give th' assay of arms against your Majesty Whereon old Norway overcome with joy Gives him threescore thousand Crowns in annual fee And his Commission to imploy those Souldiers So levied as before against the Pollack With an entreaty herein further shown That it might please you to give quiet pass Through your Dominions for this enterprize On such regards of safety and allowance As herein are set down King It likes us well And at our more considered time we 'll read Answer and think upon this business Mean time we thank you for your well took labour Go to your rest at night we 'll feast together Most welcome home Exeunt Embassadors Pol. This business is well ended My Liege and Madam to expostulate What Majesty sjould be what duty is Why day is day night night and time is time Were nothing but to waste night day and time Therefore brevity is the soul of wit And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes I will be brief your noble son is mad Mad call I 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 's mad 't is true 't is true 't is pity And pity 't is 't is true a foolish figure But farewel it for I will use no art Mad let us grant him them 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 Thus it remains and the remainder thus Consider I have a daughter have while she is mine Who in her duty and obedience mark Hath given me this now gather and surmise Reads To the Celestial and my souls Idol the most beautified Ophelia That 's an ill phrase a vile phrase beautified is a vile phrase but you shall hear thus in her excellent white bosom These c. Queen Came this from Hamlet to her Pol. Good Madam stay a while I will be faithful Doubt thou the Stars are fire Letter Doubt that the Sun doth move Doubt truth to be a lyar But never doubt I love O dear Ophelia I am ill at these numbers I have not art to reckon my groans but that I love thee best O most best believe it adieu Thine evermore most dear Lady whilst this machine is to him Hamlet Pol. This in obedience hath my daughter shown me And more concerning his solicitings As they fell out by time by means and place All given to mine ear King But how hath she receiv'd his love Pol. What do you think of me King As of a man faithful and honourable Pol. I would fain prove so but what might 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 you Or my dear Majesty your Queen here think If I had plaid the Desk or Table book Or given my heart a winking mute and dumb Or lookt upon this love with idle sight What might you think no I went round to work And my young Mistriss thus I charg'd Lord Hamlet is a Prince above thy sphere This must not be and then I precepts gave her That she should lock her self from his resort Admit no messengers receive no tokens Which done she took the fruits of my advice And he repell'd a short tale to make Full into a sadness then into a fast Thence to a watch then into a weakness Thence to a lightness and by this declension Into the madness wherein 〈◊〉 now haves And all we mourn for King Do you think 't is this Queen It may be very likely Pol. Hath there been such a time I would fain know that That I have positively said 't is so When it prov'd otherwise King Not that I know Pol. Take this from this if this be otherwise 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. Sometimes he walks four hours together Here in the Lobby Queen So he does indeed Pol. At such a time I 'll loose my daughter to him Be you and I behind the Arras then Mark the encounter if he love her not And be not from his reason fal'n thereon Let me be no assistant for a State But keep a Farm and Carters King We will try it Enter Hamlet Queen But look where sadly the poor wretch comes reading Pol. Away I do beseech you both away Exit King and Queen I 'll board him presently Oh give me leave How does my good Lord Hamlet Ham. Excellent well Pol. Do you know me my Lord Ham. Excellent well you are a Fishmonger Pol. Not I my Lord. Ham. Then I would you were so honest a man Pol. Honest my Lord Ham. I Sir to be honest as this world goes Is to be one man pickt out of ten thousand Pol. That 's very true my Lord. Ham. For if the Sun breed maggots in a dead dog being a good kissing carrion Have you a daughter Pol. I have my Lord. Ham. Let her not walk i' th Sun conception is a blessing But as your daughter may conceive friend look to 't Pol. How say you by that still harping on my Daughter yet her knew me not at first but said I was a fish-monger he is far gone and truly in my youth I suffered much extremity for love very near this I 'le speak to him again What do you read my Lord Ham. Words words words Pol. What is the matter my Lord Ham. Between who Pol. I mean the matter that you read my Lord. Ham. Slanders Sir for the Satyrical Rogue says here that old men have gray beards that their faces are wrinkled their eyes purging thick Amber and Plum-tree Gum and that they have a plentiful lack of wit together with most weak 〈◊〉 all which Sir though I most powerfully and potently believe yet I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down for your self Sir shall grow old as I am