Hamlet (Modern, Editor’s Version). Internet Shakespeare Editions. University of Victoria. Editor: David Bevington. Adapted by James Sexton.

Scene 1

Enter^[1] King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Lords.

King
And can you by no drift of circumstance^[2]
Get from him why he puts on this confusion,
₁₆₅₀Grating so harshly all his days of quiet
With turbulent and dangerous lunacy?

Rosencrantz
He does confess he feels himself distracted,
But from what cause, ‘a will by no means speak.

Guildenstern
Nor do we find him forward^[3] to be sounded,^[4]
₁₆₅₅But with a crafty madness keeps aloof
When we would bring him on to some confession
Of his true state.

Queen
Did he receive you well?

Rosencrantz
Most like a gentleman.

₁₆₆₀Guildenstern
But with much forcing of his disposition.^[5]

Rosencrantz
Niggard of question,^[6] but of our demands^[7]
Most free in his reply.

Queen
Did you assay him to^[8] any pastime?

Rosencrantz
Madam, it so fell out^[9] that certain players
₁₆₆₅We o’erraught^[10] on the way. Of these we told him,
And there did seem in him a kind of joy
To hear of it. They are about the court,^[11]
And, as I think, they have already order
This night to play before him.

₁₆₇₀Polonius
‘Tis most true,
And he beseeched me to entreat your majesties
To hear and see the matter.

King
With all my heart,and it doth much content me
To hear him so inclined. Good gentlemen,
₁₆₇₅Give him a further edge,^[12] and drive his purpose on
To these delights.

Rosencrantz
We shall, my lord.
Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern [and Lords].

King
Sweet Gertrude, leave us too,
For we have closely^[13] sent for Hamlet hither,
₁₆₈₀That he, as ’twere by accident, may here
Affront^[14] Ophelia.
Her father and myself, lawful espials,^[15]
Will so bestow ourselves that, seeing unseen,
We may of their encounter frankly judge,
And gather by him, as he is behaved,^[16]
₁₆₈₅If’t be th’affliction of his love or no
That thus he suffers for.

Queen
I shall obey you.
And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish
That your good beauties be the happy cause
₁₆₉₀Of Hamlet’s wildness. So shall I hope your virtues
Will bring him to his wonted^[17] way again,
To both your honors.

Ophelia
Madam, I wish it may.
[Exit Queen.]

Polonius
Ophelia, walk you here.–Gracious,^[18] so please you,
₁₆₉₅We will bestow ourselves. [To Ophelia, as he gives her a book] Read on this book,^[19]
That show of such an exercise^[20] may color^[21]
Your loneliness. We are oft to blame in this,
‘Tis too much proved,^[22] that with devotion’s visage
And pious action we do sugar o’er
₁₇₀₀The devil himself.

King
[Aside] Oh, ’tis too true!^[23]
How smart^[24] a lash that speech doth give my conscience!
The harlot’s cheek, beautied with plast’ring art,^[25]
Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it^[26]
₁₇₀₅Than is my deed to my most painted word.
Oh, heavy burden!
Enter Hamlet.

Polonius
I hear him coming. Let’s withdraw, my lord.
[The King and Polonius conceal themselves.]

₁₇₁₀Hamlet
To be, or not to be, that is the question,
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings^[27] and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep–
₁₇₁₅No more–and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to; ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep;
To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there’s the rub,^[28]
₁₇₂₀For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil^[29]
Must give us pause. There’s the respect^[30]
That makes calamity of so long life.^[31]
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
₁₇₂₅Th’oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,^[32]
The pangs of disprized^[33] love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office,^[34] and the spurns^[35]
That patient merit of th’unworthy takes,^[36]
When he himself might his quietus make^[37]
₁₇₃₀With a bare bodkin?^[38] Who would these fardels^[39] bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country from whose bourn^[40]
No traveler returns, puzzles the will,
₁₇₃₅And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of.
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution^[41]
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,^[42]
₁₇₄₀And enterprises of great pith^[43] and moment^[44]
With this regard^[45] their currents^[46] turn awry^[47]
And lose the name of action. Soft you now,^[48]
The fair Ophelia!–Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remembered.^[49]

₁₇₄₅Ophelia
Good my lord,
How does your honor for this many a day?

Hamlet
I humbly thank you, well, well, well.

Ophelia
My lord, I have remembrances of yours
That I have longèd long to redeliver.
₁₇₅₀I pray you now receive them.

Hamlet
No, not I. I never gave you aught.^[50]

Ophelia
My honored lord, you know right well you did,
And with them words of so sweet breath composed
As made these things more rich. Their perfume lost,
₁₇₅₅Take these again, for to the noble mind
Rich gifts wax^[51] poor when givers prove unkind,
There, my lord. [She offers Hamlet the remembrances.]

Hamlet
Ha, ha! Are you honest?^[52]

Ophelia
My lord?

₁₇₆₀Hamlet
Are you fair?^[53]

Ophelia
What means your lordship?

Hamlet
That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should admit no discourse to
your beauty.^[54]

Ophelia
₁₇₆₅Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce^[55] than with honesty?

Hamlet
Ay, truly, for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it
is to a bawd than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness.^[56]
₁₇₇₀This was sometime a paradox,^[57] but now the time gives it proof. I did love
you once.

Ophelia
Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.

Hamlet
You should not have believed me, for virtue cannot so inoculate our old
stock but we shall relish of it.^[58] I loved you not.

₁₇₇₅Ophelia
I was the more deceived.

