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| SCENE II. A room in the castle. |
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Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and Attendants
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| KING CLAUDIUS |
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Welcome, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern!
Moreover that we much did long to see you,
The need we have to use you did provoke
Our hasty sending. Something have you heard
5 Of Hamlet's transformation; so call it,
Sith nor the exterior nor the inward man
Resembles that it was. What it should be,
More than his father's death, that thus hath put him
So much from the understanding of himself,
10 I cannot dream of: I entreat you both,
That, being of so young days brought up with him,
And sith so neighbour'd to his youth and havior,
That you vouchsafe your rest here in our court
Some little time: so by your companies
15 To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather,
So much as from occasion you may glean,
Whether aught, to us unknown, afflicts him thus,
That, open'd, lies within our remedy.
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| QUEEN GERTRUDE |
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Good gentlemen, he hath much talk'd of you;
20 And sure I am two men there are not living
To whom he more adheres. If it will please you
To show us so much gentry and good will
As to expend your time with us awhile,
For the supply and profit of our hope,
25 Your visitation shall receive such thanks
As fits a king's remembrance.
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| ROSENCRANTZ |
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Both your majesties
Might, by the sovereign power you have of us,
Put your dread pleasures more into command
30 Than to entreaty.
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| GUILDENSTERN |
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But we both obey,
And here give up ourselves, in the full bent
To lay our service freely at your feet,
To be commanded.
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| KING CLAUDIUS |
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35 Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern.
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| QUEEN GERTRUDE |
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Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz:
And I beseech you instantly to visit
My too much changed son. Go, some of you,
And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is.
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| GUILDENSTERN |
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40 Heavens make our presence and our practises
Pleasant and helpful to him!
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| QUEEN GERTRUDE |
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Ay, amen!
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Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and some Attendants
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Enter POLONIUS
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| LORD POLONIUS |
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The ambassadors from Norway, my good lord,
Are joyfully return'd.
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| KING CLAUDIUS |
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45 Thou still hast been the father of good news.
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| LORD POLONIUS |
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Have I, my lord? I assure my good liege,
I hold my duty, as I hold my soul,
Both to my God and to my gracious king:
And I do think, or else this brain of mine
50 Hunts not the trail of policy so sure
As it hath used to do, that I have found
The very cause of Hamlet's lunacy.
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| KING CLAUDIUS |
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O, speak of that; that do I long to hear.
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| LORD POLONIUS |
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Give first admittance to the ambassadors;
55 My news shall be the fruit to that great feast.
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| KING CLAUDIUS |
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Thyself do grace to them, and bring them in.
Exit POLONIUS
He tells me, my dear Gertrude, he hath found
The head and source of all your son's distemper.
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| QUEEN GERTRUDE |
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I doubt it is no other but the main;
60 His father's death, and our o'erhasty marriage.
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| KING CLAUDIUS |
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Well, we shall sift him.
Re-enter POLONIUS, with VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS
Welcome, my good friends!
Say, Voltimand, what from our brother Norway?
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| VOLTIMAND |
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Most fair return of greetings and desires.
65 Upon our first, he sent out to suppress
His nephew's levies; which to him appear'd
To be a preparation 'gainst the Polack;
But, better look'd into, he truly found
It was against your highness: whereat grieved,
70 That so his sickness, age and impotence
Was falsely borne in hand, sends out arrests
On Fortinbras; which he, in brief, obeys;
Receives rebuke from Norway, and in fine
Makes vow before his uncle never more
75 To give the assay of arms against your majesty.
Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy,
Gives him three thousand crowns in annual fee,
And his commission to employ those soldiers,
So levied as before, against the Polack:
80 With an entreaty, herein further shown,
Giving a paper
That it might please you to give quiet pass
Through your dominions for this enterprise,
On such regards of safety and allowance
As therein are set down.
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| KING CLAUDIUS |
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85 It likes us well;
And at our more consider'd time well read,
Answer, and think upon this business.
Meantime we thank you for your well-took labour:
Go to your rest; at night we'll feast together:
90 Most welcome home!
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Exeunt VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS
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| LORD POLONIUS |
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This business is well ended.