if like a crab you could go backward Pol. Though this be madness yet there is method in 't will you walk out of the air my Lord Ham. Into my grave Pol. Indeed that 's out of the air how pregnant sometimes his replyes are a happiness that often madness hits on which reason and sanctity could not so happily be delivered of I will leave him and my daughter My Lord I will take my leave of you Ham. You cannot take from me any thing that I will not more willingly part withal except my life except my life except my life Enter Guildenstern and Rosencraus Pol. Fate you well my Lord. Ham. These tedious old fools Pol. You go to seek the Lord Hamlet there he is Ros Save you Sir Guil. My honoured Lord. Ros My most dear Lord. Ham. My excellent good friends how dost thou Guildenstern Ah Rosencraus good
to a publick count I might not go Is the great love the people bear him Who dipping all his faults in their affection Work like the Spring that turneth wood to stone Convert his gyves to graces so that my arrows Too slightly umbered for so loved arms Would have reverted to my bow again But not where I have aim'd them Laer. And so I have a noble father lost A sister driven into desperate terms Whose worth if praises may go back again Stood challenger on the mount of all the age For her perfections but my revenge will come King Break not your sleeps for that you must not think That we are made of stuff so flat and dull That we can let our beards be shook with danger And think it pastime you shortly shall hear more I lov'd your father and we love our self And that I hope will teach you to imagine Enter a Messenger with Letters Mess These to your Majesty this to the Queen King From Hamlet who brought them Mess Saylors my Lord they say I saw them not They were given me by Claudio he received them Of him that brought them King Laertes you shall hear them leave us Exeunt 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 you pardon thereunto recount the occasion of my sudden return King What should this mean are all the rest come back Or is it some abuse and no such thing Laer. Know you the hand King 'T is Hamlet's character Naked And in a postscript here he says alone Can you advise me Laer. I am lost in it my Lord but let him come It warms the very sickness in my heart That I live and tell him to his teeth Thus didst thou King If it be so Laertes As how should it be so how otherwise Will you be rul'd by me Laer. I my Lord so you will not o're-rule me to a peace King To thine own peace if he be now returned As liking not 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 chuse but fall And for his death no wind of blame shall breath But even his mother shall uncharge the practice 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 instrument King It falls right You have been talkt 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 feather in the cap of youth Yet needful too for youth no less becomes The light and careless livery that it wears Than setled age his sables and his weeds Importing health and graveness ' ' two months since Here was a Gentleman of Normandy I have seen my self and serv'd against the French And they can well on horse-back but this Gallant Had witchcraft in 't he grew unto his fear 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 topt 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 King The very same Laer. I know him well he is indeed The gem of all the Nation King He made confession of you And gave you such a masterly report For art and exercise in your defence And for your Rapier most especially That he cry'd out 't would be a sight indeed If one could match you the Fencers of their Nation He swore had neither motion guard nor eye If you oppos'd them Sir this report of his Did Hamlet so envenome with his envy That he could nothing do but wish and beg Your sudden coming o're to play with you Now out of this Laer. 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 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 flame 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 pleurisie Dies in his own too much that we would do 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 spend-thrift sigh That hurts by easing ' ' but to the quick of th' ulcer Hamlet comes back what would you undertake To shew your self indeed your fathers son More than in words Laer. To cut his throat i' th' Church King No place indeed should protect a murderer Revenge should have no bounds but good Laertes Keep close within your chamber Hamlet return'd shall know you are come home We 'll put on those shall praise your excellence And set a double varnish on the fame The Frenchman gave you bring you in fine together And wager o're your heads he being remiss Most generous and free from all contriving Will not peruse the foils so that with ease Or with a little shuffling you may chuse A sword unbated and in a pace of practice Requite him for your father Laer. I will do 't And for the purpose I 'll anoint my sword I bought an Unction of a Mountebank So mortal that but dip a knife in it Where it draws blood no Cataplasm so rare Collected