Hamlet
Get thee to a nunnery.^[59] Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? I am
myself indifferent honest,^[60] but yet I could accuse me^[61] of such things that it
₁₇₈₀were better my mother had not borne me: I am very proud, revengeful,
ambitious, with more offenses at my beck^[62] than I have thoughts to put them
in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in. What should such
fellows as I do crawling between heaven and earth? We are arrant^[63] knaves,
₁₇₈₅all; believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery. Where’s your father?

Ophelia
At home, my lord.

Hamlet
Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the fool nowhere but in’s
own house. Farewell.

Ophelia
Oh, help him, you sweet heavens!

₁₇₉₀Hamlet
If thou dost marry, I’ll give thee this plague for thy dowry: be thou as chaste
as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny.^[64] Get thee to a
nunnery. Go, farewell. Or if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool, for wise
₁₇₉₅men know well enough what monsters^[65] you make^[66] of them. To a nunnery go,
and quickly too. Farewell.

Ophelia
O heavenly powers, restore him!

Hamlet
I have heard of your paintings^[67] too, well enough. God hath given you one face,
₁₈₀₀and you make yourselves another. You jig, you amble, and you lisp,^[68] and
nickname God’s creatures,^[69] and make your wantonness your ignorance.^[70] Go
to,^[71] I’ll no more on’t;^[72] it hath made me mad. I say we will have no more
marriages. Those that are married already, all but one,^[73] shall live; the rest
₁₈₀₅shall keep as they are. To a nunnery, go.
Exit.

Ophelia
Oh, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown!
The courtier’s, soldier’s, scholar’s, eye, tongue, sword,^[74]
Th’expectancy and rose^[75] of the fair state,
The glass of fashion and the mold of form,^[76]
₁₈₁₀Th’observed of all observers,^[77] quite, quite down,
And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,
That sucked the honey of his music vows,
Now see that noble and most sovereign reason^[78]
Like sweet bells jangled out of tune and harsh,
₁₈₁₅That unmatched form and feature of blown youth^[79]
Blasted with ecstasy.^[80] Oh, woe is me
T’have seen what I have seen, see what I see!
Enter King and Polonius [stepping forward from concealment].

King
Love? His affections^[81] do not that way tend,
₁₈₂₀Nor what he spake, though it lacked form a little,
Was not like madness. There’s something in his soul
O’er which his melancholy sits on brood,^[82]
And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose^[83]
Will be some danger; which to prevent,
₁₈₂₅I have in quick determination
Thus set it down:^[84] he shall with speed to England
For the demand of our neglected tribute.
Haply^[85] the seas, and countries different,
With variable objects,^[86] shall expel
₁₈₃₀This something-settled^[87] matter in his heart,
Whereon his brains still^[88] beating puts him thus
From fashion of himself.^[89] What think you on’t?

Polonius
It shall do well.But yet do I believe
The origin and commencement of his grief
₁₈₃₅Sprung from neglected love.–How now, Ophelia?
You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet said,
We heard it all.–My lord, do as you please,
But if you hold it fit, after the play
Let his queen-mother all alone entreat him
₁₈₄₀To show his grief. Let her be round^[90] with him,
And I’ll be placed (so please you) in the ear
Of all their conference. If she find him not,^[91]
To England send him, or confine him where
Your wisdom best shall think.

₁₈₄₅King
It shall be so;
Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.
Exeunt.

Scene 2

Enter^[92] Hamlet, and two or three of the Players.

Hamlet
₁₈₅₀Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the
tongue; but if you mouth^[93] it, as many of your players^[94] do, I had as lief^[95] the
town crier^[96] had spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand,
thus, but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say,
₁₈₅₅whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget^[97] a temperance that may
give it smoothness. Oh, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious^[98] periwig-
pated^[99] fellowtear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the
₁₈₆₀groundlings, who for the most part are capable of^[100] nothing but inexplicable
dumb-shows and noise.^[101] I would have such a fellow whipped for o’erdoing
Termagant.^[102] It out-Herods Herod.^[103] Pray you avoid it.

Player
I warrant^[104] your honor.

Hamlet
₁₈₆₅Be 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 observance, that
you o’erstep not the modesty of nature. For anything so o’erdone is from the
purpose^[105] of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is to hold
₁₈₇₀as ’twere the mirror up to nature, to show virtue her own feature, scorn her
own image,^[106] and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure.^[107]
Now this overdone, or come tardy off,^[108] though it make the unskillful^[109] laugh,
₁₈₇₅cannot but make the judicious grieve, the censure of the which one must in
your allowance o’erweigh a whole theater of others. Oh, there be players that
I have seen play, and heard others praise, and that highly, not to speak it
profanely,^[110] that, neither having th’accent of Christians nor the gait of
₁₈₈₀Christian, pagan, nor no man, have so strutted and bellowed that I have
thought some of nature’s journeymen^[111] had made men, and not made them
well, they imitated humanity so abominably.

Player
₁₈₈₅I hope we have reformed that indifferently^[112] with us, sir.

Hamlet
Oh, reform it altogether. And let those that play your clowns speak no more
than is set down for them; for there be of them that will themselves laugh, to
₁₈₉₀set on^[113] some quantity of barren^[114] spectators to laugh too, though in the
meantime some necessary question of the play be then to be considered.
That’s villainous, and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it.
Go make you ready.
Exeunt Players.
Enter Polonius, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern.
₁₈₉₅[To Polonius] How now, my lord,
will the King hear this piece of work?

Polonius
And the Queen too, and that presently.^[115]

Hamlet
Bid the players make haste.
Exit Polonius.
Will you two help to hasten them?

