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  • Title: Hamlet (Quarto 2, 1604)
  • Textual editor: Eric Rasmussen
  • ISBN: 978-1-55058-434-9

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    Not Peer Reviewed

    Hamlet (Quarto 2, 1604)

    Enter Hamlet, and three of the Players.
    Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, 1850trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of our players do, I had as lief the town crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, whirlwind of your 1855passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. Oh, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellowtear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but 1860inexplicable dumb-shows and noise. I would have such a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant. It out-Herods Herod. Pray you avoid it.
    I warrant your honor.
    Be not too tame, neither, but let your own discretion be 1865your tutor. Suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature. For anything so o'erdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is to hold as 'twere 1870the mirror up to nature, to show virtue her feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure. Now this overdone, or come tardy off, though it makes the unskillful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve, the censure of 1875which one must in your allowance o'erweigh a whole theater of others. Oh, there be players that I have seen play, and heard others praised, and that highly, not to speak it profanely, that, neither having th'accent of Christians nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor 1880man, have so strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of nature's journeymen had made men, and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abhominably.
    I hope we have reformed that indifferently with us.
    Oh, reform it altogether. And let those that play your clowns speak no more than is set down for them; for there be of them that will themselves laugh, to set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too, though in the meantime some necessary question of the play be then to be considered. That's villainous, and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. Go make you ready.
    [Exeunt Players.]
    [To Polonius] How 1895now, my lord, will the King hear this piece of work?
    Enter Polonius, Guildenstern, and Rosencrantz.
    Polonius
    And the Queen to[o], and that presently.
    Bid the players make haste.
    [Exit Polonius.]
    Will you two help to hasten them?
    1900Rosencrantz
    Ay, my lord.
    Exeunt they two.
    What ho, Horatio!
    Enter Horatio.
    Horatio
    Here, sweet lord, at your service.
    Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man
    1905As e'er my conversation coped withal.
    Oh, my dear lord--
    Hamlet
    Nay, do not think I flatter,
    For what advancement may I hope from thee
    That no revenue hast but thy good spirits
    1910To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be flattered?
    No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp
    And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee
    Where thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear?
    Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice
    1915And could of men distinguish her election,
    Sh'hath sealed thee for herself, for thou hast been
    As one in suff'ring all that suffers nothing,
    A man that Fortune's buffets and rewards
    Hast ta'en with equal thanks; and blest are those
    1920Whose blood and judgment are so well commeddled
    That they are not a pipe for Fortune's finger
    To sound what stop she please. Give me that man
    That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him
    In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart,
    1925As I do thee.--Something too much of this.--
    There is a play tonight before the King.
    One scene of it comes near the circumstance
    Which I have told thee of my father's death.
    I prithee, when thou see'st that act afoot,
    1930Even with the very comment of thy soul
    Observe my uncle. If his occulted guilt
    Do not itself unkennel in one speech,
    It is a damnèd ghost that we have seen,
    And my imaginations are as foul
    1935As Vulcan's stithy. Give him heedful note,
    For I mine eyes will rivet to his face,
    And after we will both our judgments join
    In censure of his seeming.
    Horatio
    Well, my lord,
    1940If 'a steal aught the whilst this play is playing
    And scape detected, I will pay the theft.
    Enter trumpets and kettledrums, King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia[, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and others].
    They are coming to the play. I must be idle. Get you a place.
    How fares our cousin Hamlet?
    Excellent, i'faith, of the chameleon's dish; I eat the air, 1950promise-crammed. You cannot feed capons so.
    I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet. These words are not mine.
    No, nor mine now. [To Polonius] My lord, you played once i'th' university, you say?
    That did I, my lord, and was accounted a good actor.
    What did you enact?
    I did enact Julius Caesar. I was killed i'th'Capitol. Brutus killed me.
    It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf there.--Be the players ready?
    Rosencrantz
    Ay, my lord, they stay upon your patience.
    Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me.
    No, good mother, here's mettle more attractive.
    [To the King] Oho, do you mark that?
    [To Ophelia, as he lies at her feet] Lady, shall I lie in your lap?
    No, my lord.
    Do you think I meant country matters?
    I think nothing, my lord.
    That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs.
    What is, my lord?
    Nothing.
    You are merry, my lord.
    Who, I?
    Ay, my lord.
    Oh, God, your only jig-maker. What should a man do but be merry? For look you how cheerfully my mother looks, and my 1980father died within's two hours.
    Nay, 'tis twice two months, my lord.
