{"id":204,"date":"2019-06-03T16:38:21","date_gmt":"2019-06-03T16:38:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/chapter\/hamlet-act-2\/"},"modified":"2019-08-28T19:22:28","modified_gmt":"2019-08-28T19:22:28","slug":"hamlet-act-2","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/chapter\/hamlet-act-2\/","title":{"raw":"Hamlet: Act 2","rendered":"Hamlet: Act 2"},"content":{"raw":"Hamlet<\/em> (Modern, Editor\u2019s Version). Internet Shakespeare Editions<\/a>. University of Victoria. Editor: David Bevington. Adapted by James Sexton.\n

Scene 1<\/h1>\nEnter<\/em>[footnote]Location: Polonius's apartment in the castle, as in 1.3.[\/footnote] old Polonius, with his man [Reynaldo] or two.<\/em>\n\n890<\/sub>Polonius<\/strong>\nGive him[footnote]Laertes (as confirmed in lines 6 ff.).[\/footnote] this money, and these notes, Reynaldo.\n[He gives money and papers.]<\/em>\n\nReynaldo<\/strong>\nI will, my lord.\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nYou shall do marv'lous wisely, good Reynaldo,\nBefore you visit him, to make inquire[footnote]To inquire.[\/footnote]\nOf his behavior.\n\n895<\/sub>Reynaldo<\/strong>\nMy lord, I did intend it.\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nMarry,[footnote]i.e., By the Virgin Mary. (A mild oath.) As at 1.3.91 (TLN 556) and 1.4.15 (TLN 618) above.[\/footnote] well said, very well said. Look you, sir,\nInquire me[footnote]Inquire on my behalf.[\/footnote] first what Danskers[footnote]Danes.[\/footnote] are in Paris,\nAnd how,[footnote]How they live.[\/footnote] and who, what means,[footnote]What wealth they have.[\/footnote] and where they keep,[footnote]Dwell, frequent.[\/footnote]\n900<\/sub>What company, at what expense; and finding\nBy this encompassment and drift of question[footnote]By this roundabout way of asking questions.[\/footnote]\nThat they do know my son, come you more nearer\nThan your particular demands will touch it;[footnote]You will find out more this way than you would by making pointed inquiries. \"More nearer\" is an emphatic double negative, an acceptable usage in Elizabethan English.[\/footnote]\nTake you,[footnote]Assume, pretend.[\/footnote] as 'twere, some distant knowledge of him,\n905<\/sub>As thus: \"I know his father, and his friends,\nAnd in part him.\" Do you mark this, Reynaldo?\n\nReynaldo<\/strong>\nAy, very well, my lord.\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\n\"And in part him. But,\" you may say, \"not well,\nBut if't be he I mean, he's very wild,\n910<\/sub>Addicted so and so,\" and there put on him[footnote]Impute to him.[\/footnote]\nWhat forgeries[footnote]Invented tales.[\/footnote] you please--marry, none so rank[footnote]Gross.[\/footnote]\nAs may dishonor him, take heed of that,\nBut, sir, such wanton,[footnote]Unrestrained.[\/footnote] wild, and usual slips\nAs are companions noted and most known\n915<\/sub>To youth and liberty.\n\nReynaldo<\/strong>\nAs gaming,[footnote]Gambling.[\/footnote] my lord?\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nAy, or drinking, fencing, swearing,\nQuarreling,[footnote]Picking a quarrel with someone became an obsession with many young men intent on establishing themselves as persons of chivalric honor.[\/footnote] drabbing[footnote]Whoring.[\/footnote]--you may go so far.\n\nReynaldo<\/strong>\nMy lord, that would dishonor him.\n\n920<\/sub>Polonius<\/strong>\nFaith, no, as you may season it in the charge.\nYou must not put another scandal on him\nThat he is open to incontinency[footnote]Chronic sexual overindulgence.[\/footnote];\nThat's not my meaning. But breathe[footnote]Name, utter.[\/footnote] his faults so quaintly[footnote]Artfully, subtly.[\/footnote]\nThat they may seem the taints of liberty,[footnote]Faults arising from too much free living.[\/footnote]\n925<\/sub>The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind,\nA savageness in unreclaim\u00e8d blood,\nOf general assault.[footnote]A wildness in untamed youth that afflicts most young men.[\/footnote]\n\nReynaldo<\/strong>\nBut, my good lord--\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nWherefore should you do this?\n\nReynaldo<\/strong>\nAy, my lord, I would know that.\n\n930<\/sub>Polonius<\/strong>\nMarry sir, here's my drift,\nAnd I believe it is a fetch of warrant.[footnote]A justifiable stratagem.[\/footnote]\nYou laying these slight sullies[footnote]Stains, blemishes.[\/footnote] on my son\nAs 'twere a thing a little soiled i'th' working,[footnote]In the handling.[\/footnote]\nMark you, your party in converse,[footnote]The person you are conversing with.[\/footnote] him you would sound,[footnote]Sound out.[\/footnote]\n935<\/sub>Having ever seen in the prenominate crimes\nThe youth you breathe of guilty,[footnote]If he has ever detected the young man you are asking about to be guilty of the offenses we have just enumerated.[\/footnote] be assured\nHe closes with you in this consequence:[footnote]He takes you into his confidence in the following way.[\/footnote]\n\"Good sir\" (or so), or \"friend,\" or \"gentleman,\"\nAccording to the phrase and the addition\n940<\/sub>Of man and country.\n\nReynaldo<\/strong>\nVery good, my lord.\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nAnd then, sir, does 'a this, 'a does--what was I about to say?\nBy the mass, I was about to say something.\nWhere did I leave?[footnote]Leave off.[\/footnote]\n\n945<\/sub>Reynaldo<\/strong>\nAt \"closes in the consequence.\"\nAt \"friend,\" or so, and \"gentleman.\"\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nAt \"closes in the consequence.\" Ay, marry,\nHe closes with you thus: \"I know the gentleman,\nI saw him yesterday\"--or t'other day,\n950<\/sub>Or then, or then--\"with such and such, and as you say,\nThere was 'a gaming, there o'ertook in's rouse,\nThere falling out[footnote]Quarreling.[\/footnote] at tennis,\" or perchance\n\"I saw him enter such a house of sale[footnote]Whorehouse.[\/footnote],\"\nVidelicet,[footnote]Namely (Latin).[\/footnote] a brothel, or so forth. See you now,\n955<\/sub>Your bait of falsehood takes this carp[footnote]A fish.[\/footnote] of truth,\nAnd thus do we of wisdom and of reach,\nWith windlasses[footnote]i.e., circuitous paths. (Literally, a hunter's roundabout circuit to head off pursued animals.)[\/footnote] and with assays of bias,[footnote]Indirect courses (resembling the curved path or \"bias\" of the bowling ball that is weighted to one side).[\/footnote]\nBy indirections find directions[footnote]The way things are going.[\/footnote] out;\nSo by my former lecture[footnote]The set of instructions I've just given you.[\/footnote] and advice\n960<\/sub>Shall you my son. You have me,[footnote]Understand me.[\/footnote] have you not?\n\nReynaldo<\/strong>\nMy lord, I have.\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nGod b'wi' ye, fare ye well.[footnote]i.e., God be with you; farewell.[\/footnote]\n\nReynaldo<\/strong>\nGood my lord.\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nObserve his inclination in yourself.[footnote]Take a personal interest in observing his habits; judge his behavior from the perspective of your knowledge of your own inclinations.[\/footnote]\n\n965<\/sub>Reynaldo<\/strong>\nI shall, my lord.\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nAnd let him ply his music.\n\nReynaldo<\/strong>\nWell, my lord.\nExit Reynaldo.<\/em>\nEnter Ophelia.<\/em>\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nFarewell.--How now, Ophelia, what's the matter?\n\nOphelia<\/strong>\nAlas, my lord, I have been so affrighted!\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nWith what, i'th' name of God?\n\nOphelia<\/strong>\nMy lord, as I was sewing in my chamber,\nLord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced,[footnote]Man's close-fitting jacket all unfastened.[\/footnote]\n975<\/sub>No hat upon his head,[footnote]Hats were customarily worn indoors in the Elizabethan period.[\/footnote] his stockings fouled,[footnote]Dirty and untidy.[\/footnote]\nUngartered, and down-gyv\u00e8d to his ankle,[footnote]Hamlet's stockings, no longer held up by garters tied around the knees, have fallen down around his ankles, like a prisoner's \"gyves\" or shackles.[\/footnote]\nPale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other,\nAnd with a look so piteous in purport[footnote]In what it expressed.[\/footnote]\nAs if he had been loos\u00e8d out of hell\n980<\/sub>To speak of horrors, he comes before me.\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nMad for thy love?\n\nOphelia<\/strong>\nMy lord, I do not know,\nBut truly I do fear it.\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nWhat said he?\n\nOphelia<\/strong>\nHe took me by the wrist, and held me hard.\n985<\/sub>Then goes he to the length of all his arm,\nAnd with his other hand thus o'er his brow\nHe falls to such perusal of my face\nAs 'a would draw it. Long stayed he so.\nAt last, a little shaking of mine arm,\n990<\/sub>And thrice his head thus waving up and down,\nHe raised a sigh so piteous and profound\nThat it did seem to shatter all his bulk[footnote]Body.[\/footnote]\nAnd end his being. That done, he lets me go,\nAnd with his head over his shoulder turned\n995<\/sub>He seemed to find his way without his eyes,\nFor out o' doors he went without their help,\nAnd to the last bended their light on me.\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nCome, go with me. I will go seek the King.\nThis is the very ecstasy[footnote]Madness.[\/footnote] of love,\n1000<\/sub>Whose violent property fordoes itself[footnote]Whose violent nature is self-destructive.[\/footnote]\nAnd leads the will to desperate[footnote]Polonius points to the possibility of suicide.[\/footnote] undertakings\nAs oft as any passion under heaven\nThat does afflict our natures. I am sorry.\nWhat, have you given him any hard words of late?\n\n1005<\/sub>Ophelia<\/strong>\nNo, my good lord, but as you did command\nI did repel his letters, and denied\nHis access to me.\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nThat hath made him mad.\nI am sorry that with better heed[footnote]Attentiveness, care.[\/footnote] and judgment\n1010<\/sub>I had not quoted[footnote]Observed.[\/footnote] him. I feared he did but trifle\nAnd meant to wrack[footnote]Ruin, seduce.[\/footnote] thee; but beshrew my jealousy![footnote]A plague on my suspicious nature![\/footnote]\nBy heaven, it is as proper to our age\nTo cast beyond ourselves in our opinions[footnote]I swear, it is as characteristic for old men to overreach and read too much into the things we see.[\/footnote]\nAs it is common for the younger sort\n1015<\/sub>To lack discretion. Come, go we to the King.\nThis must be known,[footnote]Made known to the King.[\/footnote] which, being kept close,[footnote]Concealed.[\/footnote] might move\nMore grief to hide than hate to utter love.[footnote]Might ultimately cause even more unhappiness than would be the result of my well-intended but unwelcome announcing of bad news (about Hamlet's mad love of Ophelia).[\/footnote]\nCome.\nExeunt.<\/em>\n

Scene 2<\/h1>\n1020<\/sub>Flourish. Enter<\/em>[footnote]Location: The castle.[\/footnote] King, Queen, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern [with others].<\/em>\n\nKing<\/strong>\nWelcome, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.\nMoreover that[footnote]Besides the fact that.[\/footnote] we much did long to see you,\nThe need we have to use you did provoke\nOur hasty sending.[footnote]Sending for you.[\/footnote] Something have you heard\n1025<\/sub>Of Hamlet's transformation--so I call it,\nSince not th'exterior nor the inward man\nResembles that[footnote]What.[\/footnote] it was. What it should be,\nMore than his father's death, that thus hath put him\nSo much from th'understanding of himself,\n1030<\/sub>I cannot dream of. I entreat you both\nThat, being of[footnote]From.[\/footnote] so young days brought up with him,\nAnd since so neighbored to his youth and humor,\nThat you vouchsafe your rest[footnote]Consent to stay.[\/footnote] here in our court\nSome little time, so by your companies[footnote]The company of you both.[\/footnote]\n1035<\/sub>To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather\nSo much as from occasions you may glean,[footnote]Opportunities you may gather or infer.[\/footnote]\n1036.1<\/sub>Whether aught to us unknown afflicts him thus\nThat, opened,[footnote]Being revealed.[\/footnote] lies within our remedy.\n\nQueen<\/strong>\nGood gentlemen, he hath much talked of you,\nAnd sure I am two men there is not living\n1040<\/sub>To whom he more adheres. If it will please you\nTo show us so much gentry[footnote]Courtesy.[\/footnote] and good will\nAs to expend your time with us awhile\nFor the supply and profit of our hope,[footnote]In order to aid us in furthering what we hope for.[\/footnote]\nYour visitation shall receive such thanks\n1045<\/sub>As fits a king's remembrance.[footnote]As would be a fitting gift of a king in rewarding your service.[\/footnote]\n\nRosencrantz<\/strong>\nBoth your majesties\nMight, by the sovereign power you have of us,[footnote]Over us.[\/footnote]\nPut your dread pleasures[footnote]The wishes of you who inspire awe and fear.[\/footnote] more into command\nThan to entreaty.\n\n1050<\/sub>Guildenstern<\/strong>\nBut we both obey,\nAnd here give up ourselves in the full bent[footnote]To the utmost extent of which we are capable. (A metaphor from drawing the bow in archery.)[\/footnote]\nTo lay our service freely at your feet\nTo be commanded.\n\nKing<\/strong>\nThanks, Rosencrantz, and gentle Guildenstern.\n\n1055<\/sub>Queen<\/strong>\nThanks, Guildenstern, and gentle Rosencrantz.\nAnd I beseech you instantly to visit\nMy too-much-chang\u00e8d son.--Go, some of you,\nAnd bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is.\n\n1060<\/sub>Guildenstern<\/strong>\nHeavens make our presence and our practices[footnote]Doings.[\/footnote]\nPleasant and helpful to him!\n\nQueen<\/strong>\nAy, amen.\nExeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern [and other Courtiers].<\/em>\nEnter Polonius.<\/em>\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nTh'ambassadors from Norway, my good lord,\n1065<\/sub>Are joyfully returned.\n\nKing<\/strong>\nThou still[footnote]Always.[\/footnote] hast been the father of good news.\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nHave I, my lord? Assure you, my good liege,\nI hold my duty as I hold my soul,\nBoth to my God and to my gracious king;\n1070<\/sub>And I do think--or else this brain of mine\nHunts not the trail of policy[footnote]Statecraft.[\/footnote] so sure\nAs it hath used to do--that I have found\nThe very cause of Hamlet's lunacy.\n\nKing<\/strong>\nOh, speak of that! That do I long to hear.\n\n1075<\/sub>Polonius<\/strong>\nGive first admittance to th'ambassadors.\nMy news shall be the fruit[footnote]The dessert.[\/footnote] to that great feast.\n\nKing<\/strong>\nThyself do grace[footnote]Ceremonious honor. (With a suggestion of a \"grace\" said before a meal, continuing the metaphor of the previous line.)[\/footnote] to them, and bring them in.\n[Polonius goes to bring in the ambassadors.]<\/em>\nHe tells me, my sweet Queen, that he hath found\nThe head[footnote]Source.[\/footnote] and source of all your son's distemper.\n\n1080<\/sub>Queen<\/strong>\nI doubt[footnote]Fear, suspect.[\/footnote] it is no other but the main:\nHis father's death, and our o'erhasty marriage.\nEnter Polonius, Voltemand, and Cornelius.<\/em>\n\nKing<\/strong>\nWell, we shall sift him.[footnote]Question Polonius.[\/footnote]--Welcome, my good friends.\nSay, Voltemand, what from our brother Norway?\n\n1085<\/sub>Voltemand<\/strong>\nMost fair return[footnote]Reciprocation.[\/footnote] of greetings and desires.[footnote]Good wishes.[\/footnote]\nUpon our first,[footnote]At our first presentation of our mission.[\/footnote] he sent out to suppress\nHis nephew's levies,[footnote]Young Fortinbras's raising of troops.[\/footnote] which to him appeared\nTo be a preparation 'gainst the Polack,\nBut, better looked into, he truly found\n1090<\/sub>It was[footnote]He found that it in fact was.[\/footnote] against your highness; whereat grieved\nThat so his sickness, age, and impotence[footnote]Weakness.[\/footnote]\nWas falsely borne in hand,[footnote]Taken advantage of.[\/footnote] sends out arrests[footnote]Orders to desist.[\/footnote]\nOn Fortinbras, which he in brief obeys,\nReceives rebuke from Norway, and, in fine,[footnote]In conclusion.[\/footnote]\n1095<\/sub>Makes vow before his uncle never more\nTo give th'assay of arms[footnote]Make trial of military might.[\/footnote] against your majesty.\nWhereon old Norway, overcome with joy,\nGives him three thousand crowns in annual fee[footnote]Income, payment.[\/footnote]\nAnd his commission to employ those soldiers\n1100<\/sub>So levied (as before) against the Polack,\nWith an entreaty herein further shown\n[Giving a letter to the King]<\/em>\nThat it might please you to give quiet pass[footnote]Safe and uninterrupted passage.[\/footnote]\nThrough your dominions for his enterprise\nOn such regards of safety and allowance[footnote]With such consideration for Denmark's safety and for the permission granted to Fortinbras.[\/footnote]\n1105<\/sub>As therein[footnote]in the document we have just delivered to you.[\/footnote] are set down.\n\nKing<\/strong>\nIt likes[footnote]Pleases.[\/footnote] us well,\nAnd at our more considered[footnote]Suitable for deliberation.[\/footnote] time we'll read,\nAnswer, and think upon this business.\nMeantime, we thank you for your well-took labor.\n1110<\/sub>Go to your rest. At night we'll feast together.\nMost welcome home!\nExeunt Ambassadors.<\/em>\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nThis business is well ended.\nMy liege[footnote]One who is entitled to feudal allegiance or service.[\/footnote] and madam, to expostulate[footnote]Expound, debate.[\/footnote]\nWhat majesty should be, what duty is,\n1115<\/sub>Why day is day, night night, and time is time,\nWere nothing but to waste night, day, and time.\nTherefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,\nAnd tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,[footnote]And since long-windedness can add nothing but decorative rhetorical flourishes.[\/footnote]\nI will be brief. Your noble son is mad.\n1120<\/sub>Mad call I it, for to define true madness,\nWhat is't but to be nothing else but mad?\nBut let that go.\n\nQueen<\/strong>\nMore matter with less art.[footnote]Give us more substance with less artfulness.[\/footnote]\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nMadam, I swear I use no art at all.\n1125<\/sub>That he is mad, 'tis true. 'Tis true 'tis pity,\nAnd pity 'tis 'tis true--a foolish figure,[footnote]Figure of speech.[\/footnote]\nBut farewell it, for I will use no art.\nMad let us grant him, then. And now remains\nThat we find out the cause of this effect,\n1130<\/sub>Or rather say the cause of this defect,\nFor this effect defective comes by cause.[footnote]For this defective behavior in Hamlet must have a cause.[\/footnote]\nThus it remains, and the remainder thus.[footnote]That pretty much sums up the situation, and leaves us to figure out what to make of it, what to do.[\/footnote]\nPerpend.[footnote]Consider.[\/footnote]\nI have a daughter--have whilst she is mine--\nWho in her duty and obedience, mark,\n1135<\/sub>Hath given me this. Now gather and surmise.[footnote]Think about this and draw your own conclusions. (\"Gather\" may also suggest \"gather around me.\")[\/footnote]\n[He reads from] the letter.]<\/em>\n