₁₉₀₀Rosencrantz and 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^[116] as just^[117] a man
₁₉₀₅As e’er my conversation coped withal.^[118]

Horatio
Oh, 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
₁₉₁₀To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be flattered?
No, let the candied^[119] tongue lick absurd pomp
And crook the pregnant^[120] hinges of the knee
Where thrift may follow fawning.^[121] Dost thou hear?
Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice
₁₉₁₅And could of men distinguish her election,
Sh’hath sealed thee for herself,^[122] for thou hast been
As one in suff’ring all that suffers nothing,
A man that Fortune’s buffets and rewards
Hast ta’en with equal thanks; and blest are those
₁₉₂₀Whose blood and judgment^[123] are so well commingled
That they are not a pipe for Fortune’s finger
To sound what stop^[124] 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,
₁₉₂₅As I do thee.–Something too much of this.–^[125]
There is a play tonight 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 see’st that act afoot,
₁₉₃₀Even with the very comment of thy soul^[126]
Observe my uncle. If his occulted^[127] guilt
Do not itself unkennel^[128] in one speech,^[129]
It is a damnèd ghost that we have seen,
And my imaginations are as foul
₁₉₃₅As Vulcan’s stithy.^[130] 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,
₁₉₄₀If ‘a steal aught the whilst this play is playing
And scape detecting, I will pay the theft.^[131]
Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and
₁₉₄₅other lord attendant with his Guard carrying torches. Danish march.
Sound a flourish.

Hamlet
They are coming to the play. I must be idle.^[132] Get you a place.

King
How fares our cousin Hamlet?^[133]

Hamlet
₁₉₅₀Excellent, i’faith, of the chameleon’s dish; I eat the air, promise-crammed.^[134]
You cannot feed capons^[135] so.

King
I have nothing with^[136] this answer, Hamlet. These words are not mine.^[137]

Hamlet
No, nor mine now.^[138] [To Polonius] My lord, you played once i’th’ university, you say?

₁₉₅₅Polonius
That I did, my lord, and was accounted a good actor.

Hamlet
And what did you enact?

Polonius
I did enact Julius Caesar. I was killed i’th’ Capitol. Brutus killed me.

₁₉₆₀Hamlet
It was a brute^[139] part^[140] of him to kill so capital a calf^[141] there.–Be the players
ready?

Rosencrantz
Ay, my lord, they stay upon your patience.^[142]

Queen
Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me.

Hamlet
No, good mother, here’s mettle^[143] more attractive.

₁₉₆₅Polonius
[To the King] Oho, do you mark that?

Hamlet
[To Ophelia, as he lies at her feet] Lady, shall I lie in your lap?^[144]

Ophelia
No, my lord.

Hamlet
I mean, my head upon your lap.

Ophelia
Ay, my lord.

₁₉₇₀Hamlet
Do you think I meant country matters?^[145]

Ophelia
I think nothing, my lord.

Hamlet
That’s a fair thought to lie between maids’ legs.

Ophelia
What is, my lord?

Hamlet
Nothing.^[146]

₁₉₇₅Ophelia
You are merry, my lord.

Hamlet
Who, I?

Ophelia
Ay, my lord.

Hamlet
Oh, God, your only jig-maker.^[147] What should a man do but be merry? For
₁₉₈₀look you how cheerfully my mother looks, and my father died within’s^[148] 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.^[149] Oh,
₁₉₈₅heavens! Die two months ago, and not forgotten yet? Then there’s hope a
great man’s memory may outlive his life half a year. But, by’r Lady, ‘a must
build churches then, or else shall ‘a suffer not thinking on, with the hobby-
horse,^[150] whose epitaph is, “For oh, for oh, the hobby-horse is forgot.”
₁₉₉₀Hautboys play. The dumb-show enters. Enter [Players as] a King and
Queen very lovingly; the Queen embracing him. She kneels and makes show
of protestation unto him. He takes her up, and declines his head upon her
₁₉₉₅neck. 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, pours poison in
the King’s ears, and exits. The Queen returns, finds the King dead, and
makes passionate action. The Poisoner, with some two or three mutes, comes
₂₀₀₀in again, seeming to lament with her. The dead body is carried away. The
Poisoner woos the Queen with gifts. She seems loath and unwilling awhile,
but in the end accepts his love.
Exeunt [Players].

Ophelia
What means this, my lord?

Hamlet
₂₀₀₅Marry, this is miching mallico.^[151] It means mischief.

Ophelia
Belike^[152] this show imports the argument of the play.^[153]
Enter [a Player as] Prologue.

Hamlet
We shall know by this fellow. The players cannot keep counsel;^[154] they’ll tell
all.

₂₀₁₀Ophelia
Will ‘a tell us what this show meant?

Hamlet
Ay, or any show that you will show him. Be not you^[155] ashamed to show, he’ll not
shame to tell you what it means.

Ophelia
₂₀₁₅You are naught,^[156] you are naught. I’ll mark^[157] the play.

Prologue
For us and for our tragedy,
Here stooping to your clemency,
We beg your hearing patiently.
[Exit.]

₂₀₂₀Hamlet
Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring?^[158]

Ophelia
‘Tis brief, my lord.

Hamlet
As woman’s love.
Enter [two Players as] King and his Queen.

