mouse;*

And let him, for a pair of reechyt kisses,
Or paddling in your neck with his damn'd
fingers,

Make you to ravel all this matter out,
That I essentially am not in madness,
But mad in craft. "Twere good, you let him
know:

For who, that's but a queen, fair, sober, wise,
Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib,§
Such dear concernings hide? who would do so?
No, in despite of sense, and secrecy,
Unpeg the basket on the house's top,
Let the birds fly; and, like the famous ape,
To try conclusions,|| in the basket creep,
And break your own neck down.

Queen. Be thou assur'd, if words be made of
breath,

And breath of life, I have no life to breathe
What thou hast said to me.

Ham. I must to England; you know that?
Queen. Alack,

I had forgot; 'tis so concluded on.

Ham. There's letters seal'd: and my two school-fellows,

Whom I will trust, as I will adders fang'd,¶They bear the mandate; they must sweep my

way,

And marshal me to knavery: Let it work;
For 'tis the sport, to have the engineer
Hoist with his own petar:** and it shall go
hard,

But I will delve one yard below their mines, And blow them at the moon: O, 'tis most sweet,

When in one line two crafts directly meet.-
This man shall set me packing.

I'll lug the guts into the neighbour room:—
Mother, good night.-Indeed, this counsellor
Is now most still, most secret, and most grave,
Who was in life a foolish prating knave.
Come, Sir, to draw toward an end with you:-
Good night, mother.

[Exeunt severally; HAMLET dragging in
POLONIUS.

[love,
This mad young man: but, so much was our
We would not understand what was most fit;
But, like the owner of a foul disease,
To keep it from divulging, let it feed
Even on the pith of life. Where is he gone?
Queen. To draw apart the body he hath
kill'd:

O'er whom his very madness, like some ore,
Among a mineralt of metals base,
Shows itself pure; he weeps for what is done.
King. O, 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.-Ho! Guilden-
stern!

Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. Friends both, go join you with some further aid:

Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain, And from his mother's closet hath he dragg'd him: [body Go, seek him out; speak fair, and bring the Into the chapel. I pray you, haste in this. [Exeunt Ros. und GUIL. Come, Gertrude, we'll call up our wisest friends;

And let them know, both what we mean to do, And what's untimely done: so, haply, slander,

Whose whisper o'er the world's diameter,
As level as the cannon to his blank,‡ [name,
Transports his poison'd shot,-may miss our
And hit the woundless air.-O come away!
My soul is full of discord and dismay.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.-Another Room in the same.
Enter HAMLET.

Ham.-Safely stowed,-[Ros. &c. within. Hamlet! lord Hamlet!] But soft! - what noise? who calls on Hamlet? O, here they come.

Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. Ros. What have you done, my lord, with the dead body?

Ham. Compounded it with dust, whereto 'tis kin.

Ros. Tell us where 'tis; that we may take it thence,

And bear it to the chapel.

Ham. Do not believe it.

Ros. Believe what?

Ham. That I can keep your counsel, and not mine own. Besides, to be demanded of a sponge!—what replication should be made by the son of a king?

Ros. Take you me for a sponge, my lord? Ham. Ay, Sir; that soaks up the king's countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the king best service in the end: He keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his jaw; first mouthed, to be last swallowed: When he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again.

Ros. I understand you not, my lord. Ham. I am glad of it: A knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear.

Ros. My lord, you must tell us where the body is, and go with us to the king.

Ham. The body is with the king, but the king is not with the body. The king is a thingGuil. A thing, my lord?

Ham. Of nothing: bring me to him. Hide fox, and all after.* [Exeunt. SCENE III.-Another Room in the same. Enter KING, attended.

King. I have sent to seek him, and to find the body.

How dangerous is it, that this man goes loose?
Yet must not we put the strong law on him:

He's lov'd of the distracted multitude, [eyes;
Who like not in their judgement, but their
And, where 'tis so, the offender's Scourge is
weigh'd,
[even,
But never the offence. To bear all smooth and
This sudden sending him away must seem
Deliberate pause: Diseases, desperate grown,
By desperate appliance are reliev'd,

Ros. Where the dead body is bestow'd, my We cannot get from him.

King. But where is he?

[lord,

Ros. Without, my lord; guarded, to know your pleasure.

King. Bring him before us.

Ros. Ho, Guildenstern? bring in my lord.

Enter HAMLET and GUILDENSTern. King. Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius? Ham. At supper.

King. At supper? Where?

Ham. Not where he eats, but where he is eaten a certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else, to fat us; and we fat ourselves for maggots: Your fat king, and your lean beggar, is but variable service; two dishes, but to one table; that's the end.

King. Alas, alas!

Ham. A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king; and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.

King. What dost thou mean by this? Ham. Nothing, but to show you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar.

King. Where is Polonius?