from all Simples that have vertue Under the Moon can save the thing from death That is but scratcht withal Ill touch my point With this contagion that if I gall him slightly it may be death King Let 's further think of this Weigh what conveyance both of time and means May fit us to our shape if this should fail And that our drift look through our bad performance 'T were better not assay'd Therefore this project Should have a back or second that might hold If this did blast in proof ' ' soft let me see Well make a solemn wager on your cunnings I hav 't when in your motion you are hot and dry As make your bouts more violent to that end And that he calls for drink I 'll have prepar'd him A Chalice for the purpose whereon but tasting If he by chance escape your venom'd tuck Our purpose may hold there But stay what noise Enter Queen Qu. One woe doth tread upon anothers heel So fast they follow your sister 's drown'd Laertes Laer. Drown'd O where Qu There is a willow growing
Pol. That did I my Lord and was accounted a good Actor Ham. What did you enact Pol. I did enact Julius Caesar I was kill'd i' th Capitol Brutus kill'd me Ham. It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf there Be the Players ready Ros I my Lord they wait upon your patience Gert. Come hither my dear Hamlet sit by me Ham. No good mother here 's metel more attractive Pol. O ho do you mark that Ham. Lady shall I lie in your lap Ophel No my Lord. Ham. Do you think I mean Country matters Ophel I think nothing my Lord. Ham. That 's a fair thought to lie between maids legs Ophel What is my Lord Ham. Nothing Ophel You are merry my Lord. Ham. Who I Ophel I my Lord. Ham. Your only Jig-maker what should a man do but be merry for look you how chearfully my mother looks and my father died within 's two hours Ophel Nay 't is twice two months my Lord. Ham. So long nay then let the Devil wear black for I 'le have a sute of sables O heavens die two months ago and not forgotten yet then there 's hope a great mans memory may out-live his life half a year but 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 The Trumpets sound Dumb shew follows Enter a King and a Queen the Queen imbracing him and he her he takes her up and declines his head upon her neck he lies him down upon a bank of flowers she seeing him asleep leaves him anon comes in another man takes off his Crown kisses it pours poison in the sleepers ears and leaves him the Queen returns finds the King dead makes passionate action the poisoner with some three or four comes in again seem to condole with her the dead body is carried away the poisoner woes the Queen with gifts she seemt harsh a while but in the end accepts love Ophel What means this my Lord Ham. It is munching Mallico it means mischief Ophel Belike this shew imports the argument of the Play Ham. We shall know by this fellow Enter Prologue The Players cannot keep they 'l shew all straight Ophel Will he shew us what this shew meant Ham. I or any shew that you will shew him be not you asham'd to shew he 'l not shame to tell you what it means Ophel You are naught you are naught I 'l mark the Play Prologue For us and for our Tragedy Here stooping to your clemency We beg your hearing patiently Ham. Is this a Prologue or the poesie of a Ring Ophel 'T is brief my Lord Ham. As womans love Enter King and Queen King Full thirty times hath Phoebus Cart gone round Neptunes salt wash and Tellus orb'd the ground And thirty dozen Moons with borrowed sheen About the world have twelve times thirty been Since love our hearts and Hymen did our hands Unite infolding them in sacred bands Queen So many journies may the Sun and Moon Make us again count o're e're love be done But woe is me you are so sick of late So far different 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 womens fear and love hold quantity Either none in neither ought or in extremity Now what my love has been proof makes you know And as my love is great my fear is so Where love is great the smallest doubts are fear Where little fears grow great great love grows there King I must leave thee Love and shortly too My working powers their functions leave to do And thou shalt live in this fair world behind Honour'd belov'd and haply one as kind For husband shalt thou Queen O confound the rest Such love must needs be treason in my breast In second husband let me be accurst None wed the second but who kill'd the first Ham. That 's wormwood The instances that second marriage move Are base respects of thrift but none of love A second time I kill my husband dead When second husband kisses me in bed King I do believe you think what now you speak But what we do determine oft we break Purpose is but the slave to memory Of violent birth and poor validity Which now like fruits unripe sticks on the tree But fall unshaken when they mellow be Most necessary 't is that we forget To pay our selves what to our selves is debt What to our selves in passion we propose The passion ending doth the purpose lose The violence of either grief or joy Their own enactures with themselves destroy Where joy most revels grief doth