King
Full thirty times hath Phoebus’ cart^[159] gone round
₂₀₂₅Neptune’s salt wash^[160] and Tellus’ orbèd ground,^[161]
And thirty dozen moons with borrowed sheen^[162]
About the world have times twelve thirties^[163] been
Since love our hearts and Hymen^[164] did our hands
Unite commutual^[165] in most sacred bands.^[166]

₂₀₃₀Queen
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,
That I distrust you.^[167] Yet though I distrust,
₂₀₃₅Discomfort you, my lord, it nothing must.^[168]
_2035.1For women fear too much, even as they love,^[169]
And women’s fear and love holds quantity:
In neither aught, or in extremity.^[170]
Now what my love is, proof^[171] hath made you know,
And as my love is sized, my fear is so.^[172]
_2039.1Where love is great, the littlest^[173] doubts are fear;
Where little fears grow great, great love grows there.

₂₀₄₀King
Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly too;
My operant powers their functions leave to do.^[174]
And thou shalt live in this fair world behind,^[175]
Honored, beloved; and haply one as kind
For husband shalt thou–^[176]

₂₀₄₅Queen
Oh, confound the rest!
Such love must needs be treason in my breast.
In second husband let me be accurst!
None^[177] wed the second but who^[178] killed the first.

Hamlet
Wormwood, wormwood.^[179]

₂₀₅₀Queen
The instances^[180] that second marriage move^[181]
Are base respects of thrift,^[182] but none of love.
A second time I kill my husband dead
When second husband kisses me in bed.

King
I do believe you think what now you speak,
₂₀₅₅But what we do determine, oft we break.
Purpose is but the slave to memory,^[183]
Of violent birth, but poor validity,^[184]
Which now like fruit unripe^[185] sticks on the tree,
But fall unshaken when they mellow be.
₂₀₆₀Most necessary ’tis that we forget
To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt.^[186]
What to ourselves in passion we propose,
The passion ending, doth the purpose lose.
The violence of either grief or joy
₂₀₆₅Their own enactures^[187] with themselves destroy.^[188]
Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament;
Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident.^[189]
This world is not for aye,^[190] nor ’tis not strange
That even our loves should with our fortunes change;
₂₀₇₀For ’tis a question left us yet to prove
Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love.^[191]
The great man down,^[192] you mark his favorites flies;^[193]
The poor advanced makes friends of enemies;^[194]
And hitherto^[195] doth love on fortune tend,^[196]
₂₀₇₅For who not needs^[197] shall never lack a friend,
And who in want a hollow friend doth try^[198]
Directly seasons him^[199] his enemy.
But orderly to end where I begun,^[200]
Our wills and fates do so contrary run^[201]
₂₀₈₀That our devices still^[202] are overthrown;
Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own.^[203]
So, think^[204] thou wilt no second husband wed,
But die thy thoughts^[205] when thy first lord is dead.

Queen
Nor earth to me give^[206] food, nor heaven light,
₂₀₈₅Sport and repose lock from me day and night,^[207]
_2085.1To desperation turn my trust and hope,
An anchor’s cheer in prison be my scope!^[208]
Each opposite that blanks the face of joy
Meet what I would have well, and it destroy!^[209]
Both here and hence pursue me lasting strife,^[210]
If once a widow, ever I be wife!

₂₀₉₀Hamlet
If she should break it now!^[211]

King
‘Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here awhile.
My spirits grow dull, and fain^[212] I would beguile
The tedious day with sleep.

₂₀₉₅Queen
Sleep rock thy brain,
And never come mischance between us twain!
[The Player King] sleeps. Exit [Player Queen].

Hamlet
Madam, how like you this play?

Queen
The lady doth protest too much,^[213] methinks.

Hamlet
Oh, but she’ll keep her word.

₂₁₀₀King
Have you heard the argument?^[214] Is there no offense in’t?

Hamlet
No, no, they do but jest,^[215] poison in jest. No offense^[216] i’th’ world.

King
What do you call the play?

₂₁₀₅Hamlet
The Mousetrap.^[217] Marry, how? Tropically.^[218] This play is the image of a murder
done in Vienna. Gonzago is the Duke’s^[219] name, his wife Baptista. You shall
see anon. ‘Tis a knavish piece of work, but what of that? Your majesty and
₂₁₁₀we that have free^[220] souls, it touches^[221] us not. Let the galled jade wince, our
withers are unwrung.^[222]
Enter Lucianus.
This is one Lucianus, nephew to the King.

Ophelia
You are as good as a chorus,^[223] my lord.

Hamlet
₂₁₁₅I could interpret between you and your love if I could see the puppets
dallying.^[224]

Ophelia
You are keen,^[225] my lord, you are keen.

Hamlet
It would cost you a groaning to take off mine edge.^[226]

Ophelia
Still better and worse.^[227]

₂₁₂₀Hamlet
So you mis-take your husbands.^[228]–Begin, murderer. Pox, leave^[229] thy damnable faces^[230]
and begin. Come, the croaking raven doth bellow for revenge.

Lucianus
₂₁₂₅Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing,
Confederate season, else no creature seeing,^[231]
Thou mixture rank,^[232] of midnight weeds collected,
With Hecate’s ban^[233] thrice blasted,^[234] thrice infected,
Thy natural magic and dire property^[235]
₂₁₃₀On wholesome life usurp immediately.
Pours the poison in his ears. Exit.

Hamlet
‘A poisons him i’th’ garden for his estate.^[236] His name’s Gonzago. The story is
extant, and written in very choice Italian. You shall see anon how the murderer gets
₂₁₃₅the love of Gonzago’s wife.

Ophelia
The King rises.

Hamlet
What, frighted with false fire?

Queen
How fares my lord?

Polonius
Give o’er the play.

₂₁₄₀King
Give me some light. Away!

The Courtiers
Lights, lights, lights!
Exeunt all but Hamlet and Horatio.

