The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: ACT III , SCENE II. A hall in the castle.

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: ACT III


	Introduction

	ACT I

	ACT II

	ACT III

		SCENE I. A room in the castle.

		SCENE II. A hall in the castle.

		SCENE III. A room in the castle.

		SCENE IV. The Queen's closet.

	ACT IV

	ACT V

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SCENE II. A hall in the castle.

Enter HAMLET and Players

HAMLET

      Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to
      you, trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it,
      as many of your players do, I had as lief the
      town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air
5     too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently;
      for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say,
      the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget
      a temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it
      offends me to the soul to hear a robustious
10    periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to
      very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who
      for the most part are capable of nothing but
      inexplicable dumbshows and noise: I would have such
      a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant; it
15    out-herods Herod: pray you, avoid it.

First Player

I warrant your honour.

HAMLET

      Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion
      be your tutor: suit the action to the word, the
      word to the action; with this special o'erstep not
20    the modesty of nature: for any thing so overdone is
      from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the
      first and now, was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the
      mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature,
      scorn her own image, and the very age and body of
25    the time his form and pressure. Now this overdone,
      or come tardy off, though it make the unskilful
      laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the
      censure of the which one must in your allowance
      o'erweigh a whole theatre of others. O, there be
30    players that I have seen play, and heard others
      praise, and that highly, not to speak it profanely,
      that, neither having the accent of Christians nor
      the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so
      strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of
35    nature's journeymen had made men and not made them
      well, they imitated humanity so abominably.

First Player

I hope we have reformed that indifferently with us,
sir.

HAMLET

      O, reform it altogether. And let those that play
40    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 mean time, some necessary
      question of the play be then to be considered:
45    that's villanous, and shows a most pitiful ambition
      in the fool that uses it. Go, make you ready.

Exeunt Players

Enter POLONIUS, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN

How now, my lord! I will the king hear this piece of work?

LORD POLONIUS

And the queen too, and that presently.

HAMLET

Bid the players make haste.

Exit POLONIUS

50 Will you two help to hasten them?

ROSENCRANTZ
GUILDENSTERN

We will, my lord.

Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN

HAMLET

What ho! Horatio!

Enter HORATIO

HORATIO

Here, sweet lord, at your service.

HAMLET

Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man
55 As e'er my conversation coped withal.

HORATIO

O, 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,
60    To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be flatter'd?
      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
65    And could of men distinguish, her election
      Hath seal'd thee for herself; for thou hast been
      As one, in suffering all, that suffers nothing,
      A man that fortune's buffets and rewards
      Hast ta'en with equal thanks: and blest are those
70    Whose blood and judgment are so well commingled,
      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,
75    As I do thee.--Something too much of this.--
      There is a play to-night 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 seest that act afoot,
80    Even with the very comment of thy soul
      Observe mine uncle: if his occulted guilt
      Do not itself unkennel in one speech,
      It is a damned ghost that we have seen,
      And my imaginations are as foul
85    As 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:
90    If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing,
      And 'scape detecting, I will pay the theft.

HAMLET

They are coming to the play; I must be idle:
Get you a place.

Danish march. A flourish. Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and others

KING CLAUDIUS

How fares our cousin Hamlet?

HAMLET

95 Excellent, i' faith; of the chameleon's dish: I eat
the air, promise-crammed: you cannot feed capons so.

KING CLAUDIUS

I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet; these words
are not mine.

HAMLET

No, nor mine now.

To POLONIUS

100 My lord, you played once i' the university, you say?

LORD POLONIUS

That did I, my lord; and was accounted a good actor.

HAMLET

What did you enact?

LORD POLONIUS

I did enact Julius Caesar: I was killed i' the
Capitol; Brutus killed me.

HAMLET

105 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.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me.

HAMLET

No, good mother, here's metal more attractive.

LORD POLONIUS

110 (To KING CLAUDIUS) O, ho! do you mark that?