My liege, and madam, to expostulate
What majesty should be, what duty is,
Why day is day, night night, and time is time,
95 Were nothing but to waste night, day and time.
Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief: your noble son is mad:
Mad call I it; for, to define true madness,
100 What is't but to be nothing else but mad?
But let that go.
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| QUEEN GERTRUDE |
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More matter, with less art.
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| LORD POLONIUS |
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Madam, I swear I use no art at all.
That he is mad, 'tis true: 'tis true 'tis pity;
105 And pity 'tis 'tis true: a foolish figure;
But farewell it, for I will use no art.
Mad let us grant him, then: and now remains
That we find out the cause of this effect,
Or rather say, the cause of this defect,
110 For this effect defective comes by cause:
Thus it remains, and the remainder thus. Perpend.
I have a daughter--have while she is mine--
Who, in her duty and obedience, mark,
Hath given me this: now gather, and surmise.
Reads
115 'To the celestial and my soul's idol, the most
beautified Ophelia,'--
That's an ill phrase, a vile phrase; 'beautified' is
a vile phrase: but you shall hear. Thus:
Reads
'In her excellent white bosom, these, &c.'
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| QUEEN GERTRUDE |
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120 Came this from Hamlet to her?
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| LORD POLONIUS |
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Good madam, stay awhile; I will be faithful.
Reads
'Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
125 But never doubt I love.
'O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers;
I have not art to reckon my groans: but that
I love thee best, O most best, believe it. Adieu.
'Thine evermore most dear lady, whilst
130 this machine is to him, HAMLET.'
This, in obedience, hath my daughter shown me,
And more above, hath his solicitings,
As they fell out by time, by means and place,
All given to mine ear.
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| KING CLAUDIUS |
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135 But how hath she
Received his love?
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| LORD POLONIUS |
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What do you think of me?
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| KING CLAUDIUS |
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As of a man faithful and honourable.
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| LORD POLONIUS |
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I would fain prove so. But what might you think,
140 When I had seen this hot love on the wing--
As I perceived it, I must tell you that,
Before my daughter told me--what might you,
Or my dear majesty your queen here, think,
If I had play'd the desk or table-book,
145 Or given my heart a winking, mute and dumb,
Or look'd upon this love with idle sight;
What might you think? No, I went round to work,
And my young mistress thus I did bespeak:
'Lord Hamlet is a prince, out of thy star;
150 This must not be:' and then I precepts gave her,
That she should lock herself from his resort,
Admit no messengers, receive no tokens.
Which done, she took the fruits of my advice;
And he, repulsed--a short tale to make--
155 Fell into a sadness, then into a fast,
Thence to a watch, thence into a weakness,
Thence to a lightness, and, by this declension,
Into the madness wherein now he raves,
And all we mourn for.
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| KING CLAUDIUS |
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160 Do you think 'tis this?
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| QUEEN GERTRUDE |
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It may be, very likely.
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| LORD POLONIUS |
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Hath there been such a time--I'd fain know that--
That I have positively said 'Tis so,'
When it proved otherwise?
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| KING CLAUDIUS |
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165 Not that I know.
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| LORD POLONIUS |
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Take this from this, if this be otherwise:
If circumstances lead me, I will find
Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed
170 Within the centre.
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| KING CLAUDIUS |
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How may we try it further?
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| LORD POLONIUS |
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You know, sometimes he walks four hours together
Here in the lobby.
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| QUEEN GERTRUDE |
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So he does indeed.
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| LORD POLONIUS |
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175 At such a time I'll loose my daughter to him:
Be you and I behind an arras then;
Mark the encounter: if he love her not
And be not from his reason fall'n thereon,
Let me be no assistant for a state,
180 But keep a farm and carters.
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| KING CLAUDIUS |
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We will try it.
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| QUEEN GERTRUDE |
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But, look, where sadly the poor wretch comes reading.
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| LORD POLONIUS |
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Away, I do beseech you, both away:
I'll board him presently.
Exeunt KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, and Attendants
Enter HAMLET, reading
185 O, give me leave:
How does my good Lord Hamlet?