Hamlet
“Why, let the strucken deer go weep,
The heart ungallèd^[237] play,
₂₁₄₅For some must watch^[238] while some must sleep;
Thus runs the world away.”^[239][240]
Would not this,^[241] sir, and a forest of feathers^[242]–if the rest of my fortunes turn
Turk with me^[243]–with two provincial roses^[244] on my razed^[245] shoes, get me a
₂₁₅₀fellowship in a cry of players, sir?

Horatio
Half a share.

Hamlet
A whole one, I.
For thou dost know, O Damon^[246] dear,
This realm dismantled was of Jove himself,
₂₁₅₅And now reigns here
A very, very pajock.^[247][248]

Horatio
You might have rhymed.

Hamlet
O good Horatio, I’ll take the Ghost’s word for a thousand pound. Didst
perceive?

₂₁₆₀Horatio
Very well, my lord.

Hamlet
Upon the talk of the poisoning?

Horatio
I did very well note him.
Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Hamlet
Aha, come, some music! Come, the recorders.^[249]
₂₁₆₅For if the King like not the comedy,
Why, then belike^[250] he likes it not, pardie.^[251]
Come, some music.

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

Hamlet
Sir a whole history.

₂₁₇₀Guildenstern
The King, sir–

Hamlet
Ay, sir, what of him?

Guildenstern
Is in his retirement^[252] marvelous distempered.^[253]

Hamlet
With drink,^[254] sir?

Guildenstern
No, my lord, rather with choler.^[255]

₂₁₇₅Hamlet
Your wisdom should show itself more richer^[256] to signify this to his doctor, for,
for me to put him to his purgation would perhaps plunge him into far more
choler.^[257]

Guildenstern
₂₁₈₀Good my lord, put your discourse into some frame,^[258] and start^[259] not so wildly
from my affair.

Hamlet
I am tame sir. Pronounce.

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

Hamlet
You are welcome.

₂₁₈₅Guildenstern
Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the right breed.^[260] If it shall please
you to make me a wholesome^[261] answer, I will do your mother’s
commandment. If not, your pardon^[262] and my return shall be the end of my
business.

₂₁₉₀Hamlet
Sir, I cannot.

Guildenstern
What, my lord?

Hamlet
Make you a wholesome answer; my wit’s diseased. But, sir, such answer as
I can make, you shall command, or rather, as you say, my mother.^[263] Therefore no
₂₁₉₅ more, but to the matter. My mother, you say.

Rosencrantz
Then thus she says: your behavior hath struck her into amazement and
admiration.

Hamlet
Oh, wonderful son, that can so ‘stonish a mother! But is there no sequel at
₂₂₀₀the heels of this mother’s admiration?^[264] Impart.^[265]

Rosencrantz
She desires to speak with you in her closet^[266] ere you go to bed.

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

₂₂₀₅Rosencrantz
My lord, you once did love me.

Hamlet
So I do still, by these pickers and stealers.^[267]

Rosencrantz
Good my lord, what is your cause of distemper?^[268] You do surely bar the door
upon your own liberty if you deny your griefs to^[269] your friend.

₂₂₁₀Hamlet
Sir, I lack advancement.

Rosencrantz
How can that be, when you have the voice of the King himself for your
succession in Denmark?
₂₂₁₅Enter the Players, with recorders.

Hamlet
Ay, sir, but “while the grass grows”^[270]–the proverb is something^[271] musty.
–Oh, the recorders. Let me see one. [He takes a recorder.] To withdraw with you,
why do you go about to recover the wind of me,^[272] as if you would drive me
into a toil?

Guildenstern
₂₂₂₀Oh, my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is too unmannerly.^[273]

Hamlet
I do not well understand that.^[274] Will you play upon this pipe?

Guildenstern
My lord, I cannot.

Hamlet
I pray you.

₂₂₂₅Guildenstern
Believe me, I cannot.

Hamlet
I do beseech you.

Guildenstern
I know no touch of it, my lord.

Hamlet
It is as easy as lying. Govern these ventages^[275] with your fingers and thumb,
₂₂₃₀give 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 utt’rance of harmony. I have not the
skill.

Hamlet
₂₂₃₅Why, 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,^[276] you would sound me^[277] from my lowest note to the top of
my compass, and there is much music, excellent voice in this little organ,^[278]
₂₂₄₀yet cannot you make it speak. ‘Sblood,^[279] do you think I am easier to be played on
than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, you
cannot play upon me.^[280]
Enter Polonius.
[To Polonius, as he enters] God bless you, sir.

₂₂₄₅Polonius
My lord, the Queen would speak with you, and presently.^[281]

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

Polonius
By th’ mass, and ’tis like^[282] a camel indeed.

₂₂₅₀Hamlet
Methinks it is like a weasel.

Polonius
It is backed like a weasel.

Hamlet
Or like a whale.

Polonius
Very like a whale.

Hamlet
₂₂₅₅Then I will come to my mother by and by.^[283] [Aside] They fool me to the top
of my bent.^[284]
[Aloud] I will come by and by.

Polonius
I will say so.
Exit.

Hamlet
“By and by” is easily said.–Leave me, friends.^[285]
Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
‘Tis now the very witching time^[286] of night,
₂₂₆₀When churchyards yawn, and hell itself breathes out
Contagion^[287] 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!^[288] Let not ever
₂₂₆₅The soul of Nero^[289] enter this firm^[290] 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 somever she be shent,
₂₂₇₀To give them seals never my soul consent!^[291]
Exit.

Scene 3

Enter^[292] King, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern.