HAMLET

Lady, shall I lie in your lap?

Lying down at OPHELIA's feet

OPHELIA

No, my lord.

HAMLET

I mean, my head upon your lap?

OPHELIA

Ay, my lord.

HAMLET

115 Do you think I meant country matters?

OPHELIA

I think nothing, my lord.

HAMLET

That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs.

OPHELIA

What is, my lord?

HAMLET

Nothing.

OPHELIA

120 You are merry, my lord.

HAMLET

Who, I?

OPHELIA

Ay, my lord.

HAMLET

      O God, your only jig-maker. What should a man do
      but be merry? for, look you, how cheerfully my
125   mother looks, and my father died within these two hours.

OPHELIA

Nay, 'tis twice two months, my lord.

HAMLET

      So long? Nay then, let the devil wear black, for
      I'll have a suit of sables. O heavens! die two
      months ago, and not forgotten yet? Then there's
130   hope a great man's memory may outlive his life half
      a year: but, by'r lady, he must build churches,
      then; or else shall he suffer not thinking on, with
      the hobby-horse, whose epitaph is 'For, O, for, O,
      the hobby-horse is forgot.'

Hautboys play. The dumb-show enters

Enter a King and a Queen very lovingly; the Queen embracing him, and he her. She kneels, and makes show of protestation unto him. He takes her up, and declines his head upon her neck: lays him down upon a bank of flowers: she, seeing him asleep, leaves him. Anon comes in a fellow, takes off his crown, kisses it, and pours poison in the King's ears, and exit. The Queen returns; finds the King dead, and makes passionate action. The Poisoner, with some two or three Mutes, comes in again, seeming to lament with her. The dead body is carried away. The Poisoner wooes the Queen with gifts: she seems loath and unwilling awhile, but in the end accepts his love

Exeunt

OPHELIA

135 What means this, my lord?

HAMLET

Marry, this is miching mallecho; it means mischief.

OPHELIA

Belike this show imports the argument of the play.

Enter Prologue

HAMLET

We shall know by this fellow: the players cannot
keep counsel; they'll tell all.

OPHELIA

140 Will he tell us what this show meant?

HAMLET

Ay, or any show that you'll show him: be not you
ashamed to show, he'll not shame to tell you what it means.

OPHELIA

You are naught, you are naught: I'll mark the play.

Prologue

      For us, and for our tragedy,
145   Here stooping to your clemency,
      We beg your hearing patiently.

Exit

HAMLET

Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring?

OPHELIA

'Tis brief, my lord.

HAMLET

As woman's love.

Enter two Players, King and Queen

Player King

150   Full thirty times hath Phoebus' cart gone round
      Neptune's salt wash and Tellus' orbed ground,
      And thirty dozen moons with borrow'd sheen
      About the world have times twelve thirties been,
      Since love our hearts and Hymen did our hands
155   Unite commutual in most sacred bands.

Player Queen

      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 your former state,
160   That I distrust you. Yet, though I distrust,
      Discomfort you, my lord, it nothing must:
      For women's fear and love holds quantity;
      In neither aught, or in extremity.
      Now, what my love is, proof hath made you know;
165   And as my love is sized, my fear is so:
      Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear;
      Where little fears grow great, great love grows there.

Player King

      'Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly too;
      My operant powers their functions leave to do:
170   And thou shalt live in this fair world behind,
      Honour'd, beloved; and haply one as kind
      For husband shalt thou--

Player Queen

      O, confound the rest!
      Such love must needs be treason in my breast:
175   In second husband let me be accurst!
      None wed the second but who kill'd the first.

HAMLET

(Aside) Wormwood, wormwood.

Player Queen

      The instances that second marriage move
      Are base respects of thrift, but none of love:
180   A second time I kill my husband dead,
      When second husband kisses me in bed.

