2236Enter Gertrude and Polonius. 'A will come straight.
2376Look you lay home to him.
23772238Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear with,
23782239And that your grace hath screened and stood between
23792240Much heat and him. I'll silence me even here.
I'll wait you. Fear me not.
[Polonius conceals himself behind the arras.]
Now mother, what's the matter?
Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.
Mother, you have my father much offended.
Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.
Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.
Why, how now, Hamlet?
What's the matter now?
Have you forgot me?
No, by the rood, not so.
23942254You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife,
23952255And, would it were not so, you are my mother.
Nay, then, I'll set those to you that can speak.
Come, come, and sit you down. You shall not budge.
23992258You go not till I set you up a glass
24002259Where you may see the [in]most part of you.
What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murder me?
[Behind the arras] What ho! Help!
How now, a rat? Dead for a ducat, dead!
24.1[Hamlet thrusts through the arras with his sword and fatally stabs Polonius.] [Behind the arras] Oh, I am slain!
Oh, me, what hast thou done?
Nay I know not. Is it the King?
Oh, what a rash and bloody deed is this!
A bloody deed--almost as bad, good mother,
24102269As kill a king, and marry with his brother.
As kill a king?
Ay, lady, it was my word.
30.1[He parts the arras and discovers the dead Polonius.] 24132272Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!
24142273I took thee for thy better. Take thy fortune.
24152274Thou find'st to be too busy is some danger.
24162275[To the Queen] Leave wringing of your hands. Peace, sit you down,
24172276And let me wring your heart, for so I shall
24182277If it be made of penetrable stuff,
24192278If damnèd custom have not brassed it so
24202279That it be proof and bulwark against sense.
What have I done, that thou dar'st wag thy tongue
Such an act
24242283That blurs the grace and blush of modesty,
24252284Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the rose
24262285From the fair forehead of an innocent love
24272286And sets a blister there, makes marriage vows
24282287As false as dicers' oaths--oh, such a deed
24292288As from the body of contraction plucks
24302289The very soul, and sweet religion makes
24312290A rhapsody of words. Heaven's face does glow
24322291O'er this solidity and compound mass
24332292With heated visage, as against the doom,
Ay me, what act,
2295That roars so loud and
2436thunders in the index?
[Showing her two likenesses, of Hamlet senior and Claudius]
Look here upon this picture, and on this,
24382297The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.
24392298See what a grace was seated on this brow:
24402299Hyperion's curls, the front of Jove himself,
24412300An eye like Mars to threaten and command,
24422301A station like the herald Mercury
24432302New lighted on a heaven-kissing hill,
24452304Where every god did seem to set his seal
24462305To give the world assurance of a man.
24472306This was your husband. Look you now what follows:
24482307Here is your husband, like a mildewed ear,
24492308Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes?
24502309Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed
24512310And batten on this moor? Ha, have you eyes?
24522311You cannot call it love, for at your age
24532312The heyday in the blood is tame, it's humble,
24542313And waits upon the judgment, and what judgment
24552314Would step from this to this? Sense, sure, you have,
2455.12315Else could you not have motion, but sure that sense
2455.22316Is apoplexed, for madness would not err,
2455.32317Nor sense to ecstasy was ne'er so thralled
2455.52319To serve in such a difference. What devil was't
24562320That thus hath cozened you at hoodman-blind?
2456.12321Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight,
2456.22322Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all,
2456.42324Could not so mope. O shame, where is thy blush?
24582326If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones,
24592327To flaming youth let virtue be as wax
24602328And melt in her own fire. Proclaim no shame
24612329When the compulsive ardor gives the charge,
24622330Since frost itself as actively doth burn,
Oh, Hamlet speak no more!
24652333Thou turn'st my very eyes into my soul,
24662334And there I see such black and grievèd spots
24672335As will leave there their tinct.
Nay, but to live
24692337In the rank sweat of an enseamèd bed
24702338Stewed in corruption, honeying and making love
Oh, speak to me no more!
24732341These words like daggers enter in my ears.
A murderer and a villain,
24762344A slave that is not twentieth part the kith
24772345Of your precedent lord, a vice of kings,
24782346A cutpurse of the empire and the rule,
24792347That from a shelf the precious diadem stole
No more!
A king of shreds and patches--
24842352[Seeing the Ghost] Save me and hover o'er me with your wings,
24852353You heavenly guards! What would your gracious figure?
