2132Enter King, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern. I like him not, nor stands it safe with us
22732134To let his madness range. Therefore prepare you.
22742135I your commission will forthwith dispatch,
22752136And he to England shall along with you.
22762137The terms of our estate may not endure
22772138Hazard so near's as doth hourly grow
Out of his brows. 22792140Guildenstern We will ourselves provide.
22802141Most holy and religious fear it is
22812142To keep those many many bodies safe
22822143That live and feed upon your majesty.
The single and peculiar life is bound
22852145With all the strength and armor of the mind
22862146To keep itself from noyance, but much more
22872147That spirit upon whose weal depends and rests
22882148The lives of many. The cess of majesty
22892149Dies not alone, but like a gulf doth draw
22902150What's near it with it, or it is a massy wheel
22912151Fixed on the summit of the highest mount,
22922152To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things
22932153Are mortised and adjoined, which, when it falls,
22942154Each small annexment, petty consequence,
22952155Attends the boist'rous ruin. Never alone
22962156Did the king sigh, but [with] a general groan.
Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy voyage,
22982158For we will fetters put about this fear
We will haste us.
26.1Exeunt gentlemen [Rosencrantz and Guildenstern]. My lord, he's going to his mother's closet.
23032163Behind the arras I'll convey myself
23042164To hear the process. I'll warrant she'll tax him home.
23052165And, as you said--and wisely was it said--
23062166'Tis meet that some more audience than a mother,
23072167Since nature makes them partial, should o'erhear
23082168The speech of vantage. Fare you well, my liege.
23092169I'll call upon you ere you go to bed,
Thanks, dear my lord.
23122172Oh, my offense is rank! It smells to heaven.
23132173It hath the primal eldest curse upon't,
23142174A brother's murder. Pray can I not,
23152175Though inclination be as sharp as will;
23162176My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent,
23172177And like a man to double business bound
23182178I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
23192179And both neglect. What if this cursèd hand
23202180Were thicker than itself with brother's blood,
23212181Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens
23222182To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy
23232183But to confront the visage of offense?
23242184And what's in prayer but this twofold force,
23252185To be forestallèd ere we come to fall,
23262186Or pardon[ed] being down? Then I'll look up.
23272187My fault is past. But, oh, what form of prayer
23282188Can serve my turn? "Forgive me my foul murder"?
23292189That cannot be, since I am still possessed
23302190Of those effects for which I did the murder:
23312191My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.
23322192May one be pardoned and retain th'offense?
23332193In the corrupted currents of this world,
23342194Offense's gilded hand may shove by justice,
23352195And oft 'tis seen the wicked prize itself
23362196Buys out the law. But 'tis not so above:
23372197There is no shuffling, there the action lies
23382198In his true nature, and we ourselves compelled,
23392199Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,
23402200To give in evidence. What then? What rests?
23412201Try what repentance can. What can it not?
23422202Yet what can it, when one cannot repent?
23432203O wretched state, O bosom black as death,
23442204O limèd soul, that, struggling to be free,
23452205Art more engaged! Help, angels! Make assay.
23462206Bow, stubborn knees, and heart with strings of steel,
23472207Be soft as sinews of the newborn babe!
[He kneels.]
Now might I do it. But now 'a is a-praying,
[He draws his sword.]
And now I'll do't. And so 'a goes to heaven,
23522212And so am I revenge[d]. That would be scanned:
23532213A villain kills my father, and for that,
23542214I, his sole son, do this same villain send
2216Why, this is base and silly, not revenge.
23562217 'A took my father grossly full of bread,
23572218With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May,
23582219And how his audit stands, who knows save heaven?
23592220But in our circumstance and course of thought
23602221 'Tis heavy with him. And am I then revenged
23612222To take him in the purging of his soul,
23622223When he is fit and seasoned for his passage?
[He sheathes his sword.]
23632225Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent.
23642226When he is drunk, asleep, or in his rage,
23652227Or in th'incestuous pleasure of his bed,
23662228At game a-swearing, or about some act
23672229That has no relish of salvation in't,
23682230Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven,
23692231And that his soul may be as damned and black
23702232As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays.
23712233This physic but prolongs thy sickly days.
My words fly up, my thoughts remain below.
23732235Words without thoughts never to heaven go.