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| HAMLET |
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Well, God-a-mercy.
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| LORD POLONIUS |
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Do you know me, my lord?
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| HAMLET |
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Excellent well; you are a fishmonger.
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| LORD POLONIUS |
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190 Not I, my lord.
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| HAMLET |
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Then I would you were so honest a man.
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| LORD POLONIUS |
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Honest, my lord!
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| HAMLET |
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Ay, sir; to be honest, as this world goes, is to be
one man picked out of ten thousand.
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| LORD POLONIUS |
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195 That's very true, my lord.
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| HAMLET |
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For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a
god kissing carrion,--Have you a daughter?
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| LORD POLONIUS |
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I have, my lord.
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| HAMLET |
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Let her not walk i' the sun: conception is a
200 blessing: but not as your daughter may conceive.
Friend, look to 't.
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| LORD POLONIUS |
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(Aside)
How say you by that? Still harping on my
daughter: yet he knew me not at first; he said I
was a fishmonger: he is far gone, far gone: and
205 truly in my youth I suffered much extremity for
love; very near this. I'll speak to him again.
What do you read, my lord?
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| HAMLET |
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Words, words, words.
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| LORD POLONIUS |
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What is the matter, my lord?
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| HAMLET |
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210 Between who?
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| LORD POLONIUS |
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I mean, the matter that you read, my lord.
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| HAMLET |
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Slanders, sir: for the satirical rogue says here
that old men have grey beards, that their faces are
wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and
215 plum-tree gum and that they have a plentiful lack of
wit, together with most weak hams: all which, sir,
though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet
I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down, for
yourself, sir, should be old as I am, if like a crab
220 you could go backward.
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| LORD POLONIUS |
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(Aside)
Though this be madness, yet there is method
in 't. Will you walk out of the air, my lord?
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| HAMLET |
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Into my grave.
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| LORD POLONIUS |
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Indeed, that is out o' the air.
Aside
225 How pregnant sometimes his replies are! a happiness
that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity
could not so prosperously be delivered of. I will
leave him, and suddenly contrive the means of
meeting between him and my daughter.--My honourable
230 lord, I will most humbly take my leave of you.
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| HAMLET |
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You cannot, sir, take from me any thing that I will
more willingly part withal: except my life, except
my life, except my life.
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| LORD POLONIUS |
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Fare you well, my lord.
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| HAMLET |
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235 These tedious old fools!
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Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
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| LORD POLONIUS |
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You go to seek the Lord Hamlet; there he is.
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| ROSENCRANTZ |
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(To POLONIUS)
God save you, sir!
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Exit POLONIUS
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| GUILDENSTERN |
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My honoured lord!
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| ROSENCRANTZ |
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My most dear lord!
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| HAMLET |
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240 My excellent good friends! How dost thou,
Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do ye both?
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| ROSENCRANTZ |
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As the indifferent children of the earth.
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| GUILDENSTERN |
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Happy, in that we are not over-happy;
On fortune's cap we are not the very button.
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| HAMLET |
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245 Nor the soles of her shoe?
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| ROSENCRANTZ |
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Neither, my lord.
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| HAMLET |
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Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of
her favours?
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| GUILDENSTERN |
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'Faith, her privates we.
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| HAMLET |
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250 In the secret parts of fortune? O, most true; she
is a strumpet. What's the news?
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| ROSENCRANTZ |
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None, my lord, but that the world's grown honest.
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| HAMLET |
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Then is doomsday near: but your news is not true.
Let me question more in particular: what have you,
255 my good friends, deserved at the hands of fortune,
that she sends you to prison hither?
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| GUILDENSTERN |
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Prison, my lord!
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| HAMLET |
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Denmark's a prison.
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| ROSENCRANTZ |
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Then is the world one.
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| HAMLET |
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260 A goodly one; in which there are many confines,
wards and dungeons, Denmark being one o' the worst.
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| ROSENCRANTZ |
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We think not so, my lord.
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| HAMLET |
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Why, then, 'tis none to you; for there is nothing
either good or bad, but thinking makes it so: to me
265 it is a prison.
