Internet Shakespeare Editions

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Not Peer Reviewed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.