\"To the celestial and my soul's idol, the most beautified Ophelia.\"\n1140<\/sub>That's an ill phrase, a vile phrase; \"beautified\" is a vile phrase. But\nyou shall hear. \"These in her excellent white bosom, these,\" etc.[footnote]i.e., These words are addressed to the spotlessly white bosom of the one I love. (Young ladies would often keep such love letters in their blouses, next to their hearts.) The \"etc.\" could be a part of the letter, or, more plausibly, Polonius's way of summarizing what he chooses not to read.[\/footnote]<\/p>\nQueen<\/strong>\nCame this from Hamlet to her?\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nGood madam, stay[footnote]Hold on, wait.[\/footnote] awhile, I will be faithful.[footnote]I will do as I said I would.[\/footnote]\n[He reads the] letter.<\/em>\n

\"Doubt thou the stars are fire,[footnote]Suspect or question the undoubted truth that the stars are fire (sooner than doubt my love for you).[\/footnote]\n1145<\/sub>Doubt that the sun doth move,[footnote](This \"undoubted truth\" seems postulated on the traditional Ptolemaic cosmology with the earth at the center of the universe and the sun one celestial body that moves about it.)[\/footnote]\nDoubt truth to be a liar,\nBut never doubt I love.\"<\/p>\n

\"O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers.[footnote]Lacking the skill needed to write verses like these, and too lovesick to do so.[\/footnote] I have not art to reckon[footnote](1) count, enumerate; (2) number metrically, scan.[\/footnote]\nmy groans. But that I love thee best, oh, most best, believe it. Adieu.\nThine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this machine is[footnote]Body belongs.[\/footnote] to him,\nHamlet.\"<\/p>\n