    So long? Nay, then, let the dev'l wear black, for I'll have a suit of sables. Oh, heavens! Die two months ago, and not forgotten yet? 1985Then there's hope a great man's memory may outlive his life half a year. But, by'r Lady, 'a must build churches then, or else shall 'a suffer not thinking on, with the hobby-horse, whose epitaph is, "For oh, for oh, the hobby-horse is forgot."
    1990The trumpets sounds. Dumb-show follows. Enter [Players as] a King and a Queen, the Queen embracing 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 come in 1995another man, takes off his crown, kisses it, pours poison in the sleeper's ears, and leaves him. The Queen returns, finds the King dead, makes passionate action. The poisoner, with some three or four, come in again, seem to condole with her. The dead body is carried away. The poisoner woos the Queen with gifts. She seems harsh awhile, but in the end accepts love. [Exeunt players.]
    What means this, my lord?
    Marry, this munching mallico, it means mischief.
    Belike this show imports the argument of the play.
    Enter [a Player as] Prologue.
    We shall know by this fellow.
    The players cannot keep [counsel]; they'll tell all.
    Will 'a tell us what this show meant?
    Ay, or any show that you will show him. Be not you ashamed to show, he'll not shame to tell you what it means.
    You are naught, you are naught. I'll mark the play.
    For us and for our tragedy,
    Here stooping to your clemency,
    We beg your hearing patiently.
    [Exit.]
    Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring?
    'Tis brief, my lord.
    As woman's love.
    Enter [two Players as] King and Queen.
    Full thirty times hath Phoebus' cart gone round
    2025Neptune's salt wash and Tellus orbed the ground,
    And thirty dozen moons with borrowed sheen
    About the world have times twelve thirties been
    Since love our hearts and Hymen did our hands
    Unite commutual in most sacred bands.
    So many journeys may the sun and moon
    Make us again count o'er ere love be done!
    But woe is me, you are so sick of late,
    So far from cheer and from our former state,
    That I distrust you. Yet though I distrust,
    2035Discomfort you, my lord, it nothing must.
    2035.1For women fear too much, even as they love,
    And women's fear and love hold quantity:
    Either none, in neither aught, or in extremity.
    Now what my lord is, proof hath made you know,
    And as my love is sized, my fear is so.
    2039.1Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear;
    Where little fears grow great, great love grows there.
    Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly to[o];
    My operant powers their functions leave to do.
    And thou shalt live in this fair world behind,
    Honored, beloved; and haply one as kind
    For husband shalt thou--
    2045Queen
    Oh, 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 killed the first.
    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.
    I do believe you think what now you speak,
    2055But what we do determine, oft we break.
    Purpose is but the slave to memory,
    Of violent birth, but poor validity,
    Which now the fruit unripe sticks on the tree,
    But fall unshaken when they mellow be.
    2060Most necessary 'tis that we forget
    To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt.
    What to ourselves in passion we propose,
    The passion ending, doth the purpose lose.
    The violence of either grief or joy
    2065Their own enactures with themselves destroy.
    Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament;
    Grief joy, joy grieves, on slender accident.
    This world is not for aye, nor 'tis not strange
    That even our loves should with our fortunes change;
    2070For 'tis a question left us yet to prove
    Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love.
    The great man down, you mark his favorite flies;
    The poor advanced makes friends of enemies;
    And hitherto doth love on fortune tend,
    2075For 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
    2080That our devices still are overthrown;
    Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own;
    So, think thou wilt no second husband wed,
    But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead.
    Nor earth to me give food, nor heaven light,
    2085Sport and repose lock from me day and night,
    2085.1To desperation turn my trust and hope,
    And anchor's 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,
    If once I be a widow, ever I be a wife!
    If she should break it now!
    'Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here awhile.
    My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile
    The tedious day with sleep.
    2095Queen
    Sleep rock thy brain,
    And never come mischance between us twain!
    [The Player King] sleeps.
    Exit [Player Queen].
    Madam, how like you this play?
    The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
    Oh, but she'll keep her word.
    Have you heard the argument? Is there no offense in't?
    No, no, they do but jest, poison in jest, no offense i'th' world.
    What do you call the play?
    2105HamletThe Mousetrap. 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. 2110Let the galled jade winch, our withers are unwrung. --This is one Lucianus, nephew to the King.
    Enter Lucianus.
    You are as good as a chorus, my lord.
    I could interpret between you and your love 2115if I could see the puppets dallying.
    You are keen, my lord, you are keen.
    It would cost you a groaning to take off mine edge.
    Still better and worse.
    So you mistake your husbands.--Begin, murderer, leave thy damnable faces and begin. Come, the croaking raven doth bellow for revenge.
    Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing,
    Considerate season, else no creature seeing,
    Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected,
    With Hecate's ban thrice blasted, thrice invected,
    Thy natural magic and dire property
    2130On wholesome life usurps immediately.
    [Pours the poison in his ears. Exit.]
    'A poisons him i'th' 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.
    The King rises.
    How fares my lord?
    Give o'er the play.
    Give me some light. Away!
    Lights, lights, lights!
    Exeunt all but Hamlet and Horatio.
    "Why, let the strucken deer go weep,
    The heart ungallèd play,
    2145For some must watch while some must sleep;
    Thus runs the world away."
    Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers--if the rest of my fortunes turn Turk with me--with provincial roses on my razed shoes, get me a fellowship in a cry 2150of players?
    Half a share.
    A whole one, I.
    For thou dost know, O Damon dear,
    This realm dismantled was
    Of Jove himself, and now reigns here
    A very, very pajock.
    You might have rhymed.
    O good Horatio, I'll take the Ghost's word for a thousand pound. Didst perceive?
    Very well, my lord.
    Upon the talk of the pois'ning.
    I did very well note him.
    Aha, come, some music! Come, the recorders.
    2165For if the King like not the comedy,
    Why, then belike he likes it not, perdy.
    Come, some music.
    Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
    Guildenstern
    Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you.
    Sir a whole history.
    2170Guildenstern
    The King, sir--
    Ay, sir, what of him?
    Guildenstern
    Is in his retirement marvelous distempered.
    With drink, sir?
    Guildenstern
    No, my lord, with choler.
    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.
    Guildenstern
    Good my lord, put your discourse into some frame, 2180and stare not so wildly from my affair.
    I am tame sir. Pronounce.
    Guildenstern
    The Queen your mother, in most great affliction of spirit, hath sent me to you.
    You are welcome.
    2185Guildenstern
    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 business.
    Sir, I cannot.
    Rosencrantz
    What, my lord?
    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.
    Rosencrantz
    Then thus she says: your behavior hath struck her into amazement and admiration.
    Oh, wonderful son, that can so 'stonish a mother! But is there no sequel at the heels of this mother's admiration? Impart.
    Rosencrantz
    She desires to speak with you in her closet ere you go to bed.
    We shall obey, were she ten times our mother. Have you any further trade with us?
    2205Rosencrantz
    My lord, you once did love me.
    HamletAnd do still, by these pickers and stealers.
    Rosencrantz
    Good my lord, what is your cause of distemper? You do surely bar the door upon your own liberty if you deny your griefs to your friend.
    Sir, I lack advancement.
    Rosencrantz
    How can that be, when you have the voice of the King himself for your succession in Denmark?
    2215Enter the Players, with recorders.
    Ay, sir, but "while the grass grows"--the proverb is something musty.--Oh, the recorders. Let me see one. [He takes a recorder.] To withdraw with you, why do you go about to recover the wind of me, as if you would drive me into a toil?
    Guildenstern
    Oh, my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love 2220is too unmannerly.
    I do not well understand that. Will you play upon this pipe?
    Guildenstern
    My lord, I cannot.
    I pray you.
    2225Guildenstern
    Believe me, I cannot.
    I do beseech you.
    Guildenstern
    I know no touch of it, my lord.
    It is as easy as lying. Govern these ventages with your fingers and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse 2230most eloquent music. Look you, these are the stops.
    Guildenstern
    But these cannot I command to any utt'rance of harmony. I have not the skill.
    Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of 2235me! 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 my compass, and there is much music, excellent voice in this little organ, yet cannot you make it speak. 'Sblood, 2240do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you fret me, you cannot play upon me. [To Polonius, as he enters] God bless you, sir.
    Enter Polonius.
    My lord, the Queen would speak with you, and presently.
    Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel?
    By th'mass, and 'tis like a camel indeed.
    Methinks it is like a weasel.
    It is backed like a weasel.
    Or like a whale.
    Very like a whale.
    Hamlet Then I will come to my mother by and by. 2255[Aside] They fool me to the top of my bent.[Aloud] I will come by and by. Leave me, friends. I will, say so. "By and by" is easily said.
    [Exeunt all but Hamlet.]
    'Tis now the very witching time of night,
    2260When churchyards yawn, and hell itself breaks out
    Contagion to this world. Now could I drink hot blood,
    And do such business as the bitter day
    Would quake to look on. Soft, now to my mother.
    O heart, loose not thy nature! Let not ever
    2265The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom.
    Let me be cruel, not unnatural;
    I will speak dagger to her, but use none.
    My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites:
    How in my words somever she be shent,
    2270To give them seals never my soul consent!
    Exit.