King
I like him^[293] not, nor stands it safe with us
To let his madness range.^[294] Therefore prepare you.
I your commission will forthwith dispatch,^[295]
₂₂₇₅And he to England shall along with you.
The terms of our estate may not endure
Hazard so dangerous as doth hourly grow
Out of his lunacies.^[296]

Guildenstern
We will ourselves provide.^[297]
₂₂₈₀Most holy and religious fear^[298] it is
To keep those many many bodies^[299] safe
That live and feed upon your majesty.

Rosencrantz
The single and peculiar^[300] life is bound
₂₂₈₅With all the strength and armor of the mind
To keep itself from noyance,^[301] but much more
That spirit^[302] upon whose weal^[303] depends and rests
The lives of many. The cease^[304] of majesty
Dies not alone, but like a gulf^[305] doth draw
₂₂₉₀What’s near it with it. It is a massy^[306] wheel
Fixed on the summit of the highest mount,
To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things
Are mortised and adjoined,^[307] which, when it falls,^[308]
Each small annexment, petty consequence,^[309]
₂₂₉₅Attends^[310] the boist’rous^[311] ruin. Never alone
Did the king sigh, but with a general groan.

King
Arm you, I pray you, to^[312] this speedy voyage,
For we will fetters put upon this fear
Which now goes too free-footed.

₂₃₀₀Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
We will haste us.
Exeunt gentlemen [Rosencrantz and Guildenstern].
Enter Polonius.

Polonius
My lord, he’s going to his mother’s closet.^[313]
Behind the arras^[314] I’ll convey myself
To hear the process.^[315] I’ll warrant^[316] she’ll tax him home.^[317]
₂₃₀₅And, as you said–and wisely was it said–
‘Tis meet^[318] that some more audience than a mother,
Since nature makes them partial,^[319] should o’erhear
The speech of vantage.^[320] Fare you well, my liege.^[321]
I’ll call upon you ere you go to bed,
₂₃₁₀And tell you what I know.

King
Thanks, dear my lord.
Exit [Polonius].
Oh, my offense is rank! It smells to heaven.
It hath the primal eldest curse^[322] upon’t,
A brother’s murder. Pray can I not,
₂₃₁₅Though inclination be as sharp as will;^[323]
My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent,
And like a man to double business bound^[324]
I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
And both neglect. What if this cursèd hand
₂₃₂₀Were thicker than itself with brother’s blood,^[325]
Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens
To wash it white as snow?^[326] Whereto serves mercy
But to confront the visage of offense?^[327]
And what’s in prayer but this twofold force,
₂₃₂₅To be forestallèd^[328] ere we come to fall,
Or pardoned being down? Then I’ll look up.
My fault is past.^[329] But, oh, what form of prayer
Can serve my turn? “Forgive me my foul murder”?
That cannot be, since I am still possessed
₂₃₃₀Of those effects for which I did the murder:
My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.
May one be pardoned and retain th’offense?^[330]
In the corrupted currents of this world,^[331]
Offense’s gilded hand^[332] may shove by justice,
₂₃₃₅And oft ’tis seen the wicked prize^[333] itself
Buys out the law. But ’tis not so above:
There is no shuffling,^[334] there the action lies
In his^[335] true nature,^[336] and we ourselves compelled,
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,^[337]
₂₃₄₀To give in evidence.^[338] What then? What rests?^[339]
Try what repentance can.^[340] What can it not?
Yet what can it, when one cannot repent?
O wretched state, O bosom black as death,
O limèd^[341] soul, that, struggling to be free,
₂₃₄₅Art more engaged!^[342] Help, angels! Make assay.^[343]
Bow, stubborn knees, and heart with strings of steel,
Be soft as sinews of the newborn babe!
All may be well.
[He kneels.]
Enter Hamlet.

₂₃₅₀Hamlet
Now might I do it pat, now^[344] ‘a^[345] is a-praying,
And now I’ll do’t. [He draws his sword.] And so ‘a goes to heaven,
And so am I revenged. That would be scanned:^[346]
A villain kills my father, and for that,
I, his sole son, do this same villain send
₂₃₅₅To heaven.
Why, this is hire and salary, not revenge.
‘A took my father grossly, full of bread,^[347]
With all his crimes broad blown,^[348] as flush^[349] as May,
And how his audit^[350] stands, who knows save^[351] heaven?
But in our circumstance and course of thought^[352]
₂₃₆₀‘Tis heavy with him. And am I then revenged
To take him^[353] in the purging of his soul,
When he is fit and seasoned^[354] for his passage? No.
[He sheathes his sword.]
Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent.^[355]
When he is drunk asleep,^[356] or in his rage,^[357]
₂₃₆₅Or in th’incestuous pleasure of his bed,
At gaming, swearing,^[358] or about some act
That has no relish^[359] of salvation in’t,
Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven,^[360]
And that his soul may be as damned and black
₂₃₇₀As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays.^[361]
This physic^[362] but prolongs thy sickly days.
Exit.

King
My words fly up, my thoughts remain below.
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.
Exit.

Scene 4

Enter^[363] Queen [Gertrude] and Polonius.

₂₃₇₅Polonius
‘A will come straight. Look you lay home to him.^[364]
Tell him his pranks have been too broad^[365] to bear with,
And that your grace hath screened and stood between
Much heat and him. I’ll silence me e’en here.
₂₃₈₀Pray you, be round with him.^[366]

Hamlet
[Within.]
Mother, mother, mother!

Queen
I’ll warrant you. Fear me not.^[367]
Withdraw; I hear him coming.
[Polonius conceals himself behind the arras.]
Enter Hamlet.