This in obedience hath my daughter shown me,\nAnd, more above, hath his solicitings,\n1155<\/sub>As they fell out, by time, by means, and place,\nAll given to mine ear.[footnote]And moreover she has let me know when, by what means, and where his solicitings occurred (\"fell out\u201d).[\/footnote]<\/p>\nKing<\/strong>\nBut how hath she received his love?\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nWhat do you think of me?\n\nKing<\/strong>\nAs of a man faithful and honorable.\n\n1160<\/sub>Polonius<\/strong>\nI would fain[footnote]Gladly, willingly.[\/footnote] prove so. But what might you think,\nWhen I had seen this hot love on the wing--\nAs I perceived it (I must tell you that)\nBefore my daughter told me--what might you,\nOr my dear majesty your queen here, think\n1165<\/sub>If I had played the desk or table-book,[footnote]i.e., If I had noted all this in my memory-book but had done nothing about it; or, if I had acted as go-between.[\/footnote]\nOr given my heart a winking, mute and dumb,[footnote]Or if I had deliberately shut my eyes to what my heart suspected.[\/footnote]\nOr looked upon this love with idle sight,[footnote]Complacently or uncomprehendingly.[\/footnote]\nWhat might you think? No, I went round[footnote]Directly, energetically.[\/footnote] to work,\nAnd my young mistress thus I did bespeak:[footnote]Address.[\/footnote]\n1170<\/sub>\"Lord Hamlet is a prince out of thy star.[footnote]Above your sphere or social station.[\/footnote]\nThis must not be.\" And then I precepts[footnote]Orders.[\/footnote] gave her\nThat she should lock herself from his resort,[footnote]His having access to her.[\/footnote]\nAdmit no messengers, receive no tokens.\nWhich done, she took the fruits of my advice,\n1175<\/sub>And he, repuls\u00e8d, a short tale to make,\nFell into a sadness, then into a fast,\nThence to a watch,[footnote]Sleepless state.[\/footnote] thence into a weakness,\nThence to a lightness,[footnote]To lightheadedness.[\/footnote] and by this declension[footnote]Decline, deterioration. (Playing also with a grammatical metaphor.)[\/footnote]\nInto the madness wherein now he raves,\n1180<\/sub>And all we mourn for.\n\nKing<\/strong>\n[To Queen]<\/em> Do you think 'tis this?\n\nQueen<\/strong>\nIt may be, very like.\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nHath there been such a time--I'd fain[footnote]I would gladly.[\/footnote] know that--\nThat I have positively said \"'Tis so\"\n1185<\/sub>When it proved otherwise?\n\nKing<\/strong>\nNot that I know.\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nTake this from this,[footnote]The actor's various options here include the gesture of miming the severing of his head from his body, or removing the chain of office from around his neck or his staff of office from his hands.[\/footnote] if this be otherwise.\nIf circumstances lead me, I will find\nWhere truth is hid, though it were hid indeed\n1190<\/sub>Within the center.[footnote]Center of the earth, traditionally regarded as wholly inaccessible.[\/footnote]\n\nKing<\/strong>\nHow may we try[footnote]Test.[\/footnote] it further?\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nYou know sometimes he walks four hours together\nHere in the lobby.[footnote]Corridor or waiting-room.[\/footnote]\n\n1195<\/sub>Queen<\/strong>\nSo he does indeed.\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nAt such a time, I'll loose[footnote]Let loose (as if she were a caged animal about to be mated).[\/footnote] my daughter to him.\nBe you and I behind an arras[footnote]Wall-hanging, tapestry.[\/footnote] then;\nMark the encounter. If he love her not,\nAnd be not from his reason fall'n thereon,[footnote]On that account.[\/footnote]\n1200<\/sub>Let me be no assistant for a state\nBut keep a farm and carters.[footnote]Cart drivers.[\/footnote]\n\nKing<\/strong>\nWe will try it.\nEnter Hamlet reading on a book.<\/em>\n\nQueen<\/strong>\n1205<\/sub>But look where sadly the poor wretch comes reading.\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nAway, I do beseech you both, away.\nI'll board him presently.[footnote]Accost him immediately.[\/footnote] Oh, give me leave.--[footnote]Leave this to me; leave me alone to handle this.[\/footnote]\nExit King and Queen.<\/em>\nHow does my good Lord Hamlet?\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nWell, God-a-mercy.[footnote]God have mercy, i.e., thank you.[\/footnote]\n\n1210<\/sub>Polonius<\/strong>\nDo you know me, my lord?\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nExcellent, excellent well. You're a fishmonger.[footnote]Fish merchant.[\/footnote]\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nNot I, my lord.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nThen I would you were so honest a man.\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nHonest, my lord?\n\n1215<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>\nAy, sir, to be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten\nthousand.[footnote]Compare the proverb, \"A man (one) among a thousand\".[\/footnote]\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nThat's very true, my lord.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nFor if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a good kissing carrion--[footnote]A good piece of flesh for kissing. Hamlet, in his mad guise, obliquely warns Polonius that Ophelia may respond to the heat of sexual desire by becoming pregnant, just as the sun presumably breeds maggots in rotting flesh--perhaps with a pun on \"sun\" and \"son,\" i.e., Hamlet himself, as son of the dead king.[\/footnote]\nHave you a daughter?\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nI have, my lord.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nLet her not walk i'th' sun.[footnote](1) In public; (2) into the sunshine of Hamlet's princely favors (continuing the pun on sun\/son in the previous lines).[\/footnote] Conception[footnote](1) Understanding; (2) Conceiving a child.[\/footnote] is a blessing, but as your daughter\nmay conceive, friend, look to't.[footnote]Take care, be wary.[\/footnote]\n\n1225<\/sub>Polonius<\/strong>\n[Aside]<\/em> How say you by that? Still harping[footnote]Dwelling obsessively on.[\/footnote] on my daughter. Yet he knew me\nnot at first. 'A said I was a fishmonger. 'A is far gone, far gone. And truly,\nin my youth I suffered much extremity for love, very near this. I'll speak to\nhim again.--What do you read, my lord?\n\n1230<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>\nWords, words, words.\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nWhat is the matter,[footnote]What is the substance of what you are reading? (But Hamlet deliberately misunderstands, answering as if Polonius had asked, \"What is the quarrel between the people you are talking about?\")[\/footnote] my lord?\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nBetween who?\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nI mean the matter that you read, my lord.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\n1235<\/sub>Slanders sir; for the satirical rogue says here that old men have gray beards,\nthat their faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and plumtree\ngum,[footnote]Are dropping thick, moist discharges like the sticky resins from various trees.[\/footnote] and that they have a plentiful lack of wit,[footnote]Understanding.[\/footnote] together with most weak hams--all\n1240<\/sub>which, sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not\nhonesty[footnote]Decency, honorable behavior.[\/footnote] to have it thus set down; for you yourself, sir, shall grow old as I am,\nif, like a crab, you could go backward.\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\n1245<\/sub>[Aside]<\/em> Though this be madness, yet there is method in't.--Will you walk out\nof the air,[footnote]The air outdoors was thought to be noxious, especially for the sick and old.[\/footnote] my lord?\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nInto my grave.\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\n[Aside]<\/em> Indeed, that's out of the air. How pregnant[footnote]Cogent, full of meaning.[\/footnote] sometimes his replies are!\n1250<\/sub>A happiness[footnote]Aptness, felicity of expression.[\/footnote] that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity could not\nso prosperously[footnote]Successfully, effectively.[\/footnote] be delivered of. I will leave him, and suddenly contrive the\n1255<\/sub>means of meeting between him and my daughter.--My honorable lord, I will\nmost humbly take my leave of you.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nYou cannot, sir, take from me anything that I will more willingly part\n1260<\/sub>withal[footnote]With.[\/footnote]--except my life, except my life, except my life.\nEnter Guildenstern and Rosencrantz.<\/em>\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nFare you well, my lord.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nThese tedious old fools!\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\n[To Rosencrantz and Guildenstern]<\/em> You go to seek the Lord Hamlet? There he is.\n\nRosencrantz<\/strong>\n[To Polonius]<\/em> God save you, sir.\n[Exit Polonius.]<\/em>\n\nGuildenstern<\/strong>\nMy honored lord!\n\nRosencrantz<\/strong>\nMy most dear lord!\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\n1270<\/sub>My excellent good friends! How dost thou, Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do ye both?\n\nRosencrantz<\/strong>\nAs the indifferent[footnote]Ordinary, neither extremely fortunate nor unfortunate.[\/footnote] children of the earth.\n\nGuildenstern<\/strong>\nHappy[footnote]Fortunate.[\/footnote] in that we are not over-happy. On Fortune's cap we are not the very\nbutton.[footnote]Presumably, Fortune's cap has a button at its highest point.[\/footnote]\n\n1275<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>\nNor the soles of her shoe?\n\nRosencrantz<\/strong>\nNeither, my lord.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nThen you live about her waist, or in the middle of her favors.[footnote]In her genital area.[\/footnote]\n\nGuildenstern<\/strong>\nFaith,[footnote]In good faith. (A mild oath.)[\/footnote] her privates[footnote](1) sexual members; (2) ordinary foot-soldiers; (3) informal friends and counselors, without official title.[\/footnote] we.\n\n1280<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>\nIn the secret parts of Fortune? Oh, most true, she is a strumpet.[footnote]Whore. (Fortune was proverbially fickle in bestowing her favors.)[\/footnote] What's the\nnews?\n\nRosencrantz<\/strong>\nNone, my lord, but that the world's grown honest.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\n1285<\/sub>Then is doomsday near.[footnote]The idea of the world growing honest is so radical as to be apocalyptic, a sure sign that the end is near.[\/footnote] But your news is not true. Let me question more in\nparticular. What have you, my good friends, deserved at the hands of\nFortune that she sends you to prison hither?\n\nGuildenstern<\/strong>\nPrison, my lord?\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nDenmark's a prison.\n\n1290<\/sub>Rosencrantz<\/strong>\nThen is the world one.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nA goodly one, in which there are many confines,[footnote]Enclosures, places of confinement.[\/footnote] wards, and dungeons,\nDenmark being one o'th' worst.\n\nRosencrantz<\/strong>\nWe think not so, my lord.\n\n1295<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>\nWhy, then 'tis none to you, for there is nothing either good or bad but\nthinking makes it so. To me it is a prison.\n\nRosencrantz<\/strong>\nWhy, then your ambition makes it one. 'Tis too narrow for your mind.\n\n1300<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>\nOh, God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of\ninfinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.\n\nGuildenstern<\/strong>\nWhich dreams indeed are ambition, for the very substance of the ambitious\n1305<\/sub>is merely the shadow of a dream.[footnote]The goal of ambition is without substance, being nothing more than the unreal image of something that is itself mere illusion. (Rosencrantz repeats this idea in line 213.)[\/footnote]\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nA dream itself is but a shadow.\n\nRosencrantz<\/strong>\nTruly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality that it is but a\nshadow's shadow.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\n1310<\/sub>Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and outstretched heroes the\nbeggars' shadows.[footnote]In that case, ordinary beggars must be more substantial, in that they lack ambition, whereas our monarchs and others, whom we make to seem greater than they really are by our adulation of them, are in fact only the unsubstantial shadows cast by our beggars.[\/footnote] Shall we to th'court? For, by my fay,[footnote]Faith.[\/footnote]] I cannot reason.\n\nBoth<\/strong>\nWe'll wait upon[footnote]Accompany, attend.[\/footnote] you.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\n1315<\/sub>No such matter.[footnote]Certainly not. (Hamlet interprets their \"wait upon\" as meaning \"provide menial service.\" He will not treat his boyhood friends this way.)[\/footnote] I will not sort[footnote]Class, categorize.[\/footnote] you with the rest of my servants, for, to speak\nto you like an honest man, I am most dreadfully attended. But, in the beaten\nway[footnote]Well-trodden path, tried-and-true course.[\/footnote] of friendship, what make you[footnote]What are you doing.[\/footnote] at Elsinore?\n\nRosencrantz<\/strong>\nTo visit you, my lord, no other occasion.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\n1320<\/sub>Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks, but I thank you; and sure, dear\nfriends, my thanks are too dear a halfpenny.[footnote]Too expensive at even a mere halfpenny, a coin of little value; or, too expensive by a halfpenny for me to give in return for such worthless kindness.[\/footnote] Were you not sent for? Is it your\nown inclining? Is it a free[footnote]Voluntary.[\/footnote] visitation? Come, come, deal justly with me. Come,\ncome, nay, speak.\n\nGuildenstern<\/strong>\nWhat should we say, my lord?\n\n1325<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>\nWhy, anything--but to th' purpose.[footnote]Say anything you like, but let's get to the main point.[\/footnote] You were sent for, and there is a kind\nof confession in your looks which your modesties have not craft enough to\ncolor.[footnote]Disguise.[\/footnote] I know the good King and Queen have sent for you.\n\nRosencrantz<\/strong>\nTo what end, my lord?\n\n1330<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>\nThat you must teach me. But let me conjure[footnote]Solemnly entreat.[\/footnote] you, by the rights of our\nfellowship, by the consonancy of our youth,[footnote]The close friendship of our younger days and of our ages.[\/footnote] by the obligation of our ever-\npreserved love, and by what more dear a better proposer could charge you\n1335<\/sub>withal,[footnote]By whatever more earnest entreaty a more skillful proposer might urge.[\/footnote] be even[footnote]On the level, straightforward.[\/footnote] and direct with me whether you were sent for or no.\n\nRosencrantz<\/strong>\n[Aside to Guildenstern]<\/em> What say you?\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\n[Aside]<\/em> Nay, then, I have an eye of you.[footnote]On you.[\/footnote]--If you love me, hold not off.[footnote]Don't hold back.[\/footnote]\n\nGuildenstern<\/strong>\nMy lord, we were sent for.\n\n1340<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>\nI will tell you why; so shall my anticipation prevent your discovery, and\nyour secrecy to the King and Queen molt no feather.[footnote]i.e., lose none of its attractive appearance.[\/footnote] I have of late, but\nwherefore I know not, lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercise[footnote]exercise (Such as tennis or fencing.)[\/footnote]; and\n1345<\/sub>indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition[footnote]It weighs so heavily on my spirits.[\/footnote] that this goodly frame,[footnote]Structure.[\/footnote] the\nearth, seems to me a sterile promontory. This most excellent canopy the air,\nlook you, this brave o'erhanging firmament,[footnote]Splendid heavenly canopy hanging over us.[\/footnote] this majestical roof fretted with golden\nfire, why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent\n1350<\/sub>congregation[footnote]Mass, assemblage.[\/footnote] of vapors. What a piece of work is a man! How noble in\nreason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving[footnote]In shape and motion.[\/footnote] how express[footnote]Well framed; expressive.[\/footnote] and\nadmirable! In action, how like an angel! In apprehension,[footnote]Understanding, power of comprehending.[\/footnote] how like a god;\n1355<\/sub>the beauty of the world; the paragon of animals. And yet to me what is this\nquintessence[footnote]Very essence.[\/footnote] of dust? Man delights not me, no, nor woman neither, though\nby your smiling you seem to say so.\n\nRosencrantz<\/strong>\nMy lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts.\n\n1360<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>\nWhy did you laugh, then, when I said man delights not me?\n\nRosencrantz<\/strong>\nTo think, my lord, if you delight not in man, what lenten entertainment[footnote]Meager reception (appropriate to Lent, the forty days of penitence and fasting from Ash Wednesday to Easter). During Lent, the public theaters were not allowed to perform plays.[\/footnote] the\nplayers shall receive from you. We coted them on the way, and hither are\nthey coming to offer you service.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nHe that plays the King shall be welcome; his majesty shall have tribute of\nme.[footnote]Payment; homage, praise from me. [\/footnote] The Adventurous Knight shall use his foil and target, the Lover shall not\n1370<\/sub>sigh gratis,[footnote]In vain, for nothing.[\/footnote] the Humorous Man shall end his part in peace,[footnote]The eccentric character, displaying the dominance in him of a particular \"humor\" (obsession, whim, fancy), will have full license to speak without interruption.[\/footnote] the Clown shall\nmake those laugh whose lungs are tickled o'th' sear,[footnote]i.e., the Clown will make those laugh who are predisposed to laugh easily. (Only those spectators who are thus inclined will laugh at the Clown's stale jokes.)[\/footnote] and the Lady shall say\nher mind freely, or the blank verse shall halt for't. What players are they?\n\nRosencrantz<\/strong>\n1375<\/sub>Even those you were wont to take such delight in,[footnote]Were accustomed to take such delight in.[\/footnote] the tragedians[footnote]Actors (of comedy or tragedy).[\/footnote] of the city.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nHow chances it they travel?[footnote]i.e., tour the provinces.[\/footnote] Their residence[footnote]Remaining in the city, not on tour.[\/footnote] both in reputation and profit\nwas better both ways.\n\nRosencrantz<\/strong>\n1380<\/sub>I think their inhibition comes by the means of the late innovation.[footnote]Their being restrained from public performance is the result of recent disturbances. Hamlet may be referring to the recent revival in 1599-1600 of performances by the juvenile acting companies, whose marked tendency toward potentially libelous political satire had led to their being suppressed throughout the 1590s.[\/footnote]\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nDo they hold the same estimation[footnote]Esteem.[\/footnote] they did when I was in the city? Are they\nso followed?\n\nRosencrantz<\/strong>\nNo, indeed, they are not.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nHow comes it? Do they grow rusty?\n\n1385<\/sub>Rosencrantz<\/strong>\nNay, their endeavor keeps in the wonted pace.[footnote]Continues at the usual pace.[\/footnote] But there is, sir, an eyrie[footnote]Nest, and the brood of chicks in it.[\/footnote] of\nchildren, little eyases,[footnote]Young hawks, here signifying the boy actors.[\/footnote] that cry out on the top of question,[footnote]Shout more shrilly than their competitors.[\/footnote] and are most\ntyrannically[footnote]Vehemently, outrageously.[\/footnote] clapped for't. These are now the fashion, and so berattle the\n1390<\/sub>common stages[footnote]Make noisy clamor against the adult acting companies.[\/footnote]--so they call them--that many wearing rapiers are afraid of\ngoose quills[footnote]That many gentlemen fear being satirized in the juvenile companies' plays. \"Goose quills\" are the pens of the dramatists writing for the boys' companies.[\/footnote] and dare scarce come thither.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nWhat, are they children? Who maintains 'em? How are they escoted?[footnote]Maintained, provided for.[\/footnote] Will\nthey pursue the quality[footnote]The acting profession.[\/footnote] no longer than they can sing?[footnote]i.e., only until their voices break at adolescence.[\/footnote] Will they not say\n1395<\/sub>afterwards, if they should grow themselves to common players[footnote]Into adult actors for the \"public\" stage.[\/footnote]--as it is most\nlike if their means are not better[footnote]If they can find no better way to support themselves.[\/footnote]--their writers do them wrong to make them\nexclaim against their own succession?[footnote]i.e., future careers.[\/footnote]\n\nRosencrantz<\/strong>\n1400<\/sub>Faith,[footnote]In good faith. (A mild oath.)[\/footnote] there has been much to-do[footnote]Ado.[\/footnote] on both sides, and the nation[footnote]Populace.[\/footnote] holds it no sin\nto tarre[footnote]Goad, incite (as in inciting dogs to attack a chained bear).[\/footnote] them to controversy. There was for a while no money bid for\nargument unless the poet and the player went to cuffs in the question.[footnote]For a while, no money was offered to a playwright unless his play took part in the sharp controversy between the satirical writers for the juvenile companies and the dramatists who wrote for the adult companies.[\/footnote]\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nIs't possible?\n\n1405<\/sub>Guildenstern<\/strong>\nOh, there has been much throwing about of brains.[footnote]Lively exchanges in the battle of wits.[\/footnote]\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nDo the boys carry it away?[footnote]Win the day.[\/footnote]\n\nRosencrantz<\/strong>\nAy, that they do, my lord, Hercules and his load[footnote]Seemingly an allusion to the sign of the Globe Theater, which may have shown Hercules bearing the world on his shoulders in a \"Herculean\" labor.[\/footnote] too.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\n1410<\/sub>It is not very strange, for my uncle is King of Denmark, and those that would\nmake mows[footnote]Faces, grimaces.[\/footnote] at him while my father lived give twenty, forty, fifty, a hundred\nducats[footnote]Gold coins.[\/footnote] apiece for his picture in little.[footnote]Portrait in miniature.[\/footnote] 'Sblood,[footnote]By God's (Christ's) blood. (An oath.)[\/footnote] there is something in this more than\nnatural, if philosophy could find it out.\n1415<\/sub>Flourish for the players.<\/em>[footnote]A fanfare, usually on trumpets, for important entrances, here announcing the arrival of the actors at Elsinore Castle.[\/footnote]\n\nGuildenstern<\/strong>\nThere are the players.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nGentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands, come.\nTh'appurtenance of welcome is fashion and ceremony.[footnote]Ceremonious actions and gestures are the proper accompaniment to a welcome.[\/footnote] Let me comply with you\n1420<\/sub>in this garb,[footnote]Let me comply with ceremonious custom in the proper manner by shaking hands with you.[\/footnote] lest my extent to the players,[footnote]Lest my extending a welcome to the actors.[\/footnote] which, I tell you, must show fairly outward,[footnote]Must necessarily display all the customary signs of a courteous welcome.[\/footnote] should more appear like entertainment[footnote]Reception, welcome.[\/footnote] than yours.[footnote]Than the welcome I have extended to you.[\/footnote] You are\nwelcome. But my uncle-father[footnote]Both uncle and stepfather.[\/footnote] and aunt-mother[footnote]Both mother and now aunt (by the marriage which Hamlet considers incestuous).[\/footnote] are deceived.\n\nGuildenstern<\/strong>\nIn what, my dear lord?\n\n1425<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>\nI am but mad north-north-west;[footnote]Mad only a small degree from true north, i.e., not very mad; or, mad only when the wind blows from that direction.[\/footnote] when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk\nfrom a handsaw.[footnote]i.e., Only a mad person would be unable to distinguish a hawk from a handsaw, and I have no trouble distinguishing them.[\/footnote]\nEnter Polonius.<\/em>\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nWell be[footnote]May all be well. (A conventional greeting.)[\/footnote] with you, gentlemen.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\n1430<\/sub>Hark you, Guildenstern, and you too, at each ear a hearer: that great baby\nyou see there is not yet out of his swaddling clouts.[footnote]Clothes in which a baby is wrapped to keep it safe and still.[\/footnote]\n\nRosencrantz<\/strong>\nHaply[footnote]Perhaps.[\/footnote] he is the second time come to them, for they say an old man is twice\na child.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\n1435<\/sub>I will prophesy he comes to tell me of the players. Mark it.-- You say right,\nsir, o'Monday morning, 'twas then indeed.\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nMy lord, I have news to tell you.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nMy lord, I have news to tell you. When Roscius was an actor[footnote]Quintus Roscius Gallus, the famous Roman actor, lived c. 126-62 BC.[\/footnote] in Rome--\n\n1440<\/sub>Polonius<\/strong>\nThe actors are come hither, my lord.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nBuzz, buzz.[footnote]An interjection, here conveying Hamlet's contempt for Polonius's telling the already stale news of the actors' arrival.[\/footnote]\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nUpon my honor--\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nThen came each actor on his ass.\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\n1445<\/sub>The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral,\npastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-\nhistorical-pastoral, scene individable, or poem unlimited.[footnote]i.e., plays without scene breaks and unrestrained by rules, hence all-inclusive or unclassifiable--an absurdly catchall conclusion to Polonius's list of dramatic categories. Shakespeare was already well known for writing plays that ignored the classical \"unities\" of time, place, and action.[\/footnote]Seneca[footnote]Seneca Lucius Annaeus, known as Seneca the Younger (c. 3 BC-65 AD), the most widely read of Latin writers of tragedy.[\/footnote] cannot be\n1450<\/sub>too heavy nor Plautus[footnote]Plautus Titus Maccius (c. 254-184 BC), the most popular of Latin writers of comedy.[\/footnote] too light. For the law of writ and the liberty,[footnote]For plays written according to the classical rules as well as for those that disregard these conventions.[\/footnote] these[footnote]i.e., the actors, or possibly Seneca and Plautus.[\/footnote] are\nthe only men.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nO Jephthah, judge of Israel,[footnote]The old-Testament patriarch (Judges 11:30-40) who vowed that he would sacrifice the first living thing he saw if God granted him the defeat of the Ammonites in battle; the first thing he saw turned out to be his daughter and only child.[\/footnote] what a treasure hadst thou?\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nWhat a treasure had he, my lord?\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nWhy,\nOne fair daughter and no more,\n1455<\/sub>The which he lov\u00e8d passing[footnote]Surpassingly, extremely.[\/footnote] well.[footnote]Hamlet quotes from a ballad about Jephthah and his daughter.[\/footnote]\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\n[Aside]<\/em> Still on my daughter.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nAm I not i'th' right, old Jephthah?\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nIf you call me Jephthah, my lord, I have a daughter that I love passing well.\n\n1460<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>\nNay, that follows not.[footnote]i.e., (1) Just because you resemble Jephthah in having a daughter does not logically demonstrate that you love her; (2) You haven't quoted the next line of the ballad.[\/footnote]\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nWhat follows then, my lord?[footnote]Polonius asks, what does follow logically? But Hamlet answers as if Polonius had asked, what is the next line of the ballad?[\/footnote]\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nWhy,\nAs by lot,[footnote]By chance.[\/footnote]\nGod wot,[footnote]God knows.[\/footnote]\nand then you know,\nIt came to pass,\nAs most like it was.[footnote]As was most likely.[\/footnote]\n1465<\/sub>The first row of the pious chanson will show you more,[footnote]The first line or stanza of this pious ballad will tell you more.[\/footnote] for look where my\nabridgment comes.[footnote]Actors are coming who will cut short what I was about to say, or who will make short my entertainment or diversion.[\/footnote]\nEnter four or five Players.\n<\/em>You are welcome, masters,[footnote]Good sirs. (Said to social inferiors.)[\/footnote] welcome all.--I am glad to see thee well. Welcome,\ngood friends.--Oh, my old friend! Thy face is valanced[footnote]i.e., fringed with beard.[\/footnote] since I saw thee last.\n1470<\/sub>Com'st thou to beard[footnote]Confront, challenge, defy. (With obvious pun on the player's beard.)[\/footnote] me in Denmark?-- What, my young lady[footnote]The boy actor, to whom the female roles are assigned.[\/footnote] and mistress![footnote]Hamlet addresses the boy actor with playful and courtly hyperbole as if he\/she, now coming to age as a young adult, were a woman to be admired and courted.[\/footnote]\nBy'r Lady,[footnote]By Our Lady (the Virgin Mary). A mild oath.[\/footnote] your ladyship is nearer heaven[footnote](1) taller; (2) older, and thus nearer death.[\/footnote] than when I saw you last, by the\naltitude of a chopine.[footnote]High platform shoe of Italian fashion.[\/footnote] Pray God your voice, like a piece of uncurrent gold,[footnote]Gold coin not legal because it is cracked or chipped inside the ring enclosing the image of the sovereign. Shaving or chipping gold coins was a common form of cheating.[\/footnote] be\n1475<\/sub>not cracked within the ring.[footnote]i.e., the young male's voice having lost its soprano range suitable for acting female parts.[\/footnote]--Masters, you are all welcome. We'll e'en to't,\nlike French falconers:[footnote]We'll go at it like the French (who are presumed here to be avid falconers, not discriminating as to what they loose their birds to fly at).[\/footnote] fly at anything we see. We'll have a speech straight.[footnote]At once.[\/footnote]\nCome, give us a taste of your quality.[footnote]Skill in acting.[\/footnote] Come, a passionate speech.\n\nFirst Player<\/strong>\nWhat speech, my good lord?\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\n1480<\/sub>I heard thee speak me[footnote]Speak for me or to me.[\/footnote] a speech once, but it was[footnote]But the play containing this speech was.[\/footnote] never acted, or, if it was, not\nabove once; for the play, I remember, pleased not the million, 'twas caviare\nto the general.[footnote]i.e., a delicacy not generally appreciated by unsophisticated tastes.[\/footnote] But it was, as I received it, and others whose judgments in\nsuch matters cried in the top of mine,[footnote]Spoke with greater authority than mine.[\/footnote] an excellent play, well digested in the\n1485<\/sub>scenes,[footnote]Arranged in orderly fashion into scenes.[\/footnote] set down with as much modesty[footnote]Moderation, restraint.[\/footnote] as cunning.[footnote]Skill.[\/footnote] I remember one said\nthere were no sallets[footnote].e., were no spicy bits, improprieties. (Literally, salads.)[\/footnote] in the lines to make the matter savory, nor no matter in\n1488.1<\/sub>the phrase that might indict[footnote]Accuse.[\/footnote] the author of affectation, but called it an honest\n1490<\/sub>method, as wholesome as sweet, and by very much more handsome than fine.[footnote]Graceful and natural in proportion rather than artfully ornamented.[\/footnote] One speech in't I chiefly loved: 'twas Aeneas' tale to Dido,[footnote]The story of the fall of Troy, as told by Aeneas to Dido in Book I of Virgil's Aeneid. The story, not told in Homer's Iliad, had been dramatized by Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Nashe in Dido Queen of Carthage (c. 1585). The slaying of Priam, King of Troy, by Pyrrhus, as Troy fell to the Greeks.[\/footnote]\nand thereabout of it especially where he speaks of Priam's slaughter. If it live in your memory, begin at this line--let me see, let me see--\nThe rugged[footnote]Shaggy, savage.[\/footnote] Pyrrhus,[footnote]Pyrrhus, also known as Neoptolemus, was the son of Achilles, and was thus another son (like Hamlet or Laertes or Fortinbras) seeking to avenge his father's death.[\/footnote] like th'Hyrcanian beast--[footnote]A tiger from Hyrcania, on the Caspian Sea, famed for its wild beasts.[\/footnote]\n'Tis not so, it begins with Pyrrhus.\nThe rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms,[footnote]Black armor.[\/footnote]\n1495<\/sub>Black as his purpose, did the night resemble\nWhen he lay couch\u00e8d[footnote]Concealed.[\/footnote] in the ominous horse,[footnote]The fateful wooden Trojan horse, hidden inside of which thirty Greek warriors deceitfully gained access to the citadel of Troy.[\/footnote]\nHath now this dread and black complexion smeared\nWith heraldry more dismal.[footnote]i.e., the blood that Pyrrhus has smeared on his already dark and terrifying appearance.[\/footnote] Head to foot\nNow is he total gules,[footnote]Totally red, as if in heraldic colors.[\/footnote] horridly tricked[footnote]Smeared, decorated.[\/footnote]\n1500<\/sub>With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons,\nBaked and empasted with the parching streets[footnote]Roasted and encrusted into a thick paste by the parching heat of the streets and burning houses.[\/footnote]\nThat lend a tyrannous[footnote]Cruel, fierce.[\/footnote] and damn\u00e8d light\nTo their vile murders.[footnote]i.e., To the vile murders of \"fathers, mothers, daughters, sons\" mentioned three lines earlier.[\/footnote] Roasted in wrath and fire,\nAnd thus o'ersiz\u00e8d[footnote]Covered with size (a glutinous substance applied to canvases to make them ready for painting); also suggesting \"larger than life size.\"[\/footnote] with coagulate[footnote]Congealed.[\/footnote] gore,\n1505<\/sub>With eyes like carbuncles,[footnote]Large, fiery-red gems, thought to emit their own light.[\/footnote] the hellish Phyrrhus\nOld grandsire Priam seeks.\nSo proceed you.\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\n'Fore God, my Lord, well spoken, with good accent and good discretion.\n\nFirst Player<\/strong>\nAnon[footnote]Soon.[\/footnote] he finds him,\n1510<\/sub>Striking too short at Greeks. His antique[footnote]Ancient, long-used.[\/footnote] sword,\nRebellious to his arm, lies where it falls,\nRepugnant to command.[footnote]Resistant to Priam's bidding.[\/footnote] Unequal matched,\nPyrrhus at Priam drives, in rage strikes wide,\nBut with the whiff and wind of his fell[footnote]Cruel, fierce.[\/footnote] sword\n1515<\/sub>Th'unnerv\u00e8d father[footnote]The strengthless old man (and father of many sons).[\/footnote] falls. Then senseless Ilium,[footnote]Then the citadel of Troy, lacking the strength to defend itself.[\/footnote]\nSeeming to feel this blow, with flaming top\nStoops to his base,[footnote]Its base.[\/footnote] and with a hideous crash\nTakes prisoner Pyrrhus' ear; for lo! his sword,\nWhich was declining[footnote]Descending.[\/footnote] on the milky[footnote]White-haired.[\/footnote] head\n1520<\/sub>Of reverend Priam, seemed i'th' air to stick.\nSo as a painted[footnote]Motionless, as in a painting.[\/footnote] tyrant Pyrrhus stood,\nAnd, like a neutral to his will and matter,[footnote]And, as though suspended between intent and fulfillment.[\/footnote]\nDid nothing.\nBut as we often see against[footnote]Just before.[\/footnote] some storm\nA silence in the heavens, the rack[footnote]Mass of clouds.[\/footnote] stand still,\n1525<\/sub>The bold winds speechless, and the orb[footnote]Globe, earth.[\/footnote] below\nAs hush as death, anon the dreadful thunder\nDoth rend the region,[footnote]Sky.[\/footnote] so, after Pyrrhus' pause,\nA rous\u00e8d vengeance sets him new a-work,\nAnd never did the Cyclops'[footnote]The Cyclopes were primordial one-eyed giants of Greek mythology who served as armor-makers in Vulcan's smithy. The next line here presumes that they were the makers of armor for Mars, the god of war.[\/footnote] hammers fall\n1530<\/sub>On Mars his[footnote]Mars's.[\/footnote] armor forged for proof eterne[footnote]To provide eternal protection against assault.[\/footnote]\nWith less remorse[footnote]Pity.[\/footnote] than Pyrrhus' bleeding[footnote]i.e., covered with the blood of previous assaults, and anticipating the blood that is about to be shed by old Priam.[\/footnote] sword\nNow falls on Priam.\nOut, out,[footnote]An expression of outrage, fury, etc.[\/footnote] thou strumpet[footnote]Fortune. The whorish goddess of Chance.[\/footnote] Fortune! All you gods\nIn general synod[footnote]Assembly.[\/footnote] take away her power,\n1535<\/sub>Break all the spokes and fellies[footnote]The curved pieces of wood forming the exterior rim of a wheel, to which the spokes are attached. Because \"Fortune's wheel is ever turning\" (a proverbial expression), a person who is at the top of Fortune's wheel one day may find himself or herself at the bottom the next.[\/footnote] from her wheel,\nAnd bowl the round nave[footnote]Wheel hub (all that would be left on a wheel if its spokes and fellies were broken).[\/footnote] down the hill of heaven[footnote]Mount Olympus, home of the gods in Greek mythology.[\/footnote]\nAs low as to the fiends!\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nThis is too long.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\n1540<\/sub>It shall to the barber's with your beard.--Prithee, say on. He's for a jig,[footnote]Comic entertainment with dance, often performed irrelevantly at the end of a play.[\/footnote] or a\ntale of bawdry, or he sleeps. Say on. Come to Hecuba..[footnote]Wife of Priam and Queen of Troy.[\/footnote]\n\nFirst Player<\/strong>\nBut who, oh, who, had seen the mobl\u00e8d[footnote]Veiled, muffled.[\/footnote] queen--.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nThe mobl\u00e8d queen!\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nThat's good. \"Moble\u00e8d queen\" is good.\n\n1545<\/sub>First Player<\/strong>\nRun barefoot up and down, threat'ning the flames\nWith bisson rheum,[footnote]i.e., weeping so with blinding tears that she seemed almost capable of extinguishing the flames of burning Troy.[\/footnote] a clout upon that head\nWhere late[footnote]Lately.[\/footnote] the diadem[footnote]Crown.[\/footnote] stood, and, for a robe,\nAbout her lank and all-o'erteem\u00e8d loins[footnote]Withered loins, utterly worn out with child-bearing.[\/footnote]\n1550<\/sub>A blanket in th'alarm of fear caught up--\nWho this had seen,[footnote]Whoever had seen this.[\/footnote] with tongue in venom steeped\n'Gainst Fortune's state would treason have pronounced;[footnote]Would have protested treasonously against Fortune's fickle rule.[\/footnote]\nBut if[footnote]But even if.[\/footnote] the gods themselves did see her then,\nWhen she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport\n1555<\/sub>In mincing with his sword her husband's limbs,\nThe instant burst of clamor that she made,\nUnless things mortal move them not at all,\nWould have made milch the burning eyes of heaven[footnote]Would have caused the sun and other heavenly bodies to weep. (\"Milch\" means \"milky, moist with tears.\")[\/footnote]\nAnd passion[footnote]And would have provoked compassionate pity.[\/footnote] in the gods.\n\n1560<\/sub>Polonius<\/strong>\nLook whe'er he has not turned his color, and has tears in's eyes.--Prithee,\nno more.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\n'Tis well. I'll have thee speak out the rest of this soon. [To Polonius]<\/em> Good my lord,\nwill you see the players well bestowed?[footnote]Lodged.[\/footnote] Do ye hear, let them be well used,[footnote]Well treated.[\/footnote]\n1565<\/sub>for they are the abstracts and brief chronicles of the time.[footnote]Actors give us a concise epitome of the age in which we live.[\/footnote] After your death\nyou were better have a bad epitaph[footnote]i.e., you would do better to have been judged a bad person.[\/footnote] than their ill report while you live.\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nMy lord, I will use them according to their desert.\n\n1570<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>\nGod's bodykins,[footnote]By God's (Christ's) dear little body. (An oath.)[\/footnote] man, much better. Use every man after his desert and who should\nscape whipping? Use them after[footnote]According to.[\/footnote] your own honor and dignity; the less they\ndeserve, the more merit is in your bounty. Take them in.\n\n1575<\/sub>Polonius<\/strong>\nCome, sirs.\nExit Polonius.<\/em>\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nFollow him, friends. We'll hear a play tomorrow. [Aside to the First Player]<\/em>\nDost thou hear me, old friend, can you play \"The Murder of Gonzago\"?\n\n[First] Player<\/strong>\nAy, my lord.\n\n1580<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>\nWe'll ha't[footnote]Have it performed.[\/footnote] tomorrow night. You could for a need[footnote]As required and necessary.[\/footnote] study[footnote]Learn, memorize.[\/footnote] a speech of some\ndozen or sixteen lines, which I would set down and insert in't, could you not?\n\n[First] Player<\/strong>\nAy, my lord.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\n1585<\/sub>Very well. Follow that lord, and look you mock him not.\nExeunt Players.<\/em>\nMy good friends, I'll leave you till night. You are welcome to Elsinore.\n\nRosencrantz<\/strong>\nGood my lord.[footnote]Rosencrantz politely bids Hamlet farewell, understanding that he has asked them to leave.[\/footnote]\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nAy, so, God b'wi' you.\nExeunt [Rosencrantz and Guildenstern].<\/em>\nNow I am alone.\n1590<\/sub>Oh, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!\nIs it not monstrous that this player here,\nBut in a fiction, in a dream of passion,\nCould force his soul so to his whole conceit[footnote]Bring his innermost being so entirely into accord with his conception of the role he is playing.[\/footnote]\nThat from her working[footnote]As a result of, or in response to, his soul's activity.[\/footnote] all his visage[footnote]His face.[\/footnote] waned,[footnote]Turned pale.[\/footnote]\n1595<\/sub>Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect,[footnote]In his look.[\/footnote]\nA broken voice, and his whole function suiting\nWith forms to his conceit?[footnote]And all his bodily gestures perfectly suited to what he was imagining.[\/footnote] And all or nothing?\nFor Hecuba?\nWhat's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,\n1600<\/sub>That he should weep for her? What would he do\nHad he the motive and the cue for passion\nThat I have? He would drown the stage with tears,\nAnd cleave the general ear[footnote]Everybody's ear.[\/footnote] with horrid[footnote]Horror-causing.[\/footnote] speech,\nMake mad the guilty, and appal the free,[footnote]Horrify the innocent. (\"Appal\" conveys the literal sense of \"make pale.\")[\/footnote]\n1605<\/sub>Confound the ignorant,[footnote]Dumbfound those who know nothing of the crime that has been committed.[\/footnote] and amaze[footnote]Stun, bewilder.[\/footnote] indeed\nThe very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet I,\nA dull and muddy-mettled[footnote]Dull-spirited.[\/footnote] rascal, peak[footnote]Mope.[\/footnote]\nLike John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause,[footnote]Like an idle dreamer, not quickened into action by my cause.[\/footnote]\nAnd can say nothing; no, not for a king\n1610<\/sub>Upon whose property[footnote]Person and identity as king.[\/footnote] and most dear life\nA damned defeat[footnote]A murderous act deserving damnation.[\/footnote] was made. Am I a coward?\nWho calls me villain? Breaks my pate across?[footnote]Slaps me across the face. (A profound insult.) \"Pate\" means head. To break someone's head in Elizabethan English is not to break it in two but to deliver a blow.[\/footnote]\nPlucks off my beard[footnote]Yanks at my beard. Another deep insult, questioning the manliness of the one thus insulted.[\/footnote] and blows it in my face?\nTweaks me by th' nose? Gives me the lie i'th' throat[footnote]Calls me an out-and-out liar. (Again, an especially insulting gesture.)[\/footnote]\n1615<\/sub>As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this,[footnote]Does this to me.[\/footnote]\nHa? 'Swounds,[footnote]By his (Christ's) wounds. (A strong oath.)[\/footnote] I should take it;[footnote]i.e., take it lying down, offering no response.[\/footnote] for it cannot be[footnote]But It cannot be otherwise than that.[\/footnote]\nBut I am pigeon-livered,[footnote]Pigeons' livers were thought to secrete no gall, thus making them mild and disinclined to anger.[\/footnote] and lack gall\nTo make oppression bitter,[footnote]To make my oppression bitter to me, and thus make me dangerous to my enemy.[\/footnote] or ere[footnote]Before.[\/footnote] this\nI should ha' fatted all the region kites[footnote]All the kites (birds of prey) of the air.[\/footnote]\n1620<\/sub>With this slave's offal.[footnote]This wretch's entrails.[\/footnote] Bloody, bawdy[footnote]Lewd, immoral.[\/footnote] villain!\nRemorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless[footnote]Unnatural, lacking in affection for one's kind.[\/footnote] villain!\nOh, vengeance!\nWhy, what an ass am I! This is most brave,[footnote]Fine, admirable. (Said sarcastically.)[\/footnote]\nThat I, the son of a dear father murdered,\n1625<\/sub>Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,\nMust like a whore unpack my heart with words,\nAnd fall a-cursing like a very drab,[footnote]Whore.[\/footnote]\nA scullion.[footnote]i.e., menial, kitchen servant.[\/footnote] Fie upon't, foh! About,[footnote]Go about it, get to work.[\/footnote] my brain!\nHum, I have heard\nThat guilty creatures sitting at a play\n1630<\/sub>Have by the very cunning[footnote]Artfulness, skill.[\/footnote] of the scene\nBeen struck so to the soul that presently[footnote]At once.[\/footnote]\nThey have proclaimed their malefactions;[footnote]Evil deeds, crimes.[\/footnote]\nFor murder, though it have no tongue, will speak\nWith most miraculous organ. I'll have these players\n1635<\/sub>Play something like the murder of my father\nBefore mine uncle. I'll observe his looks;\nI'll tent him to the quick.[footnote]Probe his wound (i.e., his conscience) to its core.[\/footnote] If 'a but blench[footnote]If he flinches or turns pale.[\/footnote]\nI know my course. The spirit that I have seen\nMay be the devil, and the devil hath power\n1640<\/sub>T'assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps,\nOut of my weakness and my melancholy,\nAs he is very potent with such spirits,\nAbuses[footnote]Deludes, deceives.[\/footnote] me to damn me. I'll have grounds\nMore relative[footnote]Relevant, convincing.[\/footnote] than this. The play's the thing\n1645<\/sub>Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King.\nExit.<\/em>","rendered":"

