Internet Shakespeare Editions

Toolbox




Jump to line
Help on texts

About this text

  • Title: Hamlet (Modern, Folio)
  • Editor: David Bevington
  • ISBN: 978-1-55058-434-9

    Copyright David Bevington. This text may be freely used for educational, non-profit purposes; for all other uses contact the Editor.
    Author: William Shakespeare
    Editor: David Bevington
    Not Peer Reviewed

    Hamlet (Modern, Folio)

    Enter King.
    There's matters in these sighs. These profound heaves
    You must translate; 'tis fit we understand them.
    2590Where is your son?
    Queen
    Ah, my good lord, what have I seen tonight!
    What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet?
    Queen
    Mad as the seas and wind, when both contend
    Which is the mightier. In his lawless fit,
    2595Behind the arras hearing something stir,
    He whips his rapier out, and cries, "A rat, a rat!"
    And in his brainish apprehension kills
    The unseen good old man.
    King
    Oh, heavy deed!
    2600It had been so with us had we been there.
    His liberty is full of threats to all,
    To you yourself, to us, to everyone.
    Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answered?
    It will be laid to us, whose providence
    2605Should have kept short, restrained, and out of haunt
    This mad young man. But so much was our love,
    We would not understand what was most fit,
    But like the owner of a foul disease,
    To keep it from divulging, lets it feed
    2610Even on the pith of life. Where is he gone?
    To draw apart the body he hath killed,
    O'er whom his very madness, like some ore
    Among a mineral of metals base,
    Shows itself pure: he weeps for what is done.
    Oh, Gertrude, come away!
    The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch
    But we will ship him hence, and this vile deed
    We must with all our majesty and skill
    Both countenance and excuse.
    Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
    Ho, Guildenstern!
    Friends both, go join you with some further aid.
    Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain,
    And from his mother's closet hath he dragged him.
    Go seek him out, speak fair, and bring the body
    2625Into the chapel. I pray you haste in this.
    Exit Gentlemen [Rosencrantz and Guildenstern].
    Come, Gertrude, we'll call up our wisest friends
    To let them know both what we mean to do
    And what's untimely done. Oh, come away!
    My soul is full of discord and dismay.
    Exeunt.