₂₃₈₅Hamlet
Now mother, what’s the matter?

Queen
Hamlet, thou hast thy father^[368] much offended.

Hamlet
Mother, you^[369] have my father^[370] much offended.

Queen
Come, come, you answer with an idle^[371] tongue.

Hamlet
Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.

₂₃₉₀Queen
Why, how now,^[372] Hamlet?

Hamlet
What’s the matter now?

Queen
Have you forgot me?^[373]

Hamlet
No, by the rood,^[374] not so.
You are the queen, your husband’s brother’s wife,
₂₃₉₅And–would it were not so!–you are my mother.

Queen
Nay, then, I’ll set those to you that can speak.^[375]

Hamlet
Come, come, and sit you down. You shall not budge.
You go not till I set you up a glass^[376]
₂₄₀₀Where you may see the inmost part of you.

Queen
What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murder me?
Help, help, ho!

Polonius
[Behind the arras] What ho! Help, help, help!

Hamlet
How now, a rat? Dead for a ducat, dead!^[377]
[Hamlet thrusts through the arras with his sword.]^[378]

₂₄₀₅Polonius
[Behind the arras] Oh, I am slain!
[Polonius falls onto the stage floor, dead].

Queen
Oh, me, what hast thou done?

Hamlet
Nay I know not. Is it the King?

Queen
Oh, what a rash and bloody deed is this!

Hamlet
A bloody deed–almost as bad, good mother,
₂₄₁₀As kill^[379] a king, and marry with his brother.

Queen
As kill a king?

Hamlet
Ay, lady, it was my word.
[He parts the arras and discovers the dead Polonius.]
Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!
I took thee for thy better.^[380] Take thy fortune.
₂₄₁₅Thou find’st to be too busy^[381] is some danger.
[To the Queen] Leave wringing of your hands. Peace, sit you down,
And let me wring your heart, for so I shall
If it be made of penetrable stuff,^[382]
If damnèd custom^[383] have not brazed^[384] it so
₂₄₂₀That it is proof and bulwark against sense.^[385]

Queen
What have I done, that thou dar’st wag thy tongue
In noise so rude against me?

Hamlet
Such an act
That blurs the grace and blush of modesty,
₂₄₂₅Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the rose
From the fair forehead of an innocent love
And sets a blister^[386] there, makes marriage vows
As false as dicers’ oaths–oh, such a deed
As from the body of contraction^[387] plucks
₂₄₃₀The very soul, and sweet religion makes
A rhapsody of words.^[388] Heaven’s face doth glow
O’er this solidity and compound mass
With tristful visage, as against the doom,
Is thought-sick at the act.^[389]

₂₄₃₅Queen
Ay me, what act,
That roars so loud and thunders in the index?^[390]

Hamlet
[Showing her two likenesses, of Hamlet senior and Claudius]
Look here upon this picture, and on this,
The counterfeit presentment^[391] of two brothers.
See what a grace was seated on this brow:
₂₄₄₀Hyperion’s^[392] curls, the front^[393] of Jove himself,
An eye like Mars^[394] to threaten and command,
A station^[395] like the herald Mercury^[396]
New lighted^[397] on a heaven-kissing^[398] hill,
A combination and a form indeed
₂₄₄₅Where every god did seem to set his seal^[399]
To give the world assurance of a man.
This was your husband. Look you now what follows:
Here is your husband, like a mildewed ear,^[400]
Blasting^[401] his wholesome brother. Have you eyes?
₂₄₅₀Could you on this fair mountain leave^[402] to feed
And batten on this moor?^[403] Ha, have you eyes?
You cannot call it love, for at your age
The heyday in the blood^[404] is tame, it’s humble,
And waits upon^[405] the judgment, and what judgment
₂₄₅₅Would step from this to this? Sense,^[406] sure, you have,
_2455.1Else could you not have motion, but sure that sense
Is apoplexed,^[407] for madness would not err,^[408]
Nor sense to ecstasy was ne’er so thralled
But it reserved some quantity of choice
_2455.5To serve in such a difference.^[409] What devil was’t
That thus hath cozened you at hoodman-blind?^[410]
_2456.1Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight,
Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans^[411] all,
Or but a sickly part of one true sense
Could not so mope. O shame, where is thy blush?
Rebellious hell,
If thou canst mutine^[412] in a matron’s bones,
To flaming youth let virtue be as wax
₂₄₆₀And melt in her own fire.^[413] Proclaim no shame
When the compulsive ardor gives the charge,
Since frost itself as actively doth burn,
And reason panders will.^[414][415]

Queen
Oh, Hamlet speak no more!
₂₄₆₅Thou turn’st mine eyes into my very soul,
And there I see such black and grainèd^[416] spots
As will not leave their tinct.^[417]

Hamlet
Nay, but to live
In the rank sweat of an enseamèd^[418] bed
₂₄₇₀Stewed^[419] in corruption, honeying^[420] and making love
Over the nasty sty!^[421]

Queen
Oh, speak to me no more!
These words like daggers enter in my ears.
No more, sweet Hamlet.

₂₄₇₅Hamlet
A murderer and a villain,
A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe^[422]
Of your precedent lord,^[423] a vice of kings,^[424]
A cutpurse^[425] of the empire and the rule,^[426]
That from a shelf the precious diadem^[427] stole
₂₄₈₀And put it in his pocket–

Queen
No more!
Enter Ghost [in his nightgown].

Hamlet
A king of shreds and patches–^[428]
[Seeing the Ghost] Save me and hover o’er me with your wings,
₂₄₈₅You heavenly guards! What would you, gracious figure?

