
With windlaces, and with assays of bias,
By indirections find directions out;

Se, by former lecture and advice,

To cast beyond ourselves in our opinions,
As it is common for the younger sort
To lack discretion. Come, go we to the king:
This must be known; which, being kept close,
might move

More grief to hide, than hate to utter love.

Come.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II-A Room in the Castle. Enter KING, QUEEN, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and Attendants.

King. Welcome, dear Rosencrantz, and Guild

enstern!

Moreover that we much did long to see you,
The need, we have to use you did provoke
Our hasty sending. Something have you heard
Of Hainlet's transformation; so I call it,
Since not the exterior nor the inward man
Resembles that it was: What it should be,

Shall you, my son: You have me, have you not? More than his father's death, that thus hath put Bey. My lord, I have.

Pal. God be wi' you; fare you well.

Rey. Good my lord,

Pol. Observe bis inclination in yourself.
Rey. I strall, my lord.

Pol. And let him play his music.
Reg. Well, my lord.

Enter OPHELIA.

him

And, since, so neighbour'd to his youth and hu[Exit. That you youchsafe your rest here in our

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court

Your visitation shall receive such thanks
As fits a king's remembrance.

Ros. Both your majesties

Might, by the sovereign power you have of us,
Put your dread pleasures more into command
Than to entreaty.

Guil. But we both obey;

And here give up ourselves, in the full bent,
To lay our service freely at your feet,
To be commanded.

King. Thanks, Rosencrantz, and gentle
denstern.

Go to your rest; at night we'll feast together:
Most welcome home!

[Exeunt VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS Pol. This business is well ended.

My liege, and madam, to expostulate ⚫
What majesty should be, what duty is,

Why day is day, night night, and time is time,
Were nothing but to waste night, day, and
time.

Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit, Guil-And tediousness the limbs and outward thenrishes,

Queen. Thanks, Guildenstern, and gentle
Rosencrantz :

And I beseech you instantly to visit
My too much changed son.-Go, some of you,
And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is.
Guil. Heavens make our presence and our
practices

Pleasant and helpful to him!
Queen. Ay, ameu!

[Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN,
and some Attendants.

Enter POLONIUS.

I will be brief: Your noble son is mad :
Mad call it for, to define true madness,
What is't, but to be nothing else but mad :
But let that go.

Queen. More matter, with less art.

Pol. Madam, I swear I use no art at all.
That he is mad, 'tis true: 'tis true, 'tis pity;
And pity 'tis, 'tis true: a foolish figure;
But farewell it, for I will use no art.
Mad let us grant him then and now remains,
That we find out the cause of this effect;
Or, rather say, the cause of this defect;
For this effect, defective, comes by cause:

Pol. The embassadors from Norway, my good Thus it remains, and the remainder thus.

lord,

Are joyfully return'd.

King. Thon still hast been the father of good

news.

Perpend.

I have a daughter; have, while she is mine;
Who, in her duty and obedience, mark,
Hath given me this: Now gather and surmise.

Pol. Have I, my lord? Assure you, my good-To the celestial, and my soul's idol, the

liege,

I hold my duty, as I hold my soul,

Both to my God, and to my gracious king :
And I do think, (or else this brain of mine
Hunts not the trail of policy so sure

As it hath us'd to do,) that I have found
The very cause of Hamlet's lunacy.

King. Oh! speak of that; that I do long to

hear.

most beautified Ophelia,-

That's an ill phrase, a vile phrase; beautified is
a vile phrase; but you shall bear,-Thus :
In her excellent white bosom, these, &c.
Queen. Came this from Hamlet to her?
Pol. Good madam, stay awhile; I will be
faithful.-

Pol. Give first admittance to the embassadors; My news shall be the fruit to that great feast. King. Thyself do grace to them, and bring them in. [Exit POLONIUS. He tells me, my dear Gertrude, he hath found The head and source of all your son's distem-I per.

Queen. I doubt, it is no other but the main ;
His father's death, and our o'erhasty marriage.
Re-enter POLONIUS, with VOLTIMAND and
CORNELIUS.

King. Well, we shall sift him.-Welcome, my
good friends !
[way?
Say, Voltinand, what from our brother Nor-
Volt. Most fair return of greetings and desires.
Upon our first, he sent out to suppress
His nephew's levies; which to him appear'd
To be a preparation 'gainst the Polack ;§
But, better look'd into, he truly found

It was against your highness: Whereat griev'd,—
That so his sickness, age, and impotence,
Was falsely borne in hand, sends out arrests
On Fortinbras, which he, in brief, obeys;
Receives rebuke from Norway, and, in fiue,
Makes vow before bis uncle, never more
To give the assay of arms against your majesty.
Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy,
Gives him three thousand crowns in annual fee;
And his commission to employ those soldiers,
So levied as before, against the Polack;
With an entreaty, herein further shown,
[Gives a Paper.
That it might please you to give quiet pass
Through your dominions for this enterprise;
On such regards of safety, and allowance,
As therein are set down.

King. It likes us well:

And, at our more consider'd time, we'll read,
Answer, and think upon this business.
Meantime, we thank you for your well-took

labour:

• Utmost exertion. Poland.

you think,

When I had seen this hot love on the wing,
(As I perceiv'd it, I must tell you that,
Before my daughter told me,) what might yon,
Or my dear majesty your queen here, think,
If I had play'd the desk, or table-book,
Or given my heart a working, mute aud dumb,
Or look'd upon this love with idle sight:
What might you think? no, I went round † to
work,

And my young mistress thus did I bespeak ;
Lord Hamlet is a prince out of thy sphere ;
This must not be and then I precepts gave

King. Do you think, 'tis this?