Hamlet<\/em> (Modern, Editor\u2019s Version). Internet Shakespeare Editions<\/a>. University of Victoria. Editor: David Bevington. Adapted by James Sexton.<\/p>\n

Scene 1<\/h1>\n

Enter<\/em>[1]<\/sup><\/a> old Polonius, with his man [Reynaldo] or two.<\/em><\/p>\n

890<\/sub>Polonius<\/strong>
\nGive him[2]<\/sup><\/a> this money, and these notes, Reynaldo.
\n[He gives money and papers.]<\/em><\/p>\n

Reynaldo<\/strong>
\nI will, my lord.<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nYou shall do marv’lous wisely, good Reynaldo,
\nBefore you visit him, to make inquire[3]<\/sup><\/a>
\nOf his behavior.<\/p>\n

895<\/sub>Reynaldo<\/strong>
\nMy lord, I did intend it.<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nMarry,[4]<\/sup><\/a> well said, very well said. Look you, sir,
\nInquire me[5]<\/sup><\/a> first what Danskers[6]<\/sup><\/a> are in Paris,
\nAnd how,[7]<\/sup><\/a> and who, what means,[8]<\/sup><\/a> and where they keep,[9]<\/sup><\/a>
\n900<\/sub>What company, at what expense; and finding
\nBy this encompassment and drift of question[10]<\/sup><\/a>
\nThat they do know my son, come you more nearer
\nThan your particular demands will touch it;[11]<\/sup><\/a>
\nTake you,[12]<\/sup><\/a> as ’twere, some distant knowledge of him,
\n905<\/sub>As thus: “I know his father, and his friends,
\nAnd in part him.” Do you mark this, Reynaldo?<\/p>\n

Reynaldo<\/strong>
\nAy, very well, my lord.<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\n“And in part him. But,” you may say, “not well,
\nBut if’t be he I mean, he’s very wild,
\n910<\/sub>Addicted so and so,” and there put on him[13]<\/sup><\/a>
\nWhat forgeries[14]<\/sup><\/a> you please–marry, none so rank[15]<\/sup><\/a>
\nAs may dishonor him, take heed of that,
\nBut, sir, such wanton,[16]<\/sup><\/a> wild, and usual slips
\nAs are companions noted and most known
\n915<\/sub>To youth and liberty.<\/p>\n

Reynaldo<\/strong>
\nAs gaming,[17]<\/sup><\/a> my lord?<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nAy, or drinking, fencing, swearing,
\nQuarreling,[18]<\/sup><\/a> drabbing[19]<\/sup><\/a>–you may go so far.<\/p>\n

Reynaldo<\/strong>
\nMy lord, that would dishonor him.<\/p>\n

920<\/sub>Polonius<\/strong>
\nFaith, no, as you may season it in the charge.
\nYou must not put another scandal on him
\nThat he is open to incontinency[20]<\/sup><\/a>;
\nThat’s not my meaning. But breathe[21]<\/sup><\/a> his faults so quaintly[22]<\/sup><\/a>
\nThat they may seem the taints of liberty,[23]<\/sup><\/a>
\n925<\/sub>The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind,
\nA savageness in unreclaim\u00e8d blood,
\nOf general assault.[24]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Reynaldo<\/strong>
\nBut, my good lord–<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nWherefore should you do this?<\/p>\n