Ham. In heaven; send thither to see: if your messenger find him not there, seek him I'the other place yourself. But, indeed, if you find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby. King. Go seek him there. [To some Attendants. Ham. He will stay till you come. [Exeunt Attendants. King. Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safety,

Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve
For that which thou hast done,-must send
thee hence
[self;
With fiery quickness: Therefore, prepare thy-
The bark is ready, and the wind at help,t
The associates tend, and every thing is bent
For England.

A sport among children. +Right, ready

Cap. The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras.

Ham. Goes it against the main of Poland, Or for some frontier?

[Sir,

Cap. Truly to speak, Sir, and with no addiWe go to gain a little patch of ground, [tion, That hath in it no profit but the name. To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it; Nor will it yield to Norway, or the Pole, A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee.

Hum. Why, then the Poiacki never will defend it.

Cap. Yes, 'tis already garrison'd.
Ham. Two thousand souls, and twenty thou
sand ducats,

Will not debate the question of this straw:
This is the imposthume of much wealth and
peace;
Value, estimate.

+ Attend.

+ Presence.

Forces.

+ Successes. #Polander.

out

Why the man dies.-I humbly thank you, Sir.
Cap. God be wi' you, Sir. [Exit CAPTAIN.
Ros. Will't please you go, my lord?
Ham. I will be with you straight. Go a lit-
tle before. [Exeunt Ros. and GUIL.
How all occasions do inform against me,
And spur my dull revenge! What is a man,
If his chief good, and market* of his time,
Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more.
Sure, he, that made us with such large dis-
course,t

Looking before, and after, gave us not
That capability and godlike reason

To fust in us unus'd. Now, whether it be
Bestial oblivion, or some cravený scruple
Of thinking too precisely on the event,-
A thought, which, quarter'd, hath but one part
wisdom,

And, ever, three parts coward,-I do not know
Why yet I live to say, This thing's to do;
Sith|| I have cause, and will, and strength, and

means,

To do't. Examples, gross as earth, exhort me:
Witness, this army of such mass, and charge,
Led by a delicate and tender prince;
Whose spirit with divine ambition puff'd,
Makes mouths at the invisible event;
Exposing what is mortal, and unsure,
To all that fortune, death, and danger, dare,
Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be great,
Is, not to stir without great argument;
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw, [then,
When honour's at the stake. How stand Í
That have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd,
Excitements of my reason and my blood,
And let all sleep? while, to my shame, I see
The imminent death of twenty thousand men,
That, for a fantasy, and trick of fame,

Go to their graves like beds; fight for a plot
Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
Which is not tomb enough, and continent,
To hide the slain?-O, from this time forth
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!

[Exit.

SCENE V.-Elsinore.-A Room in the Castle.

Enter QUEEN and HORATIO.

Queen. I will not speak with her. Hor. She is importunate; indeed, distract; Her mood will needs be pitied.

Queen. What would she have?

Hor. She speaks much of her father; says, she hears,

There's tricks i'the world; and hems, and beats her heart;

Spurns enviously at straws; speaks things in doubt, [nothing, That carry but half sense: her speech is Yet the unshaped use of it doth move The bearers to collection; they aim at it, And botch the words up fit to their own thoughts;

Which, as her winks, and nods, and gestures yield them,

Indeed would make one think, there might be thought,

Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily. Queen. "Twere good, she were spoken with; for she may strew Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds: Let her come in. [Exit HORATIO.

*

Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss:
So full of artless jealousy is guilt,
It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.

Re-enter HORATIO, with OPHELIA.
Oph. Where is the beauteous majesty of
Denmark?

Queen. How now, Ophelia?

Oph. How should I your true love know
From another one?

By his cockle hat and staff,
And his sandal shoon?t

[Singing.

Queen. Alas, sweet lady, what imports this song?

Oph. Say you? nay, pray you, mark.
He is dead and gone, lady,

O, ho!

He is dead and gone;

At his head a grass-green turf,

At his heels a stone.

Queen. Nay, but Ophelia,

Oph. Pray you, mark.

[Sings.

White his shroud as the mountain snow,

Enter KING.

Queen. Alas, look here, my lord.

Oph.

[Sings.

Larded all with sweet flowers;
Which bewept to the grave did go,
With true-love showers.

King. How do you, pretty lady?

Oph. Well, God'ields you! They say, the owl was a baker's daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be God be at your table!

King. Conceit upon her father.

Oph. Pray, let us have no words of this; but when they ask you what it means, say you this! Good morrow, 'tis Saint Valentine's day, All in the morning betime,

And I a maid at your window,

To be your Valentine:

Then up he rose, and don'd|| his clothes,
And dupp'd¶ the chamber door ;
Let in the maid, that out a maid
Never departed more.

King. Pretty Ophelia !