most lament Grief joy joy griefs on slender accident This world is not for aye nor is it strange That even our loves should with our fortunes change For 't is a question left us yet to prove Whether love lead fortune or else fortune love The great man down you mark his favourite flies The poor advanc'd makes friends of enemies And hitherto doth love on fortune tend For who not needs shall never lack a friend And who in want a hollow friend doth try Directly seasons him his enemy But orderly to end where I begun Our wills and fates do so contrary run That our devices still are overthrown Our thoughts are ours their ends none of our own Think still thou wilt no second husband wed But thy thoughts dye when thy first Lord is dead Queen Nor earth to me give food nor heaven light Sport and repose lock from me day and night To desperation turn my trust and hope And Anchors cheer in prison be my scope Each opposite that blanks the face of joy Meet what I would have well and it destroy Both here and hence pursue me lasting strife Ham If he should break it now If once I widow be and then a wife King 'T is deeply sworn sweet leave me here a while My spirits grow dull and fain I would beguile The tedious day with sleep Queen Sleep rock thy brain And never come mischance between us twain Excunt Ham. Madam how like you this play Queen The Lady doth protest too much methinks 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 King What do you call the Play Ham. The Mouse-trap marry how tropically This Play is the image of a murther done in Vienna Gonzaga is the Dukes name his wife Baptista you shall see anon 't is a knavish piece of work but what of that your Majesty and we shall have free souls it touches not us let the galled â—ade winch our withers are unwrung This is one Lucianus Nephew to the King Enter Lucianus Ophel You are as good as a Chorus my Lord Ham. I could interpret between you and your love If I could see the
Trumpet thus proclaim The triumph of his pledge Hora. Is it a custom Ham. I marry is 't But to my mind though I am native here And to the manner born it is a custom More honour'd in the breach than the observance This heavy-headed revel East and West Makes us traduc'd and taxed of other Nations They clepe us Drunkards and with swinish phrase Soil our addition and indeed it takes From our atchievements though persorm'd at height The pith and marrow of our attribute So oft it chances in particular men That for some vicious mole of nature in them As in their birth wherein they are not guilty Since nature cannot choose his origen By their o're-growth of some complexion Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason Or by some habit that too much o're-leavens The form of plausive manners that these men Carrying I say the stamp of one defect Being Natures livery or Fortunes star His virtues else be they as pure as grace As infinite as man may undergo Shall in the general censure take corruption From that particular fault the dram of ease Doth all the noble substance of a doubt To his own scandal Enter Ghost Hor. Look my Lord where it comes Ham. Angels and Ministers of grace defend us Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damn'd Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell Be thy intents wicked or charitable Thou com'st in such a questionable shape That I will speak to thee I 'll call thee Hamlet ' King Father royal Dane O answer me ' Let me not burst in ignorance but tell Why thy canoniz'd bones hearsed in death Have burst their cerements why the Sepulchre Wherein we saw thee quietly interr'd Has op't his ponderous and marble jaws To cast thee up again what may this mean That thou dead coarse again in complete steel Revisit'st thus the glimpses of the Moon Making night hideous and we fools of nature So horridly to shake our disposition With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls Say why is this wherefore what should we do Beckens Hora. It beckons you to go away with it As if it some impartment did desire To you alone Mar. Look with what courteous action It waves you to a remote ground But do not go with it Hora. No by no means Ham It will not speak then I will follow it Hora. Do not my Lord. Ham. Why what should be the fear I do not value my life And for my soul what can it do to that Being a thing immortal as it self It waves me forth again I 'll follow it Hora. What if it tempt you toward the floods my Lord Or to the dreadful border of the cliff That bettels o're his base into the Sea And there assume some other form Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason 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 fadoms 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 Hora. Be rul'd you shall not go Ham. My fate cries out And makes each petty artery in this body As hardy as the Nemean Lions nerve Still I am call'd unhand me Gentlemen I 'll make a Ghost of him that letts me I say away Go on I 'll follow thee Exit Ghost and Hamlet Hor. He grows desperate with imagination Mar. Let 's follow 't is not sit thus to obey him Hora. To what issue will this come Mar. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark Hora. Heaven will discover it Mar. Nay let 's follow him Exeunt Enter Ghost and Hamlet Ham. Whither wilt thou lead me speak I 'll go no further Ghost Mark me Ham. I will Ghost My hour is almost come When I to sulphrous and tormenting flames Must render up my self Ham. Alas poor Ghost Ghost Pity me not but lend thy serious hearing To what I shall unfold Ham. Speak I am bound to hear Ghost So art thou to revenge what thou start hear Ham. What Ghost I am thy fathers spirit Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night And for the day confin'd to fast in fites Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature Are burnt and purg'd away But that I am forbid To tell the secrets of my prison house I could a tale unfold whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul freeze thy young blood Make thy two eyes like stars start from their spheres Thy knotted and combined looks to part And each particular hair to stand an end Like quills upon the fearful Porcopine But this eternal blazon must not be To ears of flesh and blood list list O list If thou didst ever thy dear father love Ham. O Heayen Ghost Revenge his soul and most unnatural murder Ham. Murder Ghost Murder most soul as in the best it is But this most soul strange and unnatural Ham. Haste me to know 't that I with wings as swist As meditation or the thoughts of love May flie to my revenge Ghost I find thee apt And duller should'st thou be than the fat weed That roots it self in ease on Lethe's wharf Would'st thou not stir in this ' ' now Hamlet hear 'T is given out that sleeping in my Garden A Serpent stung me so the whole ear of Denmark Is by a forged process of my death Rankly abused but know thou noble Youth The Serpent that did sting thy fathers heart Now wears his Crown Ham O my Prophetick soul my Uncle Ghost I that incestuous that adulterate beast With witchcraft of his wits with trait'rous gifts O wicked wits and gifts that have the power So to seduce ' ' won to his shameful lust The will of my most seeming vertuous 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 vertue as it never will be mov'd Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven So but though to a radiant angle link't ' Will sort it self in a celestial bed And prey on garbage But soft methinks I sent the morning air Brief let me be sleeping in my Garden My custom always of the afternoon Upon my secure hour thy Uncle to me stole With juyce of cursed Hebona in a Vial And in the porches of my ears did pour The leprous distilment whose effects Hold such enmity with blood of man That swift as Quick-silver it courset through The natural gates and allies of the body And with a sudden vigour it doth possess And curd like eager droppings into milk The thin and wholesome blood so did it mine And a most instant Tetter barkt about Most Lazar-like with vile and loathsome crust All my smooth body Thus was I sleeping by a
brothers hand Of life of Crown of Queen at once dispatcht Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin Unnuzled disappointed un-aneald No reckoning made but sent to my account With all my imperfections on my head O horrible O horrible most horrible If thou hast nature in thee bear it not Let not the royal bed of Denmark be A couch for Luxury and damned Incest But howsoever thou pursuest this act Taint not thy mind nor let thy soul design Against thy mother ought leave her to heaven And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge To prick and sting her fare thee well at once The Gloworm shews the morning to be near And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire Farewel remember me Ham. O all you host of heaven O earth what else And shall I couple hell O fie ' ' hold hold my heart And you my sinews grow not instant old But bear me strongly up remember thee I thou poor Ghost whiles memory holds a seat In this distracted Globe remember thee Yea from the table of my memory I 'll wipe away all trivial fond records All Registers of books all forms and pressures past That youth and observation copied there And thy commandment all alone shall live Within the book and volume of my brain Unmixt with baser matter yes by heaven O most pernicious woman O villain villain smiling villain My tables meet it is I set down That one may smile and smile and be a villain At least I am sure it may be so in Denmark So Uncle there you are now to my word It is farewel remember me I have sworn't Enter Horatio and Marcellus Hora. My Lord my Lord. Mar. Lord Hamlet Hora. Heavens secure him Ham. So be it Mar. Illo ho ho my Lord. Ham. Hillo ho ho boy come and come Mar. How is 't my noble Lord Ham. O wonderful Hor. Good my Lord tell it Ham. No you will reveal it Hora. Not I my Lord. Mar. Nor I my Lord. Ham. How say you then would heart of man once think it But you 'll be secret Both. As death my Lord. Ham. There 's never a villain Dwelling in all Denmark But he 's an arrant knave Hora. There needs no Ghost my Lord come from the grave To tell us this Ham. Why right you are in the right And so without more circumstance