Player King

      I do believe you think what now you speak;
      But what we do determine oft we break.
      Purpose is but the slave to memory,
185   Of violent birth, but poor validity;
      Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree;
      But fall, unshaken, when they mellow be.
      Most necessary 'tis that we forget
      To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt:
190   What to ourselves in passion we propose,
      The passion ending, doth the purpose lose.
      The violence of either grief or joy
      Their own enactures with themselves destroy:
      Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament;
195   Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident.
      This world is not for aye, nor 'tis not strange
      That even our loves should with our fortunes change;
      For 'tis a question left us yet to prove,
      Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love.
200   The great man down, you mark his favourite flies;
      The poor advanced makes friends of enemies.
      And hitherto doth love on fortune tend;
      For who not needs shall never lack a friend,
      And who in want a hollow friend doth try,
205   Directly seasons him his enemy.
      But, orderly to end where I begun,
      Our wills and fates do so contrary run
      That our devices still are overthrown;
      Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own:
210   So think thou wilt no second husband wed;
      But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead.

Player Queen

      Nor earth to me give food, nor heaven light!
      Sport and repose lock from me day and night!
      To desperation turn my trust and hope!
215   An 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 a widow, ever I be wife!

HAMLET

220 If she should break it now!

Player King

      'Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here awhile;
      My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile
      The tedious day with sleep.

Sleeps

Player Queen

Sleep rock thy brain,
225 And never come mischance between us twain!

Exit

HAMLET

Madam, how like you this play?

QUEEN GERTRUDE

The lady protests too much, methinks.

HAMLET

O, but she'll keep her word.

KING CLAUDIUS

Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in 't?

HAMLET

230 No, no, they do but jest, poison in jest; no offence
i' the world.

KING CLAUDIUS

What do you call the play?

HAMLET

      The Mouse-trap. Marry, how? Tropically. This play
      is the image of a murder done in Vienna: Gonzago is
235   the duke's name; his wife, Baptista: you shall see
      anon; 'tis a knavish piece of work: but what o'
      that? your majesty and we that have free souls, it
      touches us not: let the galled jade wince, our
      withers are unwrung.

Enter LUCIANUS

240 This is one Lucianus, nephew to the king.

OPHELIA

You are as good as a chorus, my lord.

HAMLET

I could interpret between you and your love, if I
could see the puppets dallying.

OPHELIA

You are keen, my lord, you are keen.

HAMLET

245 It would cost you a groaning to take off my edge.

OPHELIA

Still better, and worse.

HAMLET

      So you must take your husbands. Begin, murderer;
      pox, leave thy damnable faces, and begin. Come:
      'the croaking raven doth bellow for revenge.'

LUCIANUS

250   Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing;
      Confederate season, else no creature seeing;
      Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected,
      With Hecate's ban thrice blasted, thrice infected,
      Thy natural magic and dire property,
255   On wholesome life usurp immediately.

Pours the poison into the sleeper's ears

HAMLET

      He poisons him i' the garden for's estate. His
      name's Gonzago: the story is extant, and writ in
      choice Italian: you shall see anon how the murderer
      gets the love of Gonzago's wife.

OPHELIA

260 The king rises.

HAMLET

What, frighted with false fire!

QUEEN GERTRUDE

How fares my lord?

LORD POLONIUS

Give o'er the play.

KING CLAUDIUS

Give me some light: away!

All

265 Lights, lights, lights!

Exeunt all but HAMLET and HORATIO

HAMLET

      Why, let the stricken deer go weep,
      The hart ungalled play;
      For some must watch, while some must sleep:
      So runs the world away.
270   Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers-- if
      the rest of my fortunes turn Turk with me--with two
      Provincial roses on my razed shoes, get me a
      fellowship in a cry of players, sir?

HORATIO

Half a share.

HAMLET

275   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.

HORATIO

280 You might have rhymed.

HAMLET

O good Horatio, I'll take the ghost's word for a
thousand pound. Didst perceive?

HORATIO

Very well, my lord.

HAMLET

Upon the talk of the poisoning?