Reynaldo<\/strong>
\nAy, my lord, I would know that.<\/p>\n

930<\/sub>Polonius<\/strong>
\nMarry sir, here’s my drift,
\nAnd I believe it is a fetch of warrant.[25]<\/sup><\/a>
\nYou laying these slight sullies[26]<\/sup><\/a> on my son
\nAs ’twere a thing a little soiled i’th’ working,[27]<\/sup><\/a>
\nMark you, your party in converse,[28]<\/sup><\/a> him you would sound,[29]<\/sup><\/a>
\n935<\/sub>Having ever seen in the prenominate crimes
\nThe youth you breathe of guilty,[30]<\/sup><\/a> be assured
\nHe closes with you in this consequence:[31]<\/sup><\/a>
\n“Good sir” (or so), or “friend,” or “gentleman,”
\nAccording to the phrase and the addition
\n940<\/sub>Of man and country.<\/p>\n

Reynaldo<\/strong>
\nVery good, my lord.<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nAnd then, sir, does ‘a this, ‘a does–what was I about to say?
\nBy the mass, I was about to say something.
\nWhere did I leave?[32]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

945<\/sub>Reynaldo<\/strong>
\nAt “closes in the consequence.”
\nAt “friend,” or so, and “gentleman.”<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nAt “closes in the consequence.” Ay, marry,
\nHe closes with you thus: “I know the gentleman,
\nI saw him yesterday”–or t’other day,
\n950<\/sub>Or then, or then–“with such and such, and as you say,
\nThere was ‘a gaming, there o’ertook in’s rouse,
\nThere falling out[33]<\/sup><\/a> at tennis,” or perchance
\n“I saw him enter such a house of sale[34]<\/sup><\/a>,”
\nVidelicet,[35]<\/sup><\/a> a brothel, or so forth. See you now,
\n955<\/sub>Your bait of falsehood takes this carp[36]<\/sup><\/a> of truth,
\nAnd thus do we of wisdom and of reach,
\nWith windlasses[37]<\/sup><\/a> and with assays of bias,[38]<\/sup><\/a>
\nBy indirections find directions[39]<\/sup><\/a> out;
\nSo by my former lecture[40]<\/sup><\/a> and advice
\n960<\/sub>Shall you my son. You have me,[41]<\/sup><\/a> have you not?<\/p>\n

Reynaldo<\/strong>
\nMy lord, I have.<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nGod b’wi’ ye, fare ye well.[42]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Reynaldo<\/strong>
\nGood my lord.<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nObserve his inclination in yourself.[43]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

965<\/sub>Reynaldo<\/strong>
\nI shall, my lord.<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nAnd let him ply his music.<\/p>\n

Reynaldo<\/strong>
\nWell, my lord.
\nExit Reynaldo.<\/em>
\nEnter Ophelia.<\/em><\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nFarewell.–How now, Ophelia, what’s the matter?<\/p>\n

Ophelia<\/strong>
\nAlas, my lord, I have been so affrighted!<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nWith what, i’th’ name of God?<\/p>\n

Ophelia<\/strong>
\nMy lord, as I was sewing in my chamber,
\nLord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced,[44]<\/sup><\/a>
\n975<\/sub>No hat upon his head,[45]<\/sup><\/a> his stockings fouled,[46]<\/sup><\/a>
\nUngartered, and down-gyv\u00e8d to his ankle,[47]<\/sup><\/a>
\nPale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other,
\nAnd with a look so piteous in purport[48]<\/sup><\/a>
\nAs if he had been loos\u00e8d out of hell
\n980<\/sub>To speak of horrors, he comes before me.<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nMad for thy love?<\/p>\n

Ophelia<\/strong>
\nMy lord, I do not know,
\nBut truly I do fear it.<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nWhat said he?<\/p>\n

Ophelia<\/strong>
\nHe took me by the wrist, and held me hard.
\n985<\/sub>Then goes he to the length of all his arm,
\nAnd with his other hand thus o’er his brow
\nHe falls to such perusal of my face
\nAs ‘a would draw it. Long stayed he so.
\nAt last, a little shaking of mine arm,
\n990<\/sub>And thrice his head thus waving up and down,
\nHe raised a sigh so piteous and profound
\nThat it did seem to shatter all his bulk[49]<\/sup><\/a>
\nAnd end his being. That done, he lets me go,
\nAnd with his head over his shoulder turned
\n995<\/sub>He seemed to find his way without his eyes,
\nFor out o’ doors he went without their help,
\nAnd to the last bended their light on me.<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nCome, go with me. I will go seek the King.
\nThis is the very ecstasy[50]<\/sup><\/a> of love,
\n1000<\/sub>Whose violent property fordoes itself[51]<\/sup><\/a>
\nAnd leads the will to desperate[52]<\/sup><\/a> undertakings
\nAs oft as any passion under heaven
\nThat does afflict our natures. I am sorry.
\nWhat, have you given him any hard words of late?<\/p>\n

1005<\/sub>Ophelia<\/strong>
\nNo, my good lord, but as you did command
\nI did repel his letters, and denied
\nHis access to me.<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nThat hath made him mad.
\nI am sorry that with better heed[53]<\/sup><\/a> and judgment
\n1010<\/sub>I had not quoted[54]<\/sup><\/a> him. I feared he did but trifle
\nAnd meant to wrack[55]<\/sup><\/a> thee; but beshrew my jealousy![56]<\/sup><\/a>
\nBy heaven, it is as proper to our age
\nTo cast beyond ourselves in our opinions[57]<\/sup><\/a>
\nAs it is common for the younger sort
\n1015<\/sub>To lack discretion. Come, go we to the King.
\nThis must be known,[58]<\/sup><\/a> which, being kept close,[59]<\/sup><\/a> might move
\nMore grief to hide than hate to utter love.[60]<\/sup><\/a>
\nCome.
\nExeunt.<\/em><\/p>\n

Scene 2<\/h1>\n

1020<\/sub>Flourish. Enter<\/em>[61]<\/sup><\/a> King, Queen, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern [with others].<\/em><\/p>\n

King<\/strong>
\nWelcome, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
\nMoreover that[62]<\/sup><\/a> we much did long to see you,
\nThe need we have to use you did provoke
\nOur hasty sending.[63]<\/sup><\/a> Something have you heard
\n1025<\/sub>Of Hamlet’s transformation–so I call it,
\nSince not th’exterior nor the inward man
\nResembles that[64]<\/sup><\/a> it was. What it should be,
\nMore than his father’s death, that thus hath put him
\nSo much from th’understanding of himself,
\n1030<\/sub>I cannot dream of. I entreat you both
\nThat, being of[65]<\/sup><\/a> so young days brought up with him,
\nAnd since so neighbored to his youth and humor,
\nThat you vouchsafe your rest[66]<\/sup><\/a> here in our court
\nSome little time, so by your companies[67]<\/sup><\/a>
\n1035<\/sub>To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather
\nSo much as from occasions you may glean,[68]<\/sup><\/a>
\n1036.1<\/sub>Whether aught to us unknown afflicts him thus
\nThat, opened,[69]<\/sup><\/a> lies within our remedy.<\/p>\n

Queen<\/strong>
\nGood gentlemen, he hath much talked of you,
\nAnd sure I am two men there is not living
\n1040<\/sub>To whom he more adheres. If it will please you
\nTo show us so much gentry[70]<\/sup><\/a> and good will
\nAs to expend your time with us awhile
\nFor the supply and profit of our hope,[71]<\/sup><\/a>
\nYour visitation shall receive such thanks
\n1045<\/sub>As fits a king’s remembrance.[72]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Rosencrantz<\/strong>
\nBoth your majesties
\nMight, by the sovereign power you have of us,[73]<\/sup><\/a>
\nPut your dread pleasures[74]<\/sup><\/a> more into command
\nThan to entreaty.<\/p>\n

1050<\/sub>Guildenstern<\/strong>
\nBut we both obey,
\nAnd here give up ourselves in the full bent[75]<\/sup><\/a>
\nTo lay our service freely at your feet
\nTo be commanded.<\/p>\n

King<\/strong>
\nThanks, Rosencrantz, and gentle Guildenstern.<\/p>\n

1055<\/sub>Queen<\/strong>
\nThanks, Guildenstern, and gentle Rosencrantz.
\nAnd I beseech you instantly to visit
\nMy too-much-chang\u00e8d son.–Go, some of you,
\nAnd bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is.<\/p>\n

1060<\/sub>Guildenstern<\/strong>
\nHeavens make our presence and our practices[76]<\/sup><\/a>
\nPleasant and helpful to him!<\/p>\n

Queen<\/strong>
\nAy, amen.
\nExeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern [and other Courtiers].<\/em>
\nEnter Polonius.<\/em><\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nTh’ambassadors from Norway, my good lord,
\n1065<\/sub>Are joyfully returned.<\/p>\n

King<\/strong>
\nThou still[77]<\/sup><\/a> hast been the father of good news.<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nHave I, my lord? Assure you, my good liege,
\nI hold my duty as I hold my soul,
\nBoth to my God and to my gracious king;
\n1070<\/sub>And I do think–or else this brain of mine
\nHunts not the trail of policy[78]<\/sup><\/a> so sure
\nAs it hath used to do–that I have found
\nThe very cause of Hamlet’s lunacy.<\/p>\n

King<\/strong>
\nOh, speak of that! That do I long to hear.<\/p>\n

1075<\/sub>Polonius<\/strong>
\nGive first admittance to th’ambassadors.
\nMy news shall be the fruit[79]<\/sup><\/a> to that great feast.<\/p>\n

King<\/strong>
\nThyself do grace[80]<\/sup><\/a> to them, and bring them in.
\n[Polonius goes to bring in the ambassadors.]<\/em>
\nHe tells me, my sweet Queen, that he hath found
\nThe head[81]<\/sup><\/a> and source of all your son’s distemper.<\/p>\n

1080<\/sub>Queen<\/strong>
\nI doubt[82]<\/sup><\/a> it is no other but the main:
\nHis father’s death, and our o’erhasty marriage.
\nEnter Polonius, Voltemand, and Cornelius.<\/em><\/p>\n

King<\/strong>
\nWell, we shall sift him.[83]<\/sup><\/a>–Welcome, my good friends.
\nSay, Voltemand, what from our brother Norway?<\/p>\n

1085<\/sub>Voltemand<\/strong>
\nMost fair return[84]<\/sup><\/a> of greetings and desires.[85]<\/sup><\/a>
\nUpon our first,[86]<\/sup><\/a> he sent out to suppress
\nHis nephew’s levies,[87]<\/sup><\/a> which to him appeared
\nTo be a preparation ‘gainst the Polack,
\nBut, better looked into, he truly found
\n1090<\/sub>It was[88]<\/sup><\/a> against your highness; whereat grieved
\nThat so his sickness, age, and impotence[89]<\/sup><\/a>
\nWas falsely borne in hand,[90]<\/sup><\/a> sends out arrests[91]<\/sup><\/a>
\nOn Fortinbras, which he in brief obeys,
\nReceives rebuke from Norway, and, in fine,[92]<\/sup><\/a>
\n1095<\/sub>Makes vow before his uncle never more
\nTo give th’assay of arms[93]<\/sup><\/a> against your majesty.
\nWhereon old Norway, overcome with joy,
\nGives him three thousand crowns in annual fee[94]<\/sup><\/a>
\nAnd his commission to employ those soldiers
\n1100<\/sub>So levied (as before) against the Polack,
\nWith an entreaty herein further shown
\n[Giving a letter to the King]<\/em>
\nThat it might please you to give quiet pass[95]<\/sup><\/a>
\nThrough your dominions for his enterprise
\nOn such regards of safety and allowance[96]<\/sup><\/a>
\n1105<\/sub>As therein[97]<\/sup><\/a> are set down.<\/p>\n

King<\/strong>
\nIt likes[98]<\/sup><\/a> us well,
\nAnd at our more considered[99]<\/sup><\/a> time we’ll read,
\nAnswer, and think upon this business.
\nMeantime, we thank you for your well-took labor.
\n1110<\/sub>Go to your rest. At night we’ll feast together.
\nMost welcome home!
\nExeunt Ambassadors.<\/em><\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nThis business is well ended.
\nMy liege[100]<\/sup><\/a> and madam, to expostulate[101]<\/sup><\/a>
\nWhat majesty should be, what duty is,
\n1115<\/sub>Why day is day, night night, and time is time,
\nWere nothing but to waste night, day, and time.
\nTherefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
\nAnd tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,[102]<\/sup><\/a>
\nI will be brief. Your noble son is mad.
\n1120<\/sub>Mad call I it, for to define true madness,
\nWhat is’t but to be nothing else but mad?
\nBut let that go.<\/p>\n

Queen<\/strong>
\nMore matter with less art.[103]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nMadam, I swear I use no art at all.
\n1125<\/sub>That he is mad, ’tis true. ‘Tis true ’tis pity,
\nAnd pity ’tis ’tis true–a foolish figure,[104]<\/sup><\/a>
\nBut farewell it, for I will use no art.
\nMad let us grant him, then. And now remains
\nThat we find out the cause of this effect,
\n1130<\/sub>Or rather say the cause of this defect,
\nFor this effect defective comes by cause.[105]<\/sup><\/a>
\nThus it remains, and the remainder thus.[106]<\/sup><\/a>
\nPerpend.[107]<\/sup><\/a>
\nI have a daughter–have whilst she is mine–
\nWho in her duty and obedience, mark,
\n1135<\/sub>Hath given me this. Now gather and surmise.[108]<\/sup><\/a>
\n[He reads from] the letter.]<\/em><\/p>\n

“To the celestial and my soul’s idol, the most beautified Ophelia.”
\n1140<\/sub>That’s an ill phrase, a vile phrase; “beautified” is a vile phrase. But
\nyou shall hear. “These in her excellent white bosom, these,” etc.[109]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Queen<\/strong>
\nCame this from Hamlet to her?<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nGood madam, stay[110]<\/sup><\/a> awhile, I will be faithful.[111]<\/sup><\/a>
\n[He reads the] letter.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Doubt thou the stars are fire,[112]<\/sup><\/a>
\n1145<\/sub>Doubt that the sun doth move,[113]<\/sup><\/a>
\nDoubt truth to be a liar,
\nBut never doubt I love.”<\/p>\n

“O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers.[114]<\/sup><\/a> I have not art to reckon[115]<\/sup><\/a>
\nmy groans. But that I love thee best, oh, most best, believe it. Adieu.
\nThine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this machine is[116]<\/sup><\/a> to him,
\nHamlet.”<\/p>\n

This in obedience hath my daughter shown me,
\nAnd, more above, hath his solicitings,
\n1155<\/sub>As they fell out, by time, by means, and place,
\nAll given to mine ear.[117]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

King<\/strong>
\nBut how hath she received his love?<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nWhat do you think of me?<\/p>\n

King<\/strong>
\nAs of a man faithful and honorable.<\/p>\n

1160<\/sub>Polonius<\/strong>
\nI would fain[118]<\/sup><\/a> prove so. But what might you think,
\nWhen I had seen this hot love on the wing–
\nAs I perceived it (I must tell you that)
\nBefore my daughter told me–what might you,
\nOr my dear majesty your queen here, think
\n1165<\/sub>If I had played the desk or table-book,[119]<\/sup><\/a>
\nOr given my heart a winking, mute and dumb,[120]<\/sup><\/a>
\nOr looked upon this love with idle sight,[121]<\/sup><\/a>
\nWhat might you think? No, I went round[122]<\/sup><\/a> to work,
\nAnd my young mistress thus I did bespeak:[123]<\/sup><\/a>
\n1170<\/sub>“Lord Hamlet is a prince out of thy star.[124]<\/sup><\/a>
\nThis must not be.” And then I precepts[125]<\/sup><\/a> gave her
\nThat she should lock herself from his resort,[126]<\/sup><\/a>
\nAdmit no messengers, receive no tokens.
\nWhich done, she took the fruits of my advice,
\n1175<\/sub>And he, repuls\u00e8d, a short tale to make,
\nFell into a sadness, then into a fast,
\nThence to a watch,[127]<\/sup><\/a> thence into a weakness,
\nThence to a lightness,[128]<\/sup><\/a> and by this declension[129]<\/sup><\/a>
\nInto the madness wherein now he raves,
\n1180<\/sub>And all we mourn for.<\/p>\n

King<\/strong>
\n[To Queen]<\/em> Do you think ’tis this?<\/p>\n

Queen<\/strong>
\nIt may be, very like.<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nHath there been such a time–I’d fain[130]<\/sup><\/a> know that–
\nThat I have positively said “‘Tis so”
\n1185<\/sub>When it proved otherwise?<\/p>\n

King<\/strong>
\nNot that I know.<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nTake this from this,[131]<\/sup><\/a> if this be otherwise.
\nIf circumstances lead me, I will find
\nWhere truth is hid, though it were hid indeed
\n1190<\/sub>Within the center.[132]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

King<\/strong>
\nHow may we try[133]<\/sup><\/a> it further?<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nYou know sometimes he walks four hours together
\nHere in the lobby.[134]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

1195<\/sub>Queen<\/strong>
\nSo he does indeed.<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nAt such a time, I’ll loose[135]<\/sup><\/a> my daughter to him.
\nBe you and I behind an arras[136]<\/sup><\/a> then;
\nMark the encounter. If he love her not,
\nAnd be not from his reason fall’n thereon,[137]<\/sup><\/a>
\n1200<\/sub>Let me be no assistant for a state
\nBut keep a farm and carters.[138]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