at all I hold it sit that we shake hand and part You as your business and desire shall point you For every man hath business and desire Such as it is and for my own poor part I will go pray Hora. These are but wild and windy words my Lord. Ham. I am sorry they offend you heartily Yes faith heartily Hora. There 's no offence my Lord. Ham. Yes by Saint Patrick but there is Horatio And much offence too touching this vision here It is an honest Ghost that let me tell you For your desire to know what is between us O're master't as you may and now good friends As you are friends Scholars and Souldiers Give me one poor request Hora. What is 't my Lord we will Ham. Never make known what you have seen to night Both. My Lord we will not Ham. Nay but swear 't Hora. In faith my Lord not I. Mar. Nor I my Lord in faith Ham. Upon my sword Mar We have sworn my Lord already Ham. Indeed upon my sword indeed Ghost cries under the Stage Ghost Swear Ham Ha ha boy say'st thou so art thou there true penny Come on you hear this fellow in the Selleridge Consent to swear Hora. Propose the oath my Lord. Ham. Never to speak of this that you have seen Swear by my sword Ghost Swear Ham. Hic ubique then we 'll shift our ground Come hither Gentlemen And lay your hands again upon my sword Swear by my sword Never to speak of this that you have heard Ghost Swear by his sword Ham. Well said old Mole canst thou work i' th earth so fast A worthy Pioner once more remove good friends Hora. O day and night but this is wondrous strange Ham. And therefore as a stranger give it welcome There are more things in heaven and earth Horatio Than are dream't of in your Philosophy but come Here as before never so help you mercy How strange or odd so e're I bear my self As I perchance hereafter shall think meer To put an antick disposition on That you at such times seeing me never shall With arms encumbred thus or head thus shak't Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase As well well we know or we could and if we would Or if we list to speak or there be or if they might Or such ambiguous giving out to note That you know ought of me this you must swear So grace and mercy at your most need help you Ghost Swear Ham. Rest rest perturbed Spirit So Gentlemen With all my love I do commend me to you And what so poor a man as Hamlet is May do t' express his love and friendship to you Shall never fail let us go in together And still your fingers on your lips I pray The time is out of joynt O cursed spight That ever I was born to set it right Nay come let 's go together Exeunt ACT II. SCENE I. Enter Polonius with his Man Pol. GIve him this money and these two 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 your Sir Enquire me first what Danskers are in Paris And how and who what means and where they keep What company at what expence and finding By this encompassment and drift of question That they do know my son come you more near Then your particular demands will touch it Take you as 't were some distant knowledge of him As thus I know his father and his friends And in part him Do you mark this Reynaldo Rey. I very well my Lord. Pol. And in part him but you may say not well But if it be he I mean he 's very wild Addicted so and so and there put on him What forgeries you please marry none so 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. I or drinking fencing swearing Quarrelling drabbing you may go so far Rey. My Lord that would dishonour him Pol. Faith 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 meaning but breath 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. Pol. Wherefore should you do this Rey. I my Lord I would know that Pol. Marry Sir here 's my drift
And I believe it is a fetch of wit You laying these slight sullies on my son As 't were a thing a little soil'd with working Mark you your party in converse he you would sound Having ever seen in the prenominate crimes The youth you breath 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. Pol. And then Sir does he this he does what was I about to say By the Mass I was about to say something Where did I leave Rey. At closes in the consequence Pol. At closes in the consequence I marry He closes thus I know the Gentleman I saw him yesterday or th' other day Or then or then with such or such and as you say There was he gaming there or took in 's rowse There falling out at Tennis or perchance I saw him enter such and such a house of sale Videlicet a Brothel or so forth See you now Your bait of falshood takes this carp of truth And thus do we of wisdom and of reach With windlesses and with essays of byas By indirects find directions out So by my former Lecture and advice Shall you my son You have me have you not Rey. My Lord I have Pol. God buy ye fare ye well Rey. Good my Lord. Pol. Observe his inclination in your self Rey. I shall my Lord. Pol. And let him ply his Musick Rey. Well my Lord Exit Rey. Enter Ophelia Pol. Farewel ' How now Ophelia what 's the matter Oph. O my Lord my Lord I have been so affrighted Polo With what Oph. My Lord as I was reading in my closet Prince Hamlet with his