Queen
Alas, he’s mad!

Hamlet
Do you not come your tardy son to chide,
That, lapsed in time and passion,^[429] lets go by
Th’important^[430] acting of your dread command?
Oh, say!

₂₄₉₀Ghost
Do not forget. This visitation
Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.
But look, amazement on thy mother sits.
Oh, step between her and her fighting soul!
Conceit^[431] in weakest bodies strongest works.
₂₄₉₅Speak to her, Hamlet.

Hamlet
How is it with you, lady?

Queen
Alas, how is’t with you,
That you do bend your eye on vacancy,
And with th’incorporal^[432] air do hold discourse?
₂₅₀₀Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep,
And, as the sleeping soldiers in th’alarm,^[433]
Your bedded^[434] hair, like life in excrements,^[435]
Start up and stand on end. O gentle^[436] son,
Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper^[437]
₂₅₀₅Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look?

Hamlet
On him, on him! Look you how pale he glares!
His form and cause conjoined,^[438] preaching to stones,^[439]
Would make them capable.^[440] [To the Ghost] Do not look upon me,
Lest with this piteous action you convert
₂₅₁₀My stern effects.^[441] Then what I have to do
Will want true color, tears perchance for blood.

Queen
To whom do you speak this?

Hamlet
Do you see nothing there?

Queen
Nothing at all, yet all that is I see.

₂₅₁₅Hamlet
Nor did you nothing hear?

Queen
No, nothing but ourselves.

Hamlet
Why, look you there, look how it steals away!
My father in his habit^[442] as he lived.
Look where he goes, even now out at the portal!^[443]
Exit Ghost.

₂₅₂₀Queen
This is the very coinage of your brain.
This bodiless creation ecstasy is very cunning in.^[444]

Hamlet
Ecstasy?
My pulse as yours doth temperately keep time,
And makes as healthful music. It is not madness
₂₅₂₅That I have uttered. Bring me to the test,
And I the matter will reword,^[445] which madness
Would gambol from.^[446] Mother, for love of grace,
Lay not that flattering unction^[447] to your soul
That not your trespass but my madness speaks.
₂₅₃₀It will but skin and film^[448] the ulcerous place,
Whiles rank corruption, mining^[449] all within,
Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven,
Repent what’s past, avoid what is to come,
And do not spread the compost on the weeds
₂₅₃₅To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue,^[450]
For in the fatness^[451] of these pursy times^[452]
Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg,
Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good.^[453]

Queen
₂₅₄₀Oh, Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain.^[454]

Hamlet
Oh, throw away the worser part of it,
And live the purer with the other half.
Good night. But go not to my uncle’s bed;
Assume^[455] a virtue if you have it not.
_2544.1That monster custom, who all sense doth eat,^[456]
Of habits devil,^[457] is angel yet in this,
That to the use of actions fair and good
He likewise gives a frock or livery^[458]
_2544.5That aptly^[459] is put on. Refrain tonight,
₂₅₄₅And that shall lend a kind of easiness
To the next abstinence; the next more easy:
_2546.1For use almost can change the stamp of nature,^[460]
And either [in] the devil,^[461] or throw him out
With wondrous potency. Once more good night,
And when you are desirous to be blest,
I’ll blessing beg of you.^[462] For^[463] this same lord,
I do repent; but heaven hath pleased it so
₂₅₅₀To punish me with this, and this with me,^[464]
That I must be their scourge and minister.^[465]
I will bestow him,^[466] and will answer well^[467]
The death I gave him. So, again, good night.
I must be cruel only to be kind.
₂₅₅₅Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.^[468]
_2555.1One word more, good lady.

Queen
What shall I do?

Hamlet
Not this, by no means, that I bid you do:
Let the bloat^[469] King tempt you again to bed,
Pinch wanton on your cheek,^[470] call you his mouse,^[471]
₂₅₆₀And let him, for a pair of reechy^[472] kisses,
Or paddling^[473] in your neck^[474] with his damned fingers,
Make you to ravel all this matter out^[475]
That I essentially am not in madness,
But mad in craft.^[476] ‘Twere good^[477] you let him know,
₂₅₆₅For who that’s but a queen, fair, sober, wise,
Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib,
Such dear concernings hide?^[478] Who would do so?
No, in dispite of sense and secrecy,^[479]
Unpeg the basket on the house’s top,
₂₅₇₀Let the birds fly, and like the famous ape,
To try conclusions, in the basket creep,
And break your own neck down.^[480][481]

Queen
Be thou assured, if words be made of breath
And breath of life, I have no life to breathe^[482]
₂₅₇₅What thou hast said to me.

Hamlet
I must to England. You know that?

Queen
Alack, I had forgot. ‘Tis so concluded on.

_2577.1Hamlet
There’s letters sealed, and my two schoolfellows,
Whom I will trust as I will adders fanged,
They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way^[483]
And marshal me to knavery.^[484] Let it work,^[485]
_2577.5For ’tis the sport^[486] to have the enginer^[487]
Hoised with his own petard,^[488] and’t shall go hard
But I will delve one yard below their mines,^[489]
And blow them at the moon.^[490] Oh ’tis most sweet
When in one line two crafts directly meet.^[491]
This man shall set me packing.^[492]
I’ll lug the guts into the neighbor room.
₂₅₈₀Mother, good night indeed. This counselor
Is now most still, most secret, and most grave,^[493]
Who was in life a foolish prating knave.–^[494]
Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you.–^[495]
Good night, mother.
₂₅₈₅Exit Hamlet, tugging in Polonius.