Oph. Indeed, without an oath, I'll make an end on't:

**

By Gis, and by Saint Charity,"
Alack, and fie for shame!
Young men will do't, if they come to't;
By cock, they are to blame.

Quoth she, before you tumbled me,
You promised me to wed:
[He answers.]

So would I ha' done, by yonder sun, An thou hadst not come to my bed. King. How long hath she been thus? Oph. I hope, all will be well. We must be patient: but I cannot choose but weep, to think they should lay him i'the cold ground: My brother shall know of it, and so I thank you for your good counsel. Come, my coach! Good night, ladies; good night, sweet ladies: good night, good night. [Exit.

King. Follow her close: give her good watch, I pray you. [Exit HORATIO. O! this is the poison of deep grief; it springs

* Trifle. + Shoes.

↑ Garnished. Reward. Do on, i. e. put on. Do up. ** Saints in the Roma Catholic Calendar.

Of his own just remove: The people muddied, Thick and unwholesome in their thoughts and whispers,

For good Polonius' death; and we have done but greenly,*

In hugger-muggert to inter him: Poor Ophelia
Divided from herself, and her fair judgement;
Without the which we are pictures, or mere
beasts.

Last, and as much containing as all these,
Her brother is in secret come from France :
Feeds on his wonder, keeps himself in clouds,
And wants not buzzers to infect his ear
With pestilent speeches of his father's death;
Wherein necessity, of matter beggar'd,
Will nothing stick our person to arraign
In ear and ear. O my dear Gertrude, this,
Like to a murdering piece, in many places
Gives me superfluous death! [A noise within.
Queen. Alack! what noise is this?

Enter a GENTLEMAN.

King. Attend.

[door: Where are my Switzers ? Let them guard the What is the matter?

Gent. Save yourself, my lord;
The ocean, overpeering of his list,
Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste,
Than young Laertes, in a riotous head,
O'erbears your officers! The rabble call him,
lord;

And, as the world were now but to begin,
Antiquity forgot, custom not known,
The ratifiers and props of every word,
They cry, Choose we; Laertes shall be king!
Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the
Laertes shall be king, Luertes king!
Queen. How cheerfully on the false trail
[clouds,
they cry!

O, this is counter,¶ you false Danish dogs.
King. The doors are broke. [Noise within.
Enter LAERTES, armed; DANES following.
Laer. Where is this king?-Sirs, stand you
all without.
Dan. No, let's come in.

Laer. I pray you, give me leave.
Dan. We will, we will.

[They retire without the door. Laer. I thank you :-keep the door.- thou vile king,

Give me my father.

Queen. Calmly, good Laertes.

Laer. That drop of blood, that's calm, proclaims me bastard;

Cries, cuckold, to my father; brands the harlot Even here, between the chaste unsmirched** Of my true mother.

[brow

King What is the cause, Laertes,
That thy rebellion looks so giant-like ?-
Let him go, Gertrude; do not fear our person;
There's such divinity doth hedge a king,
That treason can but peep to what it would,
Acts little of his will.-Tell me, Laertes,
Why thou art thus incens'd;--Let him go, Ger-
Speak, man.
[trude;

Luer. Where is my father?
King. Dead.

* Without judgement.

Bounds.

+ Privately. + Guards. [] Scent.

¶ Hounds run counter when they trace the scent back

wards.

** Clean, undefiled.

King. Good Laertes,

If you desire to know the certainty [revenge,
Of your dear father's death, is't writ in your
That, sweepstake, you will draw both friend
Winner and loser?
[and foe,

Laer. None but his enemies.
King. Will you know them then?
Laer. To his good friends thus wide I'll ope
my arms;

And, like the kind life-rend'ring pelican,
Repast them with my blood.

King. Why, now you speak

Like a good child, and a true gentleman.
That I am guiltless of your father's death,
And am most sensibly in grief for it,
It shall as level to your judgement 'pear,"
As day does to your eye.

Danes. [Within.] Let her come in.
Laer. How now! what noise is that?

EnterOPHELIA, fantastically dressed with Straws and Flowers.

O heat, dry up my brains! tears seven times salt,

Burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye!By heaven, thy madness shall be paid with weight,

heavens! is't possible, a young maid's wits Till our scale turn the beam. O rose of May! Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia!

Should be as mortal as an old man's life?
Nature is finet in love: and, where 'tis fine,
It sends some precious instance of itself
After the thing it loves.

Oph. They bore him barefac'd on the bier ;
Hey no nonny, nonny hey nonny:
And in his grave rain'd many a tear;-

Fare you well, my dove!
Laer. Hadst thou thy wits, and didst per-
suade revenge,

It could not move thus.

Oph. You must sing, Down-a-down, an you call him, a-down-a. O, how the wheel; becomes it!, It is the false steward, that stole his master's daughte

Laer. This nothing's more than matter.

Oph. There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray you, love, remember: and there is pansies, that's for thoughts.