doublet all unbraâ—â—d No hat upon his head his stockings loose Ungartred and down gyved to his anckle Pale as his shirt his knees knocking each other And with a look so piteous As if he had been sent from hell 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 hard Then goes he to the length of all his arm And with his other hand thus o're his brow He falls to such perusal of my face As he would draw it long staid he so At last a little shaking of mine arm And thrice his head thus waving up and down He raised 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 shoulders 〈◊〉 ' d He seem'd to find his way without his eyes For out of doors he went without their helps And to the last bended their light on me Pol Come go with me I will go seek the King This is the very extasie of love Whos 's violent property foregoes it self And leads the will to desperate undertakings As oft as any passion under heaven That does afflict our natures I am sorry What have you given him any hard words of late Oph. No my good Lord but as you did command I did repel his letters and deny'd His access to me Pol. That hath made him mad I am sorry that with better heed and judgment I had not coated him I fear'd he did but trifle And meant to wrack thee but beshrew my jealousie By heaven it is as proper to our age To cast beyond our selves in our opinions As it is common for the younger sort To lack discretion ' Come go with me to the King This must be known which being kept close might move More grief to hide than hate to utter love Come Exeunt Flourish Enter King Queen Rosencraus and Guildenstern King Welcome good Rosencraus and Guildenstern Besides that we did long to see you The need we have to use you did provoke Our hasty sending Something you have heard Of Hamlet's transformation so call it Sith nor th' exterior nor the inward man Resembles that it was what it should be More than his fathers death that thus hath put him So much from the understanding of himself I cannot dream of I entreat you both That being of so young days brought up with him And sith so neighboured to his youth and haviour That you vouchsafe your rest here in our Court Some little time so by your companies To draw him on to pleasures and to gather So much as from occasion you may glean Whether ought to us unknown afflicts him thus That lies within our remedy Queen Good Gentlemen he hath much talkt of you And sure I am two men there are not living To whom he more adheres if it will please you To shew us so much gentleness and good will As to employ your time with us a while For the supply and profit of our hope Your visitation shall receive such thanks As fits a Kings remembrance Ros Both your Majesties Might by the Sovereign power you have over us Put your dread pleasures more into command Than to intreaty Guil. But we both obey And here give up our selves in the full bent To lay our service freely at your feet King Thanks Rosencraus and gentle Guildenstern Queen Thanks Guildenstern and gentle Rosencraus 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 Amen Exeunt Ros and Guil. Enter Polonius Pol. Th' Embassadors from Norway my good Lord Are joyfully return'd King Thou still hast been the father of good news Pol. Have I my Lord I assure my good 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 has us'd to do that I have found The very cause of Hamlet's lunacy King O speak of that that I do long to hear Pol. Give first admittance to the Embassadors My news shall be the frnit to that great feast King Thy self do grace to them and bring them in He tells me my dear Gertrud he hath found The head and source of all your sons distemper Queen I doubt it is no other but the main His fathers death and our hasty marriage Enter Embassadors King Well we shall sist him welcome my good friends Say Voltemand what from our brother Norway Vol. Most fair return of greetings and desires Upon our first he sent out to suppress His Nephews levies which to him appear'd To be a preparation ' gainst the Pollack But better lookt into he truly found It was against your Highness whereat griev'd That so his sickness age and impotence Was falsly born in hand sends out arrests On Fortinbrass which he in brief obeys Receives rebuke from Norway and in fine Makes vow before his Uncle never more To
lads how do you both Ros As the indifferent children of the earth Guil. Happy in that we are not ever happy on fortunes cap We are not the very button Ham. Nor the soles of her shooe Ros Neither my Lord. Ham. Then you live about her wast 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 the world 's grown honest Ham. Then is Dooms-day near sure your news is not true But in the beaten way of friendship what make you at Elsenour Ros To visit you my Lord no other occasion Ham. Begger that I am I am even poor in thanks but I thank you and sure dear friends my thanks are too dear a half peny were you not sent for is it your own incliming 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 toth ' 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 conjure you by the rights of our fellowships by the consonancy of