Internet Shakespeare Editions

Author: William Shakespeare
Not Peer Reviewed

Hamlet (Quarto 1, 1603)

The Tragedy of Hamlet
And so by continuance, and weakenesse of the braine
Into this frensie, which now possesseth him:
And if this be not true, take this from this.
King Thinke you t'is so?
Cor. How? so my Lord, I would very faine know
That thing that I haue saide t'is so, positiuely,
1185And it hath fallen out otherwise.
Nay, if circumstances leade me on,
Ile finde it out, if it were hid
1190As deepe as the centre of the earth.
King. how should wee trie this same?
1191.1Cor. Mary my good lord thus,
The Princes walke is here in the galery,
There let Ofelia, walke vntill hee comes:
Your selfe and I will stand close in the study,
1197.1There shall you heare the effect of all his hart,
And if it proue any otherwise then loue,
1198.1Then let my censure faile an other time.
King. see where hee comes poring vppon a booke.
Enter Hamlet.
Cor. Madame, will it please your grace
To leaue vs here?
Que. With all my hart. exit.
1695Cor. And here Ofelia, reade you on this booke,
And walke aloofe, the King shal be vnseene.
1710Ham. To be, or not to be, I there's the point,
To Die, to sleepe, is that all? I all:
No, to sleepe, to dreame, I mary there it goes,
1720For in that dreame of death, when wee awake,
And borne before an euerlasting Iudge,
From whence no passenger euer retur'nd,
The vndiscouered country, at whose sight
1733.1The happy smile, and the accursed damn'd.
But for this, the ioyfull hope of this,
Whol'd beare the scornes and flattery of the world,
1725Scorned by the right rich, the rich curssed of the poore?
The