Luer. A document in madness; thoughts and remembrance fitted.

Oph. There's fennel for you, and columbines:-there's rue for you; and here's some for me:-we may call it, herb of grace o'Sundays:-you may wear your rue with a differ ence.-There's a daisy-I would give you some violets; but they withered all, when my father died:-They say, he made a good end,

For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy,—

[Sings. Laer. Thought and affliction, passion, hell itself,

She turns to favour, and to prettiness.

Oph. And will he not come again?
And will he not come again?
No, no, he is dead,

Go to thy death-bed,

He never will come again.

His beard was as white as snow,
All flaxen was his poll:
He is gone, he is gone,
And we cast away moan,
God'a mercy on his soul!

[Sings.

And of all Christian souls! I pray God. God be wi' you! [Exit OPHELIA. Laer. Do you see this, O God? King. Laertes, I must commune with your grief,

Or you deny me right. Go but apart, [will, Make choice of whom your wisest friends you And they shall hear and judge 'twixt you and If by direct or by collateral hand [me: They find us touch'd, we will our kingdom give,

Our crown, our life, and all that we call ours,
To you in satisfaction; but, if not,

Be you content to lend your patience to us,
And we shall jointly labour with your soul
To give it due content.

Lier. Let this be so;

His means of death, his obscure funeral,-
No trophy, sword, nor hatchment, o'er his
bones,

No noble rite, nor formal ostentation,-
Cry to be heard, as 'twere from heaven to earth,
That I must call't in question.

king. So you shall;

And where the offence is, let the great axe fall. I pray you, go with me. [Exeunt.

SCENE VI.-Another Room in the same.

Enter HORATIO, and a SERVANT.

SCENE VII.-Another Room in the same.

Enter KING and LAERTES.

King. Now must your conscience my acquittance seal,

Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear, And you must put me in your heart for friend; That he, which hath your noble father slain, Pursu'd my life.

Laer. It well appears:-But tell me, So crimeful and so capital in nature, Why you proceeded not against these feats, As by your safety, greatness, wisdom, all things else, You mainly were stirr'd up.

King. O, for two special reasons; [new'd,t Which may to you, perhaps, seem much unsiBut yet to me they are strong. The queen his mother,

Lives almost by his looks; and for myself,
(My virtue, or my plague, be it either which,)
She is so conjunctive to my life and soul,
That, as the star moves not but in his sphere,
I could not but by her. The other motive,
Why to a public count I might not go,
Is, the great love the general gendert bear him:
Work like the springs that turneth wood to
Who, dipping all his faults in their affection,
[arrows,

stone,

Converts his gyves to graces; so that my
Too slightly timber'd for so loud a wind,
Would have reverted to my bow again,
And not where I had aim'd them.

Laer. And so have I a noble father lost;
A sister driven into desperate terms;

me?

Serv. Sailors, Sir;

They say, they have letters for you.

Hor. Let them come in.- [Exit SERVANT. I do not know from what part of the world I should be greeted, if not from lord Hamlet. Enter SAILORS.

1 Sail. God bless you, Sir. Hor. Let him bless thee too,

1 Sail. He shall, Sir, an't please him. There's a letter for you, Sir; it comes from the ambassador that was bound for England; if your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is.

Hor. [Reads.] Horatio, when thou shalt have overlooked this, give these fellows some means to the king; they have letters for him. Ere we were two days old at sea, a pirate of very warlike uppointment gave us chase: Finding ourselves too slow of sail, we put on a compelled valour; and in the grapple I boarded them: on the instant, they got clear of our ship; so I alone became their pri soner. They have dealt with me, like thieves of mercy: but they knew what they did; I am to do a good turn for them. Let the king have the letters I have sent; and repair thou to me with as much haste as thou wouldst fly death. I have words to speak in thine ear, will make thee dumb; yet are they much too light for the bore of the

* Melancholy.

Stcod challenger on mount of all the age
For her perfections:-But my revenge will

come.

King. Break not your sleeps for that: you must not think,

That we are made of stuff so flat and dull,
That we can let our beard be shook with dan-
ger,
[more:
And think it pastime. You shortly shall hear
I loved your father, and we love ourself;
And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine,—
How now? what news?

Enter a MESSENGER.

Mess. Letters, my lord, from Hamlet: This to your majesty; this to the queen. King. From Hamlet! who brought them? Mess. Sailors, my lord, they say: I saw them not:

[them They were given me by Claudio, he receiv'd Of him that brought them.

King. Laertes, you shall hear them:Leave us. [Exit MESSENGER. [Reads.] High and mighty, you shall know, I am set naked on your kingdom. To-morrow shall I beg leave to see your kingly eyes: when I shall, first asking your pardon thereunto, recount * Since. + Deprived of strength. Common people. Petrifying springs are coramon in many parts of England. Fett