our youth by the obligation of our ever preferred love and by what more dear a better proposer can charge you withal be even and direct with me whether you were sent for or no. Ros What say you Ham. Nay then I have an eye of you if you love me hold not off Guil. My Lord we were sent for Ham. I will tell you why so shall my anticipation prevent your discovery and your secresie to the King and Queen moult no feather I have of late but wherefore I know not lost all my mirth forgone all custom of exercises and indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame the earth seems to me a steril promontory this most excellent Canopy the air look you this brave o're-hanged firmament this majestical roof fretted with golden fire why it appeareth nothing to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours What a piece of work is man how noble in reason how infinite in faculties in form and moving how express and admirable in action how like an Angel in apprehension the beauty of the world the paragon of animals and yet to me what is this quintessence of dust man delights not me nor woman neither though by your smiling you seem to say so Ros My Lord there was no such stuff in my thoughts Ham. Why did ye laugh then when I said man delights not me Ros To think my Lord if you delight not in man what Lenten entertainment the Players shall receive from you we met them on the way and hither are they coming to offer you service Ham. He that plays the King shall be welcome his Majesty shall have tribute of me the adventurous Knight shall use his soil and target the lover shall not sigh gratis the humorous man shall end his part in peace and the Lady shall say her mind freely or the blank verse shall halt for 't What Players are they Ros Even those you were wont to take such delight in the Tragedians of the City Ham. How chances it they travel their residence both in reputation and profit was better both ways Ros I think their inhibition comes by the means of the late innovation Ham. Do they hold the same estimation they did when I was in the City are they so followed Ros No indeed they are not Ham. It is not very strange for my Uncle is King of Denmark and those that would make mouths at him while my father lived give twenty forty fifty a hundred duckets a piece for his picture in little there is something in this more than natural if Philosophy could find it out A Flourish Guil. Shall we call the Players Ham. Gentlemen you are welcome to Elsenour your hands come then th' appurtenance of welcome is fashion and ceremony let me comply with you in this garb lest my extent to the Players which I tell you must shew fairly outwards should more appear like entertainment than yours you are welcome but my Uncle-father and Aunt-mother are deceived Guil. In what my dear Lord Ham. I am but mad North-North-west when the wind is Southerly I know a hawk from a hand-saw Enter Polonius Pol. Well be with you Gentlemen Ham. Hark you Guildenstern and you too at each ear a hearer that great baby as you see is not yet out of his swadling clouts Ros Happily he is the second time come to them for they say an old man is twice a child Ham. I will prophesie that he comes to tell me of the Players mark it You say right Sir a Munday morning 't was then indeed Pol. My Lord I have news to tell you Ham. My Lord I have news to tell you when Rossius was an Actor in Rome Pol. The Actors are come hither my Lord. Ham. Buz buz Pol. Upon mine honour Ham. Then came each Actor on his Ass Pol. The best Actors in the world either for Tragedy Comedy History Pastoral Pastoral-Comical Historical-Pastoral Scene individable or Poem unlimited Seneca cannot be too heavy nor Plautus too light for the law of wit and the liberty these are the only men Ham. O Jeptha Judge of Israel what a treasure hadst thou Pol. What a treasure had he my Lord Ham. Why one fair daughter and no more the which he loved passing well Pol. Still on my daughter Ham. Am I not i' th right old Jeptha Pol. What follows then my Lord Ham. Why as by lot God wot and then you know it came to pass as most like it was the first row of the Rubrick will shew you more for look where my abridgement comes Enter Players Ham. You are welcome masters welcome all I am glad to see thee well welcome good friends oh old friend why thy face is valanc'd since I saw thee last com'st thou to beard me in Denmark what my young Lady and Mistriss my Lady your Ladiship is nearer to heaven than when I saw you last by the altitude of a Chopine I wish your voice like a piece of uncurrant gold be not crackt within the ring masters you are all welcome we 'll e'ne to 't like friendly Faulkeners fly at any thing we see we 'll have a speech strait come give us a taste of your quality come a passionate peech Player What speech my good Lord Ham. I heard thee speak me a speech once but it was never acted or if it was not above once for the Play I remember pleased not the million 't was a caviary to the general but it was as I received it and others whose judgments in such matters cried in the top of mine an excellent Play well digested in the Scenes set