HORATIO

285 I did very well note him.

HAMLET

      Ah, ha! Come, some music! come, the recorders!
      For if the king like not the comedy,
      Why then, belike, he likes it not, perdy.
      Come, some music!

Re-enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN

GUILDENSTERN

290 Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you.

HAMLET

Sir, a whole history.

GUILDENSTERN

The king, sir,--

HAMLET

Ay, sir, what of him?

GUILDENSTERN

Is in his retirement marvellous distempered.

HAMLET

295 With drink, sir?

GUILDENSTERN

No, my lord, rather with choler.

HAMLET

      Your wisdom should show itself more richer to
      signify this to his doctor; for, for me to put him
      to his purgation would perhaps plunge him into far
300   more choler.

GUILDENSTERN

Good my lord, put your discourse into some frame and
start not so wildly from my affair.

HAMLET

I am tame, sir: pronounce.

GUILDENSTERN

The queen, your mother, in most great affliction of
305 spirit, hath sent me to you.

HAMLET

You are welcome.

GUILDENSTERN

      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
310   commandment: if not, your pardon and my return
      shall be the end of my business.

HAMLET

Sir, I cannot.

GUILDENSTERN

What, my lord?

HAMLET

      Make you a wholesome answer; my wit's diseased: but,
315   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.

HAMLET

320   O wonderful son, that can so astonish 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.

HAMLET

325 We shall obey, were she ten times our mother. Have
you any further trade with us?

ROSENCRANTZ

My lord, you once did love me.

HAMLET

So I do still, by these pickers and stealers.

ROSENCRANTZ

      Good my lord, what is your cause of distemper? you
330   do, surely, bar the door upon your own liberty, if
      you deny your griefs to your friend.

HAMLET

Sir, I lack advancement.

ROSENCRANTZ

How can that be, when you have the voice of the king
himself for your succession in Denmark?

HAMLET

335 Ay, but sir, 'While the grass grows,'--the proverb
is something musty.

Re-enter Players with recorders

      O, the recorders! let me see one. 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

340 O, my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is too
unmannerly.

HAMLET

I do not well understand that. Will you play upon
this pipe?

GUILDENSTERN

My lord, I cannot.

HAMLET

345 I pray you.

GUILDENSTERN

Believe me, I cannot.

HAMLET

I do beseech you.

GUILDENSTERN

I know no touch of it, my lord.

HAMLET

      'Tis as easy as lying: govern these ventages with
350   your lingers and thumb, give it breath with your
      mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music.
      Look you, these are the stops.

GUILDENSTERN

But these cannot I command to any utterance of
harmony; I have not the skill.

HAMLET

355   Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of
      me! 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
      the top of my compass: and there is much music,
360   excellent voice, in this little organ; yet cannot
      you make it speak. 'Sblood, do you think I am
      easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what
      instrument you will, though you can fret me, yet you
      cannot play upon me.

Enter POLONIUS

365 God bless you, sir!

LORD POLONIUS

My lord, the queen would speak with you, and
presently.

HAMLET

Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel?

LORD POLONIUS

By the mass, and 'tis like a camel, indeed.

HAMLET

370 Methinks it is like a weasel.

LORD POLONIUS

It is backed like a weasel.

HAMLET

Or like a whale?

LORD POLONIUS

Very like a whale.

HAMLET

Then I will come to my mother by and by. They fool
375 me to the top of my bent. I will come by and by.

LORD POLONIUS

I will say so.

HAMLET

By and by is easily said.

Exit POLONIUS

Leave me, friends.

Exeunt all but HAMLET

      Tis now the very witching time of night,
380   When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out
      Contagion to this world: now could I drink hot blood,
      And do such bitter business as the day
      Would quake to look on. Soft! now to my mother.
      O heart, lose not thy nature; let not ever
385   The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom:
      Let me be cruel, not unnatural:
      I will speak daggers to her, but use none;
      My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites;
      How in my words soever she be shent,
390   To give them seals never, my soul, consent!

Exit

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