King<\/strong>
\nWe will try it.
\nEnter Hamlet reading on a book.<\/em><\/p>\n

Queen<\/strong>
\n1205<\/sub>But look where sadly the poor wretch comes reading.<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nAway, I do beseech you both, away.
\nI’ll board him presently.[139]<\/sup><\/a> Oh, give me leave.–[140]<\/sup><\/a>
\nExit King and Queen.<\/em>
\nHow does my good Lord Hamlet?<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nWell, God-a-mercy.[141]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

1210<\/sub>Polonius<\/strong>
\nDo you know me, my lord?<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nExcellent, excellent well. You’re a fishmonger.[142]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nNot I, my lord.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nThen I would you were so honest a man.<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nHonest, my lord?<\/p>\n

1215<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>
\nAy, sir, to be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten
\nthousand.[143]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nThat’s very true, my lord.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nFor if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a good kissing carrion–[144]<\/sup><\/a>
\nHave you a daughter?<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nI have, my lord.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nLet her not walk i’th’ sun.[145]<\/sup><\/a> Conception[146]<\/sup><\/a> is a blessing, but as your daughter
\nmay conceive, friend, look to’t.[147]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

1225<\/sub>Polonius<\/strong>
\n[Aside]<\/em> How say you by that? Still harping[148]<\/sup><\/a> on my daughter. Yet he knew me
\nnot at first. ‘A said I was a fishmonger. ‘A is far gone, far gone. And truly,
\nin my youth I suffered much extremity for love, very near this. I’ll speak to
\nhim again.–What do you read, my lord?<\/p>\n

1230<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>
\nWords, words, words.<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nWhat is the matter,[149]<\/sup><\/a> my lord?<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nBetween who?<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nI mean the matter that you read, my lord.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\n1235<\/sub>Slanders sir; for the satirical rogue says here that old men have gray beards,
\nthat their faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and plumtree
\ngum,[150]<\/sup><\/a> and that they have a plentiful lack of wit,[151]<\/sup><\/a> together with most weak hams–all
\n1240<\/sub>which, sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not
\nhonesty[152]<\/sup><\/a> to have it thus set down; for you yourself, sir, shall grow old as I am,
\nif, like a crab, you could go backward.<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\n1245<\/sub>[Aside]<\/em> Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.–Will you walk out
\nof the air,[153]<\/sup><\/a> my lord?<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nInto my grave.<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\n[Aside]<\/em> Indeed, that’s out of the air. How pregnant[154]<\/sup><\/a> sometimes his replies are!
\n1250<\/sub>A happiness[155]<\/sup><\/a> that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity could not
\nso prosperously[156]<\/sup><\/a> be delivered of. I will leave him, and suddenly contrive the
\n1255<\/sub>means of meeting between him and my daughter.–My honorable lord, I will
\nmost humbly take my leave of you.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nYou cannot, sir, take from me anything that I will more willingly part
\n1260<\/sub>withal[157]<\/sup><\/a>–except my life, except my life, except my life.
\nEnter Guildenstern and Rosencrantz.<\/em><\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nFare you well, my lord.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nThese tedious old fools!<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\n[To Rosencrantz and Guildenstern]<\/em> You go to seek the Lord Hamlet? There he is.<\/p>\n

Rosencrantz<\/strong>
\n[To Polonius]<\/em> God save you, sir.
\n[Exit Polonius.]<\/em><\/p>\n

Guildenstern<\/strong>
\nMy honored lord!<\/p>\n

Rosencrantz<\/strong>
\nMy most dear lord!<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\n1270<\/sub>My excellent good friends! How dost thou, Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do ye both?<\/p>\n

Rosencrantz<\/strong>
\nAs the indifferent[158]<\/sup><\/a> children of the earth.<\/p>\n

Guildenstern<\/strong>
\nHappy[159]<\/sup><\/a> in that we are not over-happy. On Fortune’s cap we are not the very
\nbutton.[160]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

1275<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>
\nNor the soles of her shoe?<\/p>\n

Rosencrantz<\/strong>
\nNeither, my lord.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nThen you live about her waist, or in the middle of her favors.[161]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Guildenstern<\/strong>
\nFaith,[162]<\/sup><\/a> her privates[163]<\/sup><\/a> we.<\/p>\n

1280<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>
\nIn the secret parts of Fortune? Oh, most true, she is a strumpet.[164]<\/sup><\/a> What’s the
\nnews?<\/p>\n

Rosencrantz<\/strong>
\nNone, my lord, but that the world’s grown honest.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\n1285<\/sub>Then is doomsday near.[165]<\/sup><\/a> But your news is not true. Let me question more in
\nparticular. What have you, my good friends, deserved at the hands of
\nFortune that she sends you to prison hither?<\/p>\n

Guildenstern<\/strong>
\nPrison, my lord?<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nDenmark’s a prison.<\/p>\n

1290<\/sub>Rosencrantz<\/strong>
\nThen is the world one.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nA goodly one, in which there are many confines,[166]<\/sup><\/a> wards, and dungeons,
\nDenmark being one o’th’ worst.<\/p>\n

Rosencrantz<\/strong>
\nWe think not so, my lord.<\/p>\n

1295<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>
\nWhy, then ’tis none to you, for there is nothing either good or bad but
\nthinking makes it so. To me it is a prison.<\/p>\n

Rosencrantz<\/strong>
\nWhy, then your ambition makes it one. ‘Tis too narrow for your mind.<\/p>\n

1300<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>
\nOh, God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of
\ninfinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.<\/p>\n

Guildenstern<\/strong>
\nWhich dreams indeed are ambition, for the very substance of the ambitious
\n1305<\/sub>is merely the shadow of a dream.[167]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nA dream itself is but a shadow.<\/p>\n

Rosencrantz<\/strong>
\nTruly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality that it is but a
\nshadow’s shadow.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\n1310<\/sub>Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and outstretched heroes the
\nbeggars’ shadows.[168]<\/sup><\/a> Shall we to th’court? For, by my fay,[169]<\/sup><\/a>] I cannot reason.<\/p>\n

Both<\/strong>
\nWe'll wait upon[170]<\/sup><\/a> you.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\n1315<\/sub>No such matter.[171]<\/sup><\/a> I will not sort[172]<\/sup><\/a> you with the rest of my servants, for, to speak
\nto you like an honest man, I am most dreadfully attended. But, in the beaten
\nway[173]<\/sup><\/a> of friendship, what make you[174]<\/sup><\/a> at Elsinore?<\/p>\n

Rosencrantz<\/strong>
\nTo visit you, my lord, no other occasion.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\n1320<\/sub>Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks, but I thank you; and sure, dear
\nfriends, my thanks are too dear a halfpenny.[175]<\/sup><\/a> Were you not sent for? Is it your
\nown inclining? Is it a free[176]<\/sup><\/a> visitation? Come, come, deal justly with me. Come,
\ncome, nay, speak.<\/p>\n

Guildenstern<\/strong>
\nWhat should we say, my lord?<\/p>\n

1325<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>
\nWhy, anything--but to th' purpose.[177]<\/sup><\/a> You were sent for, and there is a kind
\nof confession in your looks which your modesties have not craft enough to
\ncolor.[178]<\/sup><\/a> I know the good King and Queen have sent for you.<\/p>\n

Rosencrantz<\/strong>
\nTo what end, my lord?<\/p>\n

1330<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>
\nThat you must teach me. But let me conjure[179]<\/sup><\/a> you, by the rights of our
\nfellowship, by the consonancy of our youth,[180]<\/sup><\/a> by the obligation of our ever-
\npreserved love, and by what more dear a better proposer could charge you
\n1335<\/sub>withal,[181]<\/sup><\/a> be even[182]<\/sup><\/a> and direct with me whether you were sent for or no.<\/p>\n

Rosencrantz<\/strong>
\n[Aside to Guildenstern]<\/em> What say you?<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\n[Aside]<\/em> Nay, then, I have an eye of you.[183]<\/sup><\/a>--If you love me, hold not off.[184]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Guildenstern<\/strong>
\nMy lord, we were sent for.<\/p>\n

1340<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>
\nI will tell you why; so shall my anticipation prevent your discovery, and
\nyour secrecy to the King and Queen molt no feather.[185]<\/sup><\/a> I have of late, but
\nwherefore I know not, lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercise[186]<\/sup><\/a>; and
\n1345<\/sub>indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition[187]<\/sup><\/a> that this goodly frame,[188]<\/sup><\/a> the
\nearth, seems to me a sterile promontory. This most excellent canopy the air,
\nlook you, this brave o'erhanging firmament,[189]<\/sup><\/a> this majestical roof fretted with golden
\nfire, why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent
\n1350<\/sub>congregation[190]<\/sup><\/a> of vapors. What a piece of work is a man! How noble in
\nreason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving[191]<\/sup><\/a> how express[192]<\/sup><\/a> and
\nadmirable! In action, how like an angel! In apprehension,[193]<\/sup><\/a> how like a god;
\n1355<\/sub>the beauty of the world; the paragon of animals. And yet to me what is this
\nquintessence[194]<\/sup><\/a> of dust? Man delights not me, no, nor woman neither, though
\nby your smiling you seem to say so.<\/p>\n

Rosencrantz<\/strong>
\nMy lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts.<\/p>\n

1360<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>
\nWhy did you laugh, then, when I said man delights not me?<\/p>\n

Rosencrantz<\/strong>
\nTo think, my lord, if you delight not in man, what lenten entertainment[195]<\/sup><\/a> the
\nplayers shall receive from you. We coted them on the way, and hither are
\nthey coming to offer you service.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nHe that plays the King shall be welcome; his majesty shall have tribute of
\nme.[196]<\/sup><\/a> The Adventurous Knight shall use his foil and target, the Lover shall not
\n1370<\/sub>sigh gratis,[197]<\/sup><\/a> the Humorous Man shall end his part in peace,[198]<\/sup><\/a> the Clown shall
\nmake those laugh whose lungs are tickled o'th' sear,[199]<\/sup><\/a> and the Lady shall say
\nher mind freely, or the blank verse shall halt for't. What players are they?<\/p>\n

Rosencrantz<\/strong>
\n1375<\/sub>Even those you were wont to take such delight in,[200]<\/sup><\/a> the tragedians[201]<\/sup><\/a> of the city.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nHow chances it they travel?[202]<\/sup><\/a> Their residence[203]<\/sup><\/a> both in reputation and profit
\nwas better both ways.<\/p>\n

Rosencrantz<\/strong>
\n1380<\/sub>I think their inhibition comes by the means of the late innovation.[204]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nDo they hold the same estimation[205]<\/sup><\/a> they did when I was in the city? Are they
\nso followed?<\/p>\n

Rosencrantz<\/strong>
\nNo, indeed, they are not.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nHow comes it? Do they grow rusty?<\/p>\n

1385<\/sub>Rosencrantz<\/strong>
\nNay, their endeavor keeps in the wonted pace.[206]<\/sup><\/a> But there is, sir, an eyrie[207]<\/sup><\/a> of
\nchildren, little eyases,[208]<\/sup><\/a> that cry out on the top of question,[209]<\/sup><\/a> and are most
\ntyrannically[210]<\/sup><\/a> clapped for't. These are now the fashion, and so berattle the
\n1390<\/sub>common stages[211]<\/sup><\/a>--so they call them--that many wearing rapiers are afraid of
\ngoose quills[212]<\/sup><\/a> and dare scarce come thither.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nWhat, are they children? Who maintains 'em? How are they escoted?[213]<\/sup><\/a> Will
\nthey pursue the quality[214]<\/sup><\/a> no longer than they can sing?[215]<\/sup><\/a> Will they not say
\n1395<\/sub>afterwards, if they should grow themselves to common players[216]<\/sup><\/a>--as it is most
\nlike if their means are not better[217]<\/sup><\/a>--their writers do them wrong to make them
\nexclaim against their own succession?[218]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Rosencrantz<\/strong>
\n1400<\/sub>Faith,[219]<\/sup><\/a> there has been much to-do[220]<\/sup><\/a> on both sides, and the nation[221]<\/sup><\/a> holds it no sin
\nto tarre[222]<\/sup><\/a> them to controversy. There was for a while no money bid for
\nargument unless the poet and the player went to cuffs in the question.[223]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nIs't possible?<\/p>\n

1405<\/sub>Guildenstern<\/strong>
\nOh, there has been much throwing about of brains.[224]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nDo the boys carry it away?[225]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Rosencrantz<\/strong>
\nAy, that they do, my lord, Hercules and his load[226]<\/sup><\/a> too.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\n1410<\/sub>It is not very strange, for my uncle is King of Denmark, and those that would
\nmake mows[227]<\/sup><\/a> at him while my father lived give twenty, forty, fifty, a hundred
\nducats[228]<\/sup><\/a> apiece for his picture in little.[229]<\/sup><\/a> 'Sblood,[230]<\/sup><\/a> there is something in this more than
\nnatural, if philosophy could find it out.
\n1415<\/sub>Flourish for the players.<\/em>[231]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Guildenstern<\/strong>
\nThere are the players.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nGentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands, come.
\nTh'appurtenance of welcome is fashion and ceremony.[232]<\/sup><\/a> Let me comply with you
\n1420<\/sub>in this garb,[233]<\/sup><\/a> lest my extent to the players,[234]<\/sup><\/a> which, I tell you, must show fairly outward,[235]<\/sup><\/a> should more appear like entertainment[236]<\/sup><\/a> than yours.[237]<\/sup><\/a> You are
\nwelcome. But my uncle-father[238]<\/sup><\/a> and aunt-mother[239]<\/sup><\/a> are deceived.<\/p>\n

Guildenstern<\/strong>
\nIn what, my dear lord?<\/p>\n

1425<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>
\nI am but mad north-north-west;[240]<\/sup><\/a> when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk
\nfrom a handsaw.[241]<\/sup><\/a>
\nEnter Polonius.<\/em><\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nWell be[242]<\/sup><\/a> with you, gentlemen.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\n1430<\/sub>Hark you, Guildenstern, and you too, at each ear a hearer: that great baby
\nyou see there is not yet out of his swaddling clouts.[243]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Rosencrantz<\/strong>
\nHaply[244]<\/sup><\/a> he is the second time come to them, for they say an old man is twice
\na child.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\n1435<\/sub>I will prophesy he comes to tell me of the players. Mark it.-- You say right,
\nsir, o'Monday morning, 'twas then indeed.<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nMy lord, I have news to tell you.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nMy lord, I have news to tell you. When Roscius was an actor[245]<\/sup><\/a> in Rome--<\/p>\n

1440<\/sub>Polonius<\/strong>
\nThe actors are come hither, my lord.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nBuzz, buzz.[246]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nUpon my honor--<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nThen came each actor on his ass.<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\n1445<\/sub>The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral,
\npastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-
\nhistorical-pastoral, scene individable, or poem unlimited.[247]<\/sup><\/a>Seneca[248]<\/sup><\/a> cannot be
\n1450<\/sub>too heavy nor Plautus[249]<\/sup><\/a> too light. For the law of writ and the liberty,[250]<\/sup><\/a> these[251]<\/sup><\/a> are
\nthe only men.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nO Jephthah, judge of Israel,[252]<\/sup><\/a> what a treasure hadst thou?<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nWhat a treasure had he, my lord?<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nWhy,
\nOne fair daughter and no more,
\n1455<\/sub>The which he lov\u00e8d passing[253]<\/sup><\/a> well.[254]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\n[Aside]<\/em> Still on my daughter.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nAm I not i'th' right, old Jephthah?<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nIf you call me Jephthah, my lord, I have a daughter that I love passing well.<\/p>\n

1460<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>
\nNay, that follows not.[255]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nWhat follows then, my lord?[256]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nWhy,
\nAs by lot,[257]<\/sup><\/a>
\nGod wot,[258]<\/sup><\/a>
\nand then you know,
\nIt came to pass,
\nAs most like it was.[259]<\/sup><\/a>
\n1465<\/sub>The first row of the pious chanson will show you more,[260]<\/sup><\/a> for look where my
\nabridgment comes.[261]<\/sup><\/a>
\nEnter four or five Players.
\n<\/em>You are welcome, masters,[262]<\/sup><\/a> welcome all.--I am glad to see thee well. Welcome,
\ngood friends.--Oh, my old friend! Thy face is valanced[263]<\/sup><\/a> since I saw thee last.
\n1470<\/sub>Com'st thou to beard[264]<\/sup><\/a> me in Denmark?-- What, my young lady[265]<\/sup><\/a> and mistress![266]<\/sup><\/a>
\nBy'r Lady,[267]<\/sup><\/a> your ladyship is nearer heaven[268]<\/sup><\/a> than when I saw you last, by the
\naltitude of a chopine.[269]<\/sup><\/a> Pray God your voice, like a piece of uncurrent gold,[270]<\/sup><\/a> be
\n1475<\/sub>not cracked within the ring.[271]<\/sup><\/a>--Masters, you are all welcome. We'll e'en to't,
\nlike French falconers:[272]<\/sup><\/a> fly at anything we see. We'll have a speech straight.[273]<\/sup><\/a>
\nCome, give us a taste of your quality.[274]<\/sup><\/a> Come, a passionate speech.<\/p>\n

