Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice, As Vulcan's stithy.2 Give him heedful note: Hor. Well, my lord: If he steal aught, the whilst this play is playing, And scape detecting, I will pay the theft. Ham. They are coming to the play; I must be idle: King. How fares our cousin Hamlet? Ham. Excellent, i'faith; of the chameleon's dish: I eat the air, promise-crammed: You cannot feed capons so. Iman do, but be merry? for, look you, how cheerfully my mother looks, and my father died within these two hours. Oph. Nay, 'tis twice two months, my lord. Ham. So long? Nay, then let the devil wear black, for I'll have a suit of sables.5 O heavens! die two months ago, and not forgotten yet? Then there's hope, a great man's memory may outlive his life half a year: But, by'r-lady, he must build churches then or else shall he suffer not thinking on, with the hobby-horse; whose epitaph is, For, O, for, O, the hobby-horse is forgot. Trumpets sound. The dumb show follows. Enter a King and a Queen, very lovingly; the Queen embracing him, and he her. She kneels, and makes show of protestation unto him. He takes her up, and declines his head upon her neck: lays him down upon a bank of flowers; she, seeing him asleep, leaves him. Anon comes in a fellow, takes off his crown, kisses it, and pours poison in the King's ears, and exit. The Queen returns; finds the King dead, and makes passionate action. The poisoner, with some two or three Mutes, comes in again, seeming to lament with her The dead body is carried away. The poisoner woos the Queen with gifts; she seems loath and unwilling awhile, but, in the end, accepts his love. [Exeunt. Oph. What means this, my lord? Ham. Marry, this is miching mallecho;6 it means mischief. Oph. Belike, this show imports the argument of the play. Enter Prologue. Ham. We shall know by this fellow: the players cannot keep counsel; they'll tell all. Oph. Will he tell us what this show meant? Ham. Ay, or any show that you'll show him : King. I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet;||Be not you ashamed to show, he'll not shame to these words are not mine. Ham. No, nor mine now. My lord,-you played once in the university, you say [To Polonius. Pol. That did I, my lord; and was accounted a good actor. Ham. And what did you enact? Pol. I did enact Julius Cæsar: I was killed i'the Capitol; Brutus killed me. Ham. It was a brute part of him, to kill so capital a calf there.-Be the players ready? Ros. Ay, my lord; they stay4 upon your patience. Queen. Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me. Ham. No, good mother, here's metal more at the play. Pro. For us, and for our tragedy, 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,10 About the world have times twelve thirties been; Since love our hearts, and Hymen did our hands, Unite commutual in most sacred bands. moon P. Queen. So many journeys inay the sun and Make us again count o'er, ere love be done! But, wo 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 neither aught, or in extremity. Now, what my love is, proof hath made you know: And as my love is siz'd,11 my fear is so. (7) Short. (8) Car, chariot. (9) The earth's, (10) Shining, lustre. (11) Magnitude, proportion. 3 Y P. King. 'Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly too; My operant powers their functions leave to do: P. Queen. In second husband let me be accurst! P. Queen. The instances,? that second marriage speak: But, what we do determine, oft we break. Of violent birth, but poor validity: Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree; Their own enactures with themselves destroy : But, orderly to end where I begun,-- Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own: P. Queen. Nor earth to give me food, nor heaven light! Sport and repose lock from me, day and night! [To Oph. P. King. 'Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here a while; My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile Ham. O, 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.6 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, our withers are unwrung. Enter Lucianus. This is one Lucianus, nephew to the king. love, if I could see the puppets dallying. Oph. You are keen, my lord, you are keen. Ham. It would cost you a groaning, to take off my edge. Oph. Still better, and worse. Ham. So you mistake your husbands.—Begin, murderer ;-leave thy damnable faces, and begin. Come; -The croaking raven Doth bellow for revenge. Luc. Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing; Confederate season, else no creature seeing; [Pours the poison into the sleeper's ears. Ham. He poisons him i'the garden for his estate. His name's Gonzago: the story is extant, and written in very choice Italian: You shall see anon, how the murderer gets the love of Gonzago's wife. Oph. The king rises. Ham. What! frighted with false fire? Pol. Give o'er the play. King. Give me some light:-away! [Exeunt all but Hamlet and Horatio. Ham. Why, let the strucken deer go weep, - For some must watch, while some must sleep; For thou dost know, O Damon dear, Of Jove himself; and now reigns here Hor. You might have rhymed. Ham. O good Horatio, I'll take the ghost's word for a thousand pound. Didst perceive? Hor. Very well, my lord. Ham. Upon the talk of poisoning, Hor. I did very well note him. Ham. Ah, ha!-Come, some music; come, the recorders, 13 For if the king like not the comedy, tages,4 with your fingers and thumb, give it breath Why then, belike, he likes it not, perdy.with your mouth, and it will discourse most elo Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Come, some music. Guil. Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you. Ham. Sir, a whole history. Guil. The king, sir, Ham. Ay, sir, what of him? quent music. Look you, these are the stops. Ham. Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me. You would play upon me; you would seem to know my stops: you would pluck out the heart of my mystery; you would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass and Guil. Is, in his retirement, marvellous distem- there is much music, excellent voice, in this little pered. Ham. With drink, sir? Guil. No, my lord, with choler. Ham. Your wisdom should show itself more richer, to signify this to the doctor; for, for me to put him to his purgation, would, perhaps, plunge him into more choler. Guil. Good my lord, put your discourse into some frame, and start not so wildly from my affair. Ham. I am tame, sir :-pronounce. Guil. The queen, your mother, in most great affliction of spirit, hath sent me to you. Ham. You are welcome. Guil. Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the right breed. If it shall please you to make me a wholesome answer, I will do your mother's commandment: if not, your pardon, and my return, shall be the end of my business. Ham. Sir, I cannot. Guil. What, my lord? Ham. Make you a wholesome answer; my wit's diseased: But, sir, such answer as I can make, you shall command; or, rather, as you say, my mother: therefore no more, but to the matter: My mother, you say, Ros. Then thus she says; Your behaviour hath struck her into amazement and admiration. Ham. O wonderful son, that can so astonish a mother!-But is there no sequel at the heels of this mother's admiration? impart. Ros. She desires to speak with you in her closet, ere you go to bed. Ham. We shall obey, were she ten times our mother. Have you any further trade2 with us? Ros. My lord, you once did love me. Ham. And do still, by these pickers and stealers.3 Ros. Good my lord, what is your cause of distemper? you do, surely, but bar the door upon your own liberty, if you deny your griefs to your friend. Ham. Sir, I lack advancement. Ros. How can that be, when you have the voice of the king himself for your succession in Denmark? Ham. Ay, sir, but, While the grass grows,-the|| proverb is something musty. Enter the Players, with recorders. O, the recorders :-let me see one.-' .-To withdraw with you:-Why do you go about to recover the wind of me, as if you would drive me into a toil? Guil. O, my lord, if my duty be too bold, my is too unmannerly. love Ham. I do not well understand that. Will you play upon this pipe? Guil. My lord, I cannot. Guil. I know no touch of it, my lord. (1) Par Dieu. (2) Business. (3) Hands. organ; yet cannot you make it speak. 'Sblood, do God bless you, sir! Pol. My lord, the queen would speak with you, and presently. Ham. Do you see yonder cloud, that's almost in shape of a camel? Pol. By the mass, and 'tis like a camel, indeed. Ham. Or, like a whale? Pol. Very like a whale. Ham. Then will I come to my mother by and by. -They fool me to the top of my bent.5-I will come by and by. Pol. I will say so. [Exit Polonius. Ham. By and by is easily said.-Leave me, friends. [Exeunt Ros. Guil. Hor. &c. 'Tis now the very witching time of night; When churchyards yawn, and hell itself breathes out Contagion to this world: Now could I drink hot blood, And do such business as the bitter day I will speak daggers to her, but use none; King. I like him not; nor stands it safe with us, Ros. The single and peculiar life is bound, With all the strength and armour of the mind, To keep itself from 'noyance: but much more That spirit, upon whose weal depend and rest The lives of many. The cease of majesty Dies 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, (7) Authority to put them in execution. (8) Lunacies. With all his crimes broad-blown, as flush as May; For we will fetters put upon this fear, Pol. My lord, he's going to his mother's closet: And, as you said, and wisely was it said, Thanks, dear my lord. O limed2 soul; that struggling to be free, No. Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent : Ham. Now, mother; what's the matter? Queen. Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended. Ham. Mother, you have my father much offended. Queen. Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue. Ham. Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue. What's the matter now? Ham. Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge; You go not, till I set you up a glass Bow, stubborn knees! and, heart with strings of Where you may see the inmost part of you. steel, Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe; Queen. What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder me? [Retires and kneels Help, help, ho! All may be well. Enter Hamlet. Pol. [Behind.] What, ho! help! Ham. How now! a rat? [Draws. Ham. Now might I do it, pat, now he is praying; || Dead, for a ducat, dead. And now I'll do't: and so he goes to heaven: I, his sole4 son, do this same villain send To heaven. Why, this is hire and salary,5 not revenge. (1) Tapestry. (2) Caught as with bird-lime. (3) Should be considered. (4) Only. [Hamlet makes a pass through the arras. O, I am slain. [Falls, and dies. Pol. [Behind.] Queen. O me, what hast thou done? Queen. O, what a rash and bloody deed is this! || And melt in her own fire: proclaim no shame, As kill a king, and marry with his brother. O, Hamlet, speak no more: Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell! I took thee for thy better; take thy fortune: And let me wring your heart: for so I shall, If damned custom have not braz'd it so, In noise so rude against me? Such an act, Ham. Queen. Ah me, what act, That roars so loud, and thunders in the index ?3 eye like Mars, to threaten and command; Where every god did seem to set his seal, Nay, but to live Queen. O, speak to me no more; Of Ham A murderer, and a villain : Ham. Do you not come your tardy son to chide, Ghost. Do not forget: This visitation Ham. How is it with you, lady? This was your husband.-Look you now, what fol- || And with the incorporal air do hold discourse? lows: Here is your husband; like a mildew'd ear, ment Would step from this to this? Sense,7 sure, you have, sense Is apoplex'd: for madness would not err; O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell, To flaming youth let virtue be as wax, (1) Marriage-contract. (2) Sorrowful. Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep; he glares! His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones, away! My father, in his habit 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: (3) Index of contents prefixed to a book. (11) Be so stupid. (12) Colour. (13) Greasy. (17) Intelligent. (18) Actions. (19) Perhaps. |