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| ROSENCRANTZ |
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Why then, your ambition makes it one; 'tis too
narrow for your mind.
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| HAMLET |
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O God, I could be bounded in a nut shell and count
myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I
270 have bad dreams.
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| GUILDENSTERN |
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Which dreams indeed are ambition, for the very
substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.
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| HAMLET |
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A dream itself is but a shadow.
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| ROSENCRANTZ |
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Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a
275 quality that it is but a shadow's shadow.
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| HAMLET |
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Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and
outstretched heroes the beggars' shadows. Shall we
to the court? for, by my fay, I cannot reason.
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ROSENCRANTZ
GUILDENSTERN |
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We'll wait upon you.
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| HAMLET |
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280 No such matter: I will not sort you with the rest
of my servants, for, to speak to you like an honest
man, I am most dreadfully attended. But, in the
beaten way of friendship, what make you at Elsinore?
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| ROSENCRANTZ |
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To visit you, my lord; no other occasion.
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| HAMLET |
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285 Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks; but I
thank you: and sure, dear friends, my thanks are
too dear a halfpenny. Were you not sent for? Is it
your own inclining? Is it a free visitation? Come,
deal justly with me: come, come; nay, speak.
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| GUILDENSTERN |
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290 What should we say, my lord?
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| HAMLET |
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Why, any thing, but to the purpose. You were sent
for; and there is a kind of confession in your looks
which your modesties have not craft enough to colour:
I know the good king and queen have sent for you.
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| ROSENCRANTZ |
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295 To what end, my lord?
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| HAMLET |
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That you must teach me. But let me conjure you, by
the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy of
our youth, by the obligation of our ever-preserved
love, and by what more dear a better proposer could
300 charge you withal, be even and direct with me,
whether you were sent for, or no?
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| ROSENCRANTZ |
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(Aside to GUILDENSTERN)
What say you?
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| HAMLET |
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(Aside)
Nay, then, I have an eye of you.--If you
love me, hold not off.
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| GUILDENSTERN |
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305 My lord, we were sent for.
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| HAMLET |
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I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation
prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the king
and queen moult no feather. I have of late--but
wherefore I know not--lost all my mirth, forgone all
310 custom of exercises; and indeed it goes so heavily
with my disposition that this goodly frame, the
earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this most
excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave
o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted
315 with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to
me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours.
What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason!
how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how
express and admirable! in action how like an angel!
320 in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the
world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me,
what is this quintessence of dust? man delights not
me: no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling
you seem to say so.
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| ROSENCRANTZ |
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325 My lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts.
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| HAMLET |
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Why did you laugh then, when I said 'man delights not me'?
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| ROSENCRANTZ |
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To think, my lord, if you delight not in man, what
lenten entertainment the players shall receive from
you: we coted them on the way; and hither are they
330 coming, to offer you service.
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| HAMLET |
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He that plays the king shall be welcome; his majesty
shall have tribute of me; the adventurous knight
shall use his foil and target; the lover shall not
sigh gratis; the humourous man shall end his part
335 in peace; the clown shall make those laugh whose
lungs are tickled o' the sere; and the lady shall
say her mind freely, or the blank verse shall halt
for't. What players are they?
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| ROSENCRANTZ |
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Even those you were wont to take delight in, the
340 tragedians of the city.
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| HAMLET |
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How chances it they travel? their residence, both
in reputation and profit, was better both ways.
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| ROSENCRANTZ |
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I think their inhibition comes by the means of the
late innovation.
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| HAMLET |
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345 Do they hold the same estimation they did when I was
in the city? are they so followed?
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| ROSENCRANTZ |
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No, indeed, are they not.
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| HAMLET |
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How comes it? do they grow rusty?
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| ROSENCRANTZ |
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Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace: but
350 there is, sir, an aery of children, little eyases,
that cry out on the top of question, and are most
tyrannically clapped for't: these are now the
fashion, and so berattle the common stages--so they
call them--that many wearing rapiers are afraid of
355 goose-quills and dare scarce come thither.