First Player<\/strong>
\nWhat speech, my good lord?<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\n1480<\/sub>I heard thee speak me[275]<\/sup><\/a> a speech once, but it was[276]<\/sup><\/a> never acted, or, if it was, not
\nabove once; for the play, I remember, pleased not the million, 'twas caviare
\nto the general.[277]<\/sup><\/a> But it was, as I received it, and others whose judgments in
\nsuch matters cried in the top of mine,[278]<\/sup><\/a> an excellent play, well digested in the
\n1485<\/sub>scenes,[279]<\/sup><\/a> set down with as much modesty[280]<\/sup><\/a> as cunning.[281]<\/sup><\/a> I remember one said
\nthere were no sallets[282]<\/sup><\/a> in the lines to make the matter savory, nor no matter in
\n1488.1<\/sub>the phrase that might indict[283]<\/sup><\/a> the author of affectation, but called it an honest
\n1490<\/sub>method, as wholesome as sweet, and by very much more handsome than fine.[284]<\/sup><\/a> One speech in't I chiefly loved: 'twas Aeneas' tale to Dido,[285]<\/sup><\/a>
\nand thereabout of it especially where he speaks of Priam's slaughter. If it live in your memory, begin at this line--let me see, let me see--
\nThe rugged[286]<\/sup><\/a> Pyrrhus,[287]<\/sup><\/a> like th'Hyrcanian beast--[288]<\/sup><\/a>
\n'Tis not so, it begins with Pyrrhus.
\nThe rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms,[289]<\/sup><\/a>
\n1495<\/sub>Black as his purpose, did the night resemble
\nWhen he lay couch\u00e8d[290]<\/sup><\/a> in the ominous horse,[292]<\/sup><\/a> Head to foot
\nNow is he total gules,[293]<\/sup><\/a> horridly tricked[294]<\/sup><\/a>
\n1500<\/sub>With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons,
\nBaked and empasted with the parching streets[295]<\/sup><\/a>
\nThat lend a tyrannous[296]<\/sup><\/a> and damn\u00e8d light
\nTo their vile murders.[297]<\/sup><\/a> Roasted in wrath and fire,
\nAnd thus o'ersiz\u00e8d[298]<\/sup><\/a> with coagulate[299]<\/sup><\/a> gore,
\n1505<\/sub>With eyes like carbuncles,[300]<\/sup><\/a> the hellish Phyrrhus
\nOld grandsire Priam seeks.
\nSo proceed you.<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\n'Fore God, my Lord, well spoken, with good accent and good discretion.<\/p>\n

First Player<\/strong>
\nAnon[301]<\/sup><\/a> he finds him,
\n1510<\/sub>Striking too short at Greeks. His antique[302]<\/sup><\/a> sword,
\nRebellious to his arm, lies where it falls,
\nRepugnant to command.[303]<\/sup><\/a> Unequal matched,
\nPyrrhus at Priam drives, in rage strikes wide,
\nBut with the whiff and wind of his fell[304]<\/sup><\/a> sword
\n1515<\/sub>Th'unnerv\u00e8d father[305]<\/sup><\/a> falls. Then senseless Ilium,[306]<\/sup><\/a>
\nSeeming to feel this blow, with flaming top
\nStoops to his base,[307]<\/sup><\/a> and with a hideous crash
\nTakes prisoner Pyrrhus' ear; for lo! his sword,
\nWhich was declining[308]<\/sup><\/a> on the milky[309]<\/sup><\/a> head
\n1520<\/sub>Of reverend Priam, seemed i'th' air to stick.
\nSo as a painted[310]<\/sup><\/a> tyrant Pyrrhus stood,
\nAnd, like a neutral to his will and matter,[311]<\/sup><\/a>
\nDid nothing.
\nBut as we often see against[312]<\/sup><\/a> some storm
\nA silence in the heavens, the rack[313]<\/sup><\/a> stand still,
\n1525<\/sub>The bold winds speechless, and the orb[314]<\/sup><\/a> below
\nAs hush as death, anon the dreadful thunder
\nDoth rend the region,[315]<\/sup><\/a> so, after Pyrrhus' pause,
\nA rous\u00e8d vengeance sets him new a-work,
\nAnd never did the Cyclops'[316]<\/sup><\/a> hammers fall
\n1530<\/sub>On Mars his[317]<\/sup><\/a> armor forged for proof eterne[318]<\/sup><\/a>
\nWith less remorse[319]<\/sup><\/a> than Pyrrhus' bleeding[320]<\/sup><\/a> sword
\nNow falls on Priam.
\nOut, out,[321]<\/sup><\/a> thou strumpet[322]<\/sup><\/a> Fortune! All you gods
\nIn general synod[323]<\/sup><\/a> take away her power,
\n1535<\/sub>Break all the spokes and fellies[324]<\/sup><\/a> from her wheel,
\nAnd bowl the round nave[325]<\/sup><\/a> down the hill of heaven[326]<\/sup><\/a>
\nAs low as to the fiends!<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nThis is too long.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\n1540<\/sub>It shall to the barber's with your beard.--Prithee, say on. He's for a jig,[327]<\/sup><\/a> or a
\ntale of bawdry, or he sleeps. Say on. Come to Hecuba..[328]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

First Player<\/strong>
\nBut who, oh, who, had seen the mobl\u00e8d[329]<\/sup><\/a> queen--.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nThe mobl\u00e8d queen!<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nThat's good. \"Moble\u00e8d queen\" is good.<\/p>\n

1545<\/sub>First Player<\/strong>
\nRun barefoot up and down, threat'ning the flames
\nWith bisson rheum,[330]<\/sup><\/a> a clout upon that head
\nWhere late[331]<\/sup><\/a> the diadem[332]<\/sup><\/a> stood, and, for a robe,
\nAbout her lank and all-o'erteem\u00e8d loins[333]<\/sup><\/a>
\n1550<\/sub>A blanket in th'alarm of fear caught up--
\nWho this had seen,[334]<\/sup><\/a> with tongue in venom steeped
\n'Gainst Fortune's state would treason have pronounced;[335]<\/sup><\/a>
\nBut if[336]<\/sup><\/a> the gods themselves did see her then,
\nWhen she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport
\n1555<\/sub>In mincing with his sword her husband's limbs,
\nThe instant burst of clamor that she made,
\nUnless things mortal move them not at all,
\nWould have made milch the burning eyes of heaven[337]<\/sup><\/a>
\nAnd passion[338]<\/sup><\/a> in the gods.<\/p>\n

1560<\/sub>Polonius<\/strong>
\nLook whe'er he has not turned his color, and has tears in's eyes.--Prithee,
\nno more.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\n'Tis well. I'll have thee speak out the rest of this soon. [To Polonius]<\/em> Good my lord,
\nwill you see the players well bestowed?[339]<\/sup><\/a> Do ye hear, let them be well used,[340]<\/sup><\/a>
\n1565<\/sub>for they are the abstracts and brief chronicles of the time.[341]<\/sup><\/a> After your death
\nyou were better have a bad epitaph[342]<\/sup><\/a> than their ill report while you live.<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nMy lord, I will use them according to their desert.<\/p>\n

1570<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>
\nGod's bodykins,[343]<\/sup><\/a> man, much better. Use every man after his desert and who should
\nscape whipping? Use them after[344]<\/sup><\/a> your own honor and dignity; the less they
\ndeserve, the more merit is in your bounty. Take them in.<\/p>\n

1575<\/sub>Polonius<\/strong>
\nCome, sirs.
\nExit Polonius.<\/em><\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nFollow him, friends. We'll hear a play tomorrow. [Aside to the First Player]<\/em>
\nDost thou hear me, old friend, can you play \"The Murder of Gonzago\"?<\/p>\n

[First] Player<\/strong>
\nAy, my lord.<\/p>\n

1580<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>
\nWe'll ha't[345]<\/sup><\/a> tomorrow night. You could for a need[346]<\/sup><\/a> study[347]<\/sup><\/a> a speech of some
\ndozen or sixteen lines, which I would set down and insert in't, could you not?<\/p>\n

[First] Player<\/strong>
\nAy, my lord.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\n1585<\/sub>Very well. Follow that lord, and look you mock him not.
\nExeunt Players.<\/em>
\nMy good friends, I'll leave you till night. You are welcome to Elsinore.<\/p>\n

Rosencrantz<\/strong>
\nGood my lord.[348]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nAy, so, God b'wi' you.
\nExeunt [Rosencrantz and Guildenstern].<\/em>
\nNow I am alone.
\n1590<\/sub>Oh, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!
\nIs it not monstrous that this player here,
\nBut in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
\nCould force his soul so to his whole conceit[349]<\/sup><\/a>
\nThat from her working[350]<\/sup><\/a> all his visage[351]<\/sup><\/a> waned,[352]<\/sup><\/a>
\n1595<\/sub>Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect,[353]<\/sup><\/a>
\nA broken voice, and his whole function suiting
\nWith forms to his conceit?[354]<\/sup><\/a> And all or nothing?
\nFor Hecuba?
\nWhat's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,
\n1600<\/sub>That he should weep for her? What would he do
\nHad he the motive and the cue for passion
\nThat I have? He would drown the stage with tears,
\nAnd cleave the general ear[355]<\/sup><\/a> with horrid[356]<\/sup><\/a> speech,
\nMake mad the guilty, and appal the free,[357]<\/sup><\/a>
\n1605<\/sub>Confound the ignorant,[358]<\/sup><\/a> and amaze[359]<\/sup><\/a> indeed
\nThe very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet I,
\nA dull and muddy-mettled[360]<\/sup><\/a> rascal, peak[361]<\/sup><\/a>
\nLike John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause,[362]<\/sup><\/a>
\nAnd can say nothing; no, not for a king
\n1610<\/sub>Upon whose property[363]<\/sup><\/a> and most dear life
\nA damned defeat[364]<\/sup><\/a> was made. Am I a coward?
\nWho calls me villain? Breaks my pate across?[365]<\/sup><\/a>
\nPlucks off my beard[366]<\/sup><\/a> and blows it in my face?
\nTweaks me by th' nose? Gives me the lie i'th' throat[367]<\/sup><\/a>
\n1615<\/sub>As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this,[368]<\/sup><\/a>
\nHa? 'Swounds,[369]<\/sup><\/a> I should take it;[370]<\/sup><\/a> for it cannot be[371]<\/sup><\/a>
\nBut I am pigeon-livered,[372]<\/sup><\/a> and lack gall
\nTo make oppression bitter,[373]<\/sup><\/a> or ere[374]<\/sup><\/a> this
\nI should ha' fatted all the region kites[375]<\/sup><\/a>
\n1620<\/sub>With this slave's offal.[376]<\/sup><\/a> Bloody, bawdy[377]<\/sup><\/a> villain!
\nRemorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless[378]<\/sup><\/a> villain!
\nOh, vengeance!
\nWhy, what an ass am I! This is most brave,[379]<\/sup><\/a>
\nThat I, the son of a dear father murdered,
\n1625<\/sub>Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,
\nMust like a whore unpack my heart with words,
\nAnd fall a-cursing like a very drab,[380]<\/sup><\/a>
\nA scullion.[381]<\/sup><\/a> Fie upon't, foh! About,[382]<\/sup><\/a> my brain!
\nHum, I have heard
\nThat guilty creatures sitting at a play
\n1630<\/sub>Have by the very cunning[383]<\/sup><\/a> of the scene
\nBeen struck so to the soul that presently[384]<\/sup><\/a>
\nThey have proclaimed their malefactions;[385]<\/sup><\/a>
\nFor murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
\nWith most miraculous organ. I'll have these players
\n1635<\/sub>Play something like the murder of my father
\nBefore mine uncle. I'll observe his looks;
\nI'll tent him to the quick.[386]<\/sup><\/a> If 'a but blench[387]<\/sup><\/a>
\nI know my course. The spirit that I have seen
\nMay be the devil, and the devil hath power
\n1640<\/sub>T'assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps,
\nOut of my weakness and my melancholy,
\nAs he is very potent with such spirits,
\nAbuses[388]<\/sup><\/a> me to damn me. I'll have grounds
\nMore relative[389]<\/sup><\/a> than this. The play's the thing
\n1645<\/sub>Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King.
\nExit.<\/em><\/p>\n