Queen. It may be, very likely.

I will leave him, and suddenly contrive the means of meeting between him and my daughter,

Pol. Hath there been such a time, (I'd fain-My honourable lord, I will most humbly take

know that,

That I have positively said, 'Tis so,
When it prov'd otherwise?

King. Not that I know.

Pol. Take this from this, if this be otherwise : [Pointing to his Head and Shoulder.

If circumstances lead me, I will find

Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed Within the centre.

King. How may we try it further?

Pol. You know, sometimes he walks for hours

together,

Here in the lobby.

Queen. So he does, indeed.

Pol. At such a time I'll loose my daughter to bim:

Be you and I behind an arras⚫ then:
Mark the encounter: if he love her not,
And be not from his reason fallen thereon,
Let me be no assistant for a state,

But keep a farm, and carters.
King. We will try it.

Enter HAMLET, reading.

Queen. But, look, where sadly the poor wretch comes reading.

Pol. Away, I do beseech you, both away; I'll board + him presently :-Oh! give me leave.[Exeunt KING, QUEEN, and Attendants. How does my good lord Hamlet ?

Ham. Well, god'-a-mercy.

Pol. Do you know me, my lord?
Ham. Excellent well; you are a fishmonger.
Pel. Not I, my lord.

Ham. Then I would you were so honest a

man.

Pol. Honest, my lord?

Ham. Ay, Sir; to be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.

Pol. That's very true, my lord.

Ham. For if the sun breed maggots in a dead deg, being a god-kissing carrion,--Have you a Caughter!

P. I have, my lord.

Ham. Let her not walk i'the sun: conception ha blessing; but as your daughter may conceive, § -friend, look to't.

Pol. How say you by that? [Aside.] Still harping on my daughter :-yet he knew me not at first, he said, I was a fishmonger: He is far gode, far gone; and truly, in my youth, I suffered mach extremity for love; very near this. I speak to him again.-What do you read, iny bord!

Ham. Words, words, words!

P. What is the matter, my lord?
Ham. Between who?

Pol. I mean the matter that you read, my bord.

Ham. Slanders, Sir: for the satirical rogue says here, that old men have grey beards; that thir faces are wrinkled; their eyes purging amber, and plum-tree gum; and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with Dost weak bams: All of which, Sir, though I st powerfully and potently believe, yet I bed it not honesty to have it thus set down; for yourself, Sir, shall be as old as I am, if, like a crab, you could go backward.

Pel. Though this be madness, yet there's mariod in it. [Aside.] Will you walk out of, the By lord ?

my leave of you.

Ham. You cannot, Sir, take from me any thing, that I will more willingly part withal; except my life, except my life, except my life. Pol. Fare you well, my lord. Ham. These tedious old fools!

Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. Pol. You go to seek the lord Hamlet; there he is.

Ros. God save you, Sir!

[To POLONIUS. [Exit POLONIUS.

Guil. My honour'd lord !Ros. My most dear lord! Ham. My excellent good friends! How dost thou, Guildenstern ? Ah! Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do ye both?

Ros. As the indifferent children of the earth. Guil. Happy, in that we are not overhappy; On fortune's cap we are not the very button. Ham. Nor the soles of her shoe?

Ros. Neither, my lord.

Ham. Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of her favours ?

Guil. 'Faith her privates we.

Ham. In the secret parts of fortune? Oh! most true; she is a strumpet. What news?

Ros. None, my lord; but that the world is grown honest.

Ham. Then is doomsday near: But your news is not true. Let me question more in particular: What have you, my good friends, deserved at the hands of fortune, that she sends you to prison hither?

Guil. Prison, my lord!

Ham. Denmark's a prison.

Ros. Then is the world one.

Ham. A goodly one; in which there are many confines, wards, and dungeons; Deumark being one of the worst.

Ros. We think not so, my lord.

Ham. Why, then 'tis none to you; for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so: to me it is a prison.

Ros. Why, then your ambition makes it one; 'tis too narrow for your mind.

Ham. O God! I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space; were it not that I have bad dreams.

Guil. Which dreams, indeed, are ambition; for the very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dreamn.

Ham. A dream itself is but a shadow.

Ros. Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality, that it is but a shadow's shadow.

Ham. Then are our beggars, bodies; and our monarchs and outstretch'd heroes the beggars' shadows: Shall we to the court? for, by my fay, I cannot reason.

Ros. Guil. We'll wait upon you.

Ham. No such matter: I will not sort you with the rest of my servants; for, to speak to you like an honest man, I am most dreadfully attended. But, in the beaten way of friendship, what make you at Elsinore?

Ros. To visit you, my lord; no other occasion.

Ham. Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks; but I thank you: and sure, dear friends, my thanks are too dear, a halfpenny. Were you not sent for? Is it your own inclining? Is it a free visitation? Come, come deal justly with me: come, come; nay, speak.

Guil. What should we say, my lord?

Ham. Any thing-but to the purpose. You were sent for; and there is a kind of confession in your looks, which your modesties have not craft enough to colour: I know, the good king and queen have sent for you.

Ros. To what end, my lord?

Ham. That you must teach me. But let me

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