Alas, he's mad!
Do you not come your tardy son to chide,
24882356That, lapsed in time and passion, lets go by
24892357Th'important acting of your dread command?
Oh, say!
Do not forget. This visitation
24912359Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.
24922360But look, amazement on thy mother sits.
24932361Oh, step between her and her fighting soul!
24942362Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works.
How is it with you, lady?
Alas, how is't with you,
24982366That you do bend your eye on vacancy,
24992367And with th'incorporal air do hold discourse?
25002368Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep,
25012369And, as the sleeping soldiers in th'alarm,
25022370Your bedded hair, like life in excrements,
25032371Start up and stand on end. O gentle son,
25042372Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper
25052373Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look?
On him, on him! Look you how pale he glares!
25072375His form and cause conjoined, preaching to stones,
25082376Would make them capable.
[To the Ghost] Do not look upon me,
25092377Lest with this piteous action you convert
25102378My stern effects. Then what I have to do
25112379Will want true color, tears perchance for blood.
To whom do you speak this?
Do you see nothing there?
Nothing at all, yet all that is I see.
Nor did you nothing hear?
No, nothing but ourselves.
Why, look you there, look how it steals away!
25182386My father in his habit as he lived.
25192387Look where he goes, even now out at the portal!
This is the very coinage of your brain.
Is very cunning in.
My pulse as yours doth temperately keep time,
25242391And makes as healthful music. It is not madness
25252392That I have uttered. Bring me to the test,
25262393And [I] the matter will reword, which madness
25272394Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace,
25282395Lay not that flattering unction to your soul
25292396That not your trespass but my madness speaks.
25302397It will but skin and film the ulcerous place,
25312398Whiles rank corruption, mining all within,
25322399Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven,
25332400Repent what's past, avoid what is to come,
25342401And do not spread the compost on the weeds
25352402To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue,
25362403For in the fatness of these pursy times
25372404Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg,
25382405Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good.
Oh, Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain.
Oh, throw away the worser part of it,
25422408And leave the purer with the other half.
25432409Good night. But go not to my uncle's bed;
25442410Assume a virtue if you have it not.
2544.12411That monster custom, who all sense doth eat,
2544.32413That to the use of actions fair and good
25452416And that shall lend a kind of easiness
25462417To the next abstinence; the next more easy:
2546.12418For use almost can change the stamp of nature,
2546.22419And either [ ] the devil, or throw him out
2546.32420With wondrous potency. Once more good night,
25472421And when you are desirous to be blest,
25482422I'll blessing beg of you. For this same lord,
25492423I do repent; but heaven hath pleased it so
25502424To punish me with this, and this with me,
25512425That I must be their scourge and minister.
25522426I will bestow him, and will answer well
25532427The death I gave him. So, again, good night.
25542428I must be cruel only to be kind.
25552429This bad begins, and worse remains behind.
What shall I do?
Not this, by no means, that I bid you do:
25582433Let the bloat King tempt you again to bed,
25592434Pinch wanton on your cheek, call you his mouse,
25602435And let him, for a pair of reechy kisses,
25612436Or paddling in your neck with his damned fingers,
25622437Make you to ravel all this matter out
25632438That I essentially am not in madness,
25642439But mad in craft. 'Twere good you let him know,
25652440For who that's but a queen, fair, sober, wise,
25662441Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib,
25672442Such dear concernings hide? Who would do so?
25682443No, in dispite of sense and secrecy,
25692444Unpeg the basket on the house's top,
25702445Let the birds fly, and like the famous ape,
25712446To try conclusions, in the basket creep,
Be thou assured, if words be made of breath
25742449And breath of life, I have no life to breathe
I must to England. You know that?
Alack, I had forgot.
2453'Tis so concluded on.
There's letters sealed, and my two schoolfellows,
2577.22455Whom I will trust as I will adders fanged,
2577.32456They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way
2577.62459Hoist with his own petar[d], and't shall go hard
2577.72460But I will delve one yard below their mines,
2577.82461And blow them at the moon. Oh 'tis most sweet
2577.92462When in one line two crafts directly meet.
25792464I'll lug the guts into the neighbor room.
25802465Mother, good night indeed. This counselor
25812466Is now most still, most secret, and most grave,
25822467Who was in life a most foolish prating knave.--
25832468Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you.--