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| HAMLET |
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What, are they children? who maintains 'em? how are
they escoted? Will they pursue the quality no
longer than they can sing? will they not say
afterwards, if they should grow themselves to common
360 players--as it is most like, if their means are no
better--their writers do them wrong, to make them
exclaim against their own succession?
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| ROSENCRANTZ |
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'Faith, there has been much to do on both sides; and
the nation holds it no sin to tarre them to
365 controversy: there was, for a while, no money bid
for argument, unless the poet and the player went to
cuffs in the question.
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| HAMLET |
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Is't possible?
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| GUILDENSTERN |
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O, there has been much throwing about of brains.
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| HAMLET |
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370 Do the boys carry it away?
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| ROSENCRANTZ |
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Ay, that they do, my lord; Hercules and his load too.
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| HAMLET |
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It is not very strange; for mine uncle is king of
Denmark, and those that would make mows at him while
my father lived, give twenty, forty, fifty, an
375 hundred ducats a-piece for his picture in little.
'Sblood, there is something in this more than
natural, if philosophy could find it out.
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Flourish of trumpets within
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| GUILDENSTERN |
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There are the players.
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| HAMLET |
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Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands,
380 come then: the appurtenance of welcome is fashion
and ceremony: let me comply with you in this garb,
lest my extent to the players, which, I tell you,
must show fairly outward, should more appear like
entertainment than yours. You are welcome: but my
385 uncle-father and aunt-mother are deceived.
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| GUILDENSTERN |
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In what, my dear lord?
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| HAMLET |
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I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is
southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw.
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Enter POLONIUS
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| LORD POLONIUS |
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Well be with you, gentlemen!
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| HAMLET |
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390 Hark you, Guildenstern; and you too: at each ear a
hearer: that great baby you see there is not yet
out of his swaddling-clouts.
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| ROSENCRANTZ |
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Happily he's the second time come to them; for they
say an old man is twice a child.
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| HAMLET |
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395 I will prophesy he comes to tell me of the players;
mark it. You say right, sir: o' Monday morning;
'twas so indeed.
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| LORD POLONIUS |
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My lord, I have news to tell you.
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| HAMLET |
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My lord, I have news to tell you.
400 When Roscius was an actor in Rome,--
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| LORD POLONIUS |
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The actors are come hither, my lord.
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| HAMLET |
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Buz, buz!
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| LORD POLONIUS |
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Upon mine honour,--
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| HAMLET |
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Then came each actor on his ass,--
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| LORD POLONIUS |
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405 The best actors in the world, either for tragedy,
comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical,
historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-
comical-historical-pastoral, scene individable, or
poem unlimited: Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor
410 Plautus too light. For the law of writ and the
liberty, these are the only men.
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| HAMLET |
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O Jephthah, judge of Israel, what a treasure hadst thou!
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| LORD POLONIUS |
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What a treasure had he, my lord?
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| HAMLET |
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Why,
415 'One fair daughter and no more,
The which he loved passing well.'
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| LORD POLONIUS |
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(Aside)
Still on my daughter.
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| HAMLET |
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Am I not i' the right, old Jephthah?
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| LORD POLONIUS |
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If you call me Jephthah, my lord, I have a daughter
420 that I love passing well.
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| HAMLET |
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Nay, that follows not.
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| LORD POLONIUS |
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What follows, then, my lord?
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| HAMLET |
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Why,
'As by lot, God wot,'
425 and then, you know,
'It came to pass, as most like it was,'--
the first row of the pious chanson will show you
more; for look, where my abridgement comes.
Enter four or five Players
You are welcome, masters; welcome, all. I am glad
430 to see thee well. Welcome, good friends. O, my old
friend! thy face is valenced since I saw thee last:
comest thou to beard me in Denmark? What, my young
lady and mistress! By'r lady, your ladyship is
nearer to heaven than when I saw you last, by the
435 altitude of a chopine. Pray God, your voice, like
apiece of uncurrent gold, be not cracked within the
ring. Masters, you are all welcome. We'll e'en
to't like French falconers, fly at any thing we see:
we'll have a speech straight: come, give us a taste
440 of your quality; come, a passionate speech.
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| First Player |
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What speech, my lord?
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| HAMLET | |