  1. Location: Polonius's apartment in the castle, as in 1.3. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  2. Laertes (as confirmed in lines 6 ff.). ↵<\/a><\/li>
  3. To inquire. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  4. i.e., By the Virgin Mary. (A mild oath.) As at 1.3.91 (TLN 556) and 1.4.15 (TLN 618) above. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  5. Inquire on my behalf. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  6. Danes. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  7. How they live. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  8. What wealth they have. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  9. Dwell, frequent. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  10. By this roundabout way of asking questions. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  11. You will find out more this way than you would by making pointed inquiries. \"More nearer\" is an emphatic double negative, an acceptable usage in Elizabethan English. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  12. Assume, pretend. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  13. Impute to him. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  14. Invented tales. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  15. Gross. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  16. Unrestrained. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  17. Gambling. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  18. Picking a quarrel with someone became an obsession with many young men intent on establishing themselves as persons of chivalric honor. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  19. Whoring. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  20. Chronic sexual overindulgence. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  21. Name, utter. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  22. Artfully, subtly. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  23. Faults arising from too much free living. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  24. A wildness in untamed youth that afflicts most young men. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  25. A justifiable stratagem. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  26. Stains, blemishes. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  27. In the handling. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  28. The person you are conversing with. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  29. Sound out. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  30. If he has ever detected the young man you are asking about to be guilty of the offenses we have just enumerated. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  31. He takes you into his confidence in the following way. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  32. Leave off. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  33. Quarreling. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  34. Whorehouse. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  35. Namely (Latin). ↵<\/a><\/li>
  36. A fish. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  37. i.e., circuitous paths. (Literally, a hunter's roundabout circuit to head off pursued animals.) ↵<\/a><\/li>
  38. Indirect courses (resembling the curved path or \"bias\" of the bowling ball that is weighted to one side). ↵<\/a><\/li>
  39. The way things are going. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  40. The set of instructions I've just given you. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  41. Understand me. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  42. i.e., God be with you; farewell. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  43. Take a personal interest in observing his habits; judge his behavior from the perspective of your knowledge of your own inclinations. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  44. Man's close-fitting jacket all unfastened. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  45. Hats were customarily worn indoors in the Elizabethan period. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  46. Dirty and untidy. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  47. Hamlet's stockings, no longer held up by garters tied around the knees, have fallen down around his ankles, like a prisoner's \"gyves\" or shackles. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  48. In what it expressed. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  49. Body. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  50. Madness. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  51. Whose violent nature is self-destructive. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  52. Polonius points to the possibility of suicide. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  53. Attentiveness, care. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  54. Observed. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  55. Ruin, seduce. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  56. A plague on my suspicious nature! ↵<\/a><\/li>
  57. I swear, it is as characteristic for old men to overreach and read too much into the things we see. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  58. Made known to the King. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  59. Concealed. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  60. Might ultimately cause even more unhappiness than would be the result of my well-intended but unwelcome announcing of bad news (about Hamlet's mad love of Ophelia). ↵<\/a><\/li>
  61. Location: The castle. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  62. Besides the fact that. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  63. Sending for you. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  64. What. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  65. From. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  66. Consent to stay. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  67. The company of you both. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  68. Opportunities you may gather or infer. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  69. Being revealed. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  70. Courtesy. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  71. In order to aid us in furthering what we hope for. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  72. As would be a fitting gift of a king in rewarding your service. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  73. Over us. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  74. The wishes of you who inspire awe and fear. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  75. To the utmost extent of which we are capable. (A metaphor from drawing the bow in archery.) ↵<\/a><\/li>
  76. Doings. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  77. Always. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  78. Statecraft. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  79. The dessert. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  80. Ceremonious honor. (With a suggestion of a \"grace\" said before a meal, continuing the metaphor of the previous line.) ↵<\/a><\/li>
  81. Source. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  82. Fear, suspect. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  83. Question Polonius. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  84. Reciprocation. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  85. Good wishes. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  86. At our first presentation of our mission. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  87. Young Fortinbras's raising of troops. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  88. He found that it in fact was. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  89. Weakness. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  90. Taken advantage of. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  91. Orders to desist. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  92. In conclusion. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  93. Make trial of military might. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  94. Income, payment. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  95. Safe and uninterrupted passage. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  96. With such consideration for Denmark's safety and for the permission granted to Fortinbras. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  97. in the document we have just delivered to you. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  98. Pleases. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  99. Suitable for deliberation. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  100. One who is entitled to feudal allegiance or service. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  101. Expound, debate. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  102. And since long-windedness can add nothing but decorative rhetorical flourishes. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  103. Give us more substance with less artfulness. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  104. Figure of speech. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  105. For this defective behavior in Hamlet must have a cause. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  106. That pretty much sums up the situation, and leaves us to figure out what to make of it, what to do. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  107. Consider. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  108. Think about this and draw your own conclusions. (\"Gather\" may also suggest \"gather around me.\") ↵<\/a><\/li>
  109. i.e., These words are addressed to the spotlessly white bosom of the one I love. (Young ladies would often keep such love letters in their blouses, next to their hearts.) The \"etc.\" could be a part of the letter, or, more plausibly, Polonius's way of summarizing what he chooses not to read. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  110. Hold on, wait. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  111. I will do as I said I would. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  112. Suspect or question the undoubted truth that the stars are fire (sooner than doubt my love for you). ↵<\/a><\/li>
  113. (This \"undoubted truth\" seems postulated on the traditional Ptolemaic cosmology with the earth at the center of the universe and the sun one celestial body that moves about it.) ↵<\/a><\/li>
  114. Lacking the skill needed to write verses like these, and too lovesick to do so. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  115. (1) count, enumerate; (2) number metrically, scan. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  116. Body belongs. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  117. And moreover she has let me know when, by what means, and where his solicitings occurred (\"fell out\u201d). ↵<\/a><\/li>
  118. Gladly, willingly. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  119. i.e., If I had noted all this in my memory-book but had done nothing about it; or, if I had acted as go-between. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  120. Or if I had deliberately shut my eyes to what my heart suspected. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  121. Complacently or uncomprehendingly. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  122. Directly, energetically. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  123. Address. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  124. Above your sphere or social station. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  125. Orders. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  126. His having access to her. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  127. Sleepless state. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  128. To lightheadedness. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  129. Decline, deterioration. (Playing also with a grammatical metaphor.) ↵<\/a><\/li>
  130. I would gladly. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  131. The actor's various options here include the gesture of miming the severing of his head from his body, or removing the chain of office from around his neck or his staff of office from his hands. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  132. Center of the earth, traditionally regarded as wholly inaccessible. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  133. Test. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  134. Corridor or waiting-room. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  135. Let loose (as if she were a caged animal about to be mated). ↵<\/a><\/li>
  136. Wall-hanging, tapestry. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  137. On that account. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  138. Cart drivers. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  139. Accost him immediately. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  140. Leave this to me; leave me alone to handle this. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  141. God have mercy, i.e., thank you. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  142. Fish merchant. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  143. Compare the proverb, \"A man (one) among a thousand\". ↵<\/a><\/li>
  144. A good piece of flesh for kissing. Hamlet, in his mad guise, obliquely warns Polonius that Ophelia may respond to the heat of sexual desire by becoming pregnant, just as the sun presumably breeds maggots in rotting flesh--perhaps with a pun on \"sun\" and \"son,\" i.e., Hamlet himself, as son of the dead king. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  145. (1) In public; (2) into the sunshine of Hamlet's princely favors (continuing the pun on sun\/son in the previous lines). ↵<\/a><\/li>
  146. (1) Understanding; (2) Conceiving a child. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  147. Take care, be wary. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  148. Dwelling obsessively on. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  149. What is the substance of what you are reading? (But Hamlet deliberately misunderstands, answering as if Polonius had asked, \"What is the quarrel between the people you are talking about?\") ↵<\/a><\/li>
  150. Are dropping thick, moist discharges like the sticky resins from various trees. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  151. Understanding. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  152. Decency, honorable behavior. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  153. The air outdoors was thought to be noxious, especially for the sick and old. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  154. Cogent, full of meaning. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  155. Aptness, felicity of expression. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  156. Successfully, effectively. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  157. With. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  158. Ordinary, neither extremely fortunate nor unfortunate. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  159. Fortunate. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  160. Presumably, Fortune's cap has a button at its highest point. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  161. In her genital area. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  162. In good faith. (A mild oath.) ↵<\/a><\/li>
  163. (1) sexual members; (2) ordinary foot-soldiers; (3) informal friends and counselors, without official title. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  164. Whore. (Fortune was proverbially fickle in bestowing her favors.) ↵<\/a><\/li>
  165. The idea of the world growing honest is so radical as to be apocalyptic, a sure sign that the end is near. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  166. Enclosures, places of confinement. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  167. The goal of ambition is without substance, being nothing more than the unreal image of something that is itself mere illusion. (Rosencrantz repeats this idea in line 213.) ↵<\/a><\/li>
  168. In that case, ordinary beggars must be more substantial, in that they lack ambition, whereas our monarchs and others, whom we make to seem greater than they really are by our adulation of them, are in fact only the unsubstantial shadows cast by our beggars. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  169. Faith. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  170. Accompany, attend. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  171. Certainly not. (Hamlet interprets their \"wait upon\" as meaning \"provide menial service.\" He will not treat his boyhood friends this way.) ↵<\/a><\/li>
  172. Class, categorize. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  173. Well-trodden path, tried-and-true course. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  174. What are you doing. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  175. Too expensive at even a mere halfpenny, a coin of little value; or, too expensive by a halfpenny for me to give in return for such worthless kindness. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  176. Voluntary. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  177. Say anything you like, but let's get to the main point. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  178. Disguise. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  179. Solemnly entreat. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  180. The close friendship of our younger days and of our ages. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  181. By whatever more earnest entreaty a more skillful proposer might urge. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  182. On the level, straightforward. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  183. On you. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  184. Don't hold back. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  185. i.e., lose none of its attractive appearance. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  186. exercise (Such as tennis or fencing.) ↵<\/a><\/li>
  187. It weighs so heavily on my spirits. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  188. Structure. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  189. Splendid heavenly canopy hanging over us. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  190. Mass, assemblage. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  191. In shape and motion. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  192. Well framed; expressive. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  193. Understanding, power of comprehending. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  194. Very essence. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  195. Meager reception (appropriate to Lent, the forty days of penitence and fasting from Ash Wednesday to Easter). During Lent, the public theaters were not allowed to perform plays. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  196. Payment; homage, praise from me. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  197. In vain, for nothing. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  198. The eccentric character, displaying the dominance in him of a particular \"humor\" (obsession, whim, fancy), will have full license to speak without interruption. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  199. i.e., the Clown will make those laugh who are predisposed to laugh easily. (Only those spectators who are thus inclined will laugh at the Clown's stale jokes.) ↵<\/a><\/li>
  200. Were accustomed to take such delight in. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  201. Actors (of comedy or tragedy). ↵<\/a><\/li>
  202. i.e., tour the provinces. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  203. Remaining in the city, not on tour. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  204. Their being restrained from public performance is the result of recent disturbances. Hamlet may be referring to the recent revival in 1599-1600 of performances by the juvenile acting companies, whose marked tendency toward potentially libelous political satire had led to their being suppressed throughout the 1590s. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  205. Esteem. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  206. Continues at the usual pace. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  207. Nest, and the brood of chicks in it. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  208. Young hawks, here signifying the boy actors. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  209. Shout more shrilly than their competitors. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  210. Vehemently, outrageously. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  211. Make noisy clamor against the adult acting companies. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  212. That many gentlemen fear being satirized in the juvenile companies' plays. \"Goose quills\" are the pens of the dramatists writing for the boys' companies. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  213. Maintained, provided for. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  214. The acting profession. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  215. i.e., only until their voices break at adolescence. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  216. Into adult actors for the \"public\" stage. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  217. If they can find no better way to support themselves. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  218. i.e., future careers. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  219. In good faith. (A mild oath.) ↵<\/a><\/li>
  220. Ado. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  221. Populace. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  222. Goad, incite (as in inciting dogs to attack a chained bear). ↵<\/a><\/li>
  223. For a while, no money was offered to a playwright unless his play took part in the sharp controversy between the satirical writers for the juvenile companies and the dramatists who wrote for the adult companies. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  224. Lively exchanges in the battle of wits. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  225. Win the day. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  226. Seemingly an allusion to the sign of the Globe Theater, which may have shown Hercules bearing the world on his shoulders in a \"Herculean\" labor. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  227. Faces, grimaces. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  228. Gold coins. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  229. Portrait in miniature. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  230. By God's (Christ's) blood. (An oath.) ↵<\/a><\/li>
  231. A fanfare, usually on trumpets, for important entrances, here announcing the arrival of the actors at Elsinore Castle. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  232. Ceremonious actions and gestures are the proper accompaniment to a welcome. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  233. Let me comply with ceremonious custom in the proper manner by shaking hands with you. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  234. Lest my extending a welcome to the actors. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  235. Must necessarily display all the customary signs of a courteous welcome. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  236. Reception, welcome. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  237. Than the welcome I have extended to you. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  238. Both uncle and stepfather. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  239. Both mother and now aunt (by the marriage which Hamlet considers incestuous). ↵<\/a><\/li>
  240. Mad only a small degree from true north, i.e., not very mad; or, mad only when the wind blows from that direction. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  241. i.e., Only a mad person would be unable to distinguish a hawk from a handsaw, and I have no trouble distinguishing them. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  242. May all be well. (A conventional greeting.) ↵<\/a><\/li>
  243. Clothes in which a baby is wrapped to keep it safe and still. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  244. Perhaps. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  245. Quintus Roscius Gallus, the famous Roman actor, lived c. 126-62 BC. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  246. An interjection, here conveying Hamlet's contempt for Polonius's telling the already stale news of the actors' arrival. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  247. i.e., plays without scene breaks and unrestrained by rules, hence all-inclusive or unclassifiable--an absurdly catchall conclusion to Polonius's list of dramatic categories. Shakespeare was already well known for writing plays that ignored the classical \"unities\" of time, place, and action. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  248. Seneca Lucius Annaeus, known as Seneca the Younger (c. 3 BC-65 AD), the most widely read of Latin writers of tragedy. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  249. Plautus Titus Maccius (c. 254-184 BC), the most popular of Latin writers of comedy. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  250. For plays written according to the classical rules as well as for those that disregard these conventions. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  251. i.e., the actors, or possibly Seneca and Plautus. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  252. The old-Testament patriarch (Judges 11:30-40) who vowed that he would sacrifice the first living thing he saw if God granted him the defeat of the Ammonites in battle; the first thing he saw turned out to be his daughter and only child. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  253. Surpassingly, extremely. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  254. Hamlet quotes from a ballad about Jephthah and his daughter. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  255. i.e., (1) Just because you resemble Jephthah in having a daughter does not logically demonstrate that you love her; (2) You haven't quoted the next line of the ballad. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  256. Polonius asks, what does follow logically? But Hamlet answers as if Polonius had asked, what is the next line of the ballad? ↵<\/a><\/li>
  257. By chance. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  258. God knows. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  259. As was most likely. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  260. The first line or stanza of this pious ballad will tell you more. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  261. Actors are coming who will cut short what I was about to say, or who will make short my entertainment or diversion. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  262. Good sirs. (Said to social inferiors.) ↵<\/a><\/li>
  263. i.e., fringed with beard. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  264. Confront, challenge, defy. (With obvious pun on the player's beard.) ↵<\/a><\/li>
  265. The boy actor, to whom the female roles are assigned. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  266. Hamlet addresses the boy actor with playful and courtly hyperbole as if he\/she, now coming to age as a young adult, were a woman to be admired and courted. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  267. By Our Lady (the Virgin Mary). A mild oath. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  268. (1) taller; (2) older, and thus nearer death. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  269. High platform shoe of Italian fashion. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  270. Gold coin not legal because it is cracked or chipped inside the ring enclosing the image of the sovereign. Shaving or chipping gold coins was a common form of cheating. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  271. i.e., the young male's voice having lost its soprano range suitable for acting female parts. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  272. We'll go at it like the French (who are presumed here to be avid falconers, not discriminating as to what they loose their birds to fly at). ↵<\/a><\/li>
  273. At once. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  274. Skill in acting. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  275. Speak for me or to me. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  276. But the play containing this speech was. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  277. i.e., a delicacy not generally appreciated by unsophisticated tastes. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  278. Spoke with greater authority than mine. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  279. Arranged in orderly fashion into scenes. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  280. Moderation, restraint. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  281. Skill. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  282. .e., were no spicy bits, improprieties. (Literally, salads.) ↵<\/a><\/li>
  283. Accuse. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  284. Graceful and natural in proportion rather than artfully ornamented. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  285. The story of the fall of Troy, as told by Aeneas to Dido in Book I of Virgil's Aeneid. The story, not told in Homer's Iliad, had been dramatized by Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Nashe in Dido Queen of Carthage (c. 1585). The slaying of Priam, King of Troy, by Pyrrhus, as Troy fell to the Greeks. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  286. Shaggy, savage. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  287. Pyrrhus, also known as Neoptolemus, was the son of Achilles, and was thus another son (like Hamlet or Laertes or Fortinbras) seeking to avenge his father's death. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  288. A tiger from Hyrcania, on the Caspian Sea, famed for its wild beasts. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  289. Black armor. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  290. Concealed. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  291. The fateful wooden Trojan horse, hidden inside of which thirty Greek warriors deceitfully gained access to the citadel of Troy. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  292. i.e., the blood that Pyrrhus has smeared on his already dark and terrifying appearance. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  293. Totally red, as if in heraldic colors. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  294. Smeared, decorated. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  295. Roasted and encrusted into a thick paste by the parching heat of the streets and burning houses. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  296. Cruel, fierce. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  297. i.e., To the vile murders of \"fathers, mothers, daughters, sons\" mentioned three lines earlier. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  298. Covered with size (a glutinous substance applied to canvases to make them ready for painting); also suggesting \"larger than life size.\" ↵<\/a><\/li>
  299. Congealed. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  300. Large, fiery-red gems, thought to emit their own light. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  301. Soon. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  302. Ancient, long-used. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  303. Resistant to Priam's bidding. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  304. Cruel, fierce. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  305. The strengthless old man (and father of many sons). ↵<\/a><\/li>
  306. Then the citadel of Troy, lacking the strength to defend itself. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  307. Its base. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  308. Descending. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  309. White-haired. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  310. Motionless, as in a painting. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  311. And, as though suspended between intent and fulfillment. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  312. Just before. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  313. Mass of clouds. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  314. Globe, earth. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  315. Sky. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  316. The Cyclopes were primordial one-eyed giants of Greek mythology who served as armor-makers in Vulcan's smithy. The next line here presumes that they were the makers of armor for Mars, the god of war. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  317. Mars's. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  318. To provide eternal protection against assault. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  319. Pity. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  320. i.e., covered with the blood of previous assaults, and anticipating the blood that is about to be shed by old Priam. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  321. An expression of outrage, fury, etc. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  322. Fortune. The whorish goddess of Chance. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  323. Assembly. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  324. The curved pieces of wood forming the exterior rim of a wheel, to which the spokes are attached. Because \"Fortune's wheel is ever turning\" (a proverbial expression), a person who is at the top of Fortune's wheel one day may find himself or herself at the bottom the next. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  325. Wheel hub (all that would be left on a wheel if its spokes and fellies were broken). ↵<\/a><\/li>
  326. Mount Olympus, home of the gods in Greek mythology. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  327. Comic entertainment with dance, often performed irrelevantly at the end of a play. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  328. Wife of Priam and Queen of Troy. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  329. Veiled, muffled. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  330. i.e., weeping so with blinding tears that she seemed almost capable of extinguishing the flames of burning Troy. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  331. Lately. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  332. Crown. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  333. Withered loins, utterly worn out with child-bearing. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  334. Whoever had seen this. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  335. Would have protested treasonously against Fortune's fickle rule. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  336. But even if. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  337. Would have caused the sun and other heavenly bodies to weep. (\"Milch\" means \"milky, moist with tears.\") ↵<\/a><\/li>
  338. And would have provoked compassionate pity. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  339. Lodged. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  340. Well treated. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  341. Actors give us a concise epitome of the age in which we live. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  342. i.e., you would do better to have been judged a bad person. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  343. By God's (Christ's) dear little body. (An oath.) ↵<\/a><\/li>
  344. According to. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  345. Have it performed. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  346. As required and necessary. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  347. Learn, memorize. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  348. Rosencrantz politely bids Hamlet farewell, understanding that he has asked them to leave. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  349. Bring his innermost being so entirely into accord with his conception of the role he is playing. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  350. As a result of, or in response to, his soul's activity. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  351. His face. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  352. Turned pale. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  353. In his look. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  354. And all his bodily gestures perfectly suited to what he was imagining. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  355. Everybody's ear. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  356. Horror-causing. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  357. Horrify the innocent. (\"Appal\" conveys the literal sense of \"make pale.\") ↵<\/a><\/li>
  358. Dumbfound those who know nothing of the crime that has been committed. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  359. Stun, bewilder. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  360. Dull-spirited. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  361. Mope. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  362. Like an idle dreamer, not quickened into action by my cause. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  363. Person and identity as king. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  364. A murderous act deserving damnation. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  365. Slaps me across the face. (A profound insult.) \"Pate\" means head. To break someone's head in Elizabethan English is not to break it in two but to deliver a blow. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  366. Yanks at my beard. Another deep insult, questioning the manliness of the one thus insulted. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  367. Calls me an out-and-out liar. (Again, an especially insulting gesture.) ↵<\/a><\/li>
  368. Does this to me. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  369. By his (Christ's) wounds. (A strong oath.) ↵<\/a><\/li>
  370. i.e., take it lying down, offering no response. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  371. But It cannot be otherwise than that. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  372. Pigeons' livers were thought to secrete no gall, thus making them mild and disinclined to anger. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  373. To make my oppression bitter to me, and thus make me dangerous to my enemy. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  374. Before. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  375. All the kites (birds of prey) of the air. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  376. This wretch's entrails. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  377. Lewd, immoral. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  378. Unnatural, lacking in affection for one's kind. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  379. Fine, admirable. (Said sarcastically.) ↵<\/a><\/li>
  380. Whore. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  381. i.e., menial, kitchen servant. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  382. Go about it, get to work. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  383. Artfulness, skill. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  384. At once. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  385. Evil deeds, crimes. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  386. Probe his wound (i.e., his conscience) to its core. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  387. If he flinches or turns pale. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  388. Deludes, deceives. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  389. Relevant, convincing. ↵<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/div>","protected":false},"author":90,"menu_order":8,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":["william-shakespeare"],"pb_section_license":"cc-by"},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[60],"license":[52],"class_list":["post-204","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","contributor-william-shakespeare","license-cc-by"],"part":188,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":205,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/204\/revisions\/205"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/188"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/204\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=204"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=204"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}