Hamlet. Why, look you there! Look, how it steals

away!

My father, in his habit as he liv'd°!

Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal!

135

[Exit GHOST. Queen. This is the very coinage of your brain; This bodiless creation ecstasy°

My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time,

140

And makes as healthful music. It is not mad

ness

That I have utter'd. Bring me to the test,
And I the matter will re-word; which madness
Would gambol° from. Mother, for love of grace,
Lay not that flattering unction to your soul,
That not your trespass, but my madness speaks.
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place,
Whilst rank corruption, mining all within,
Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven;
Repent what's past; avoid what is to come;
And do not spread the compost on the weeds,
To make them ranker. Forgive me

virtue°;

For in the fatness of these pursy times

145

150

this my

Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg,

Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good.

155

Queen. O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain.

Hamlet. O, throw away the worser part of it,
And live the purer with the other half.
Good night. But go not to mine uncle's bed;
Assume a virtue, if you have it not.

That monster, custom, who all sense° doth eat,
Of habits devil,° is angel yet in this, -
That to the use of actions fair and good
He likewise gives a frock or livery,°
That aptly is put on. Refrain to-night,

And that shall lend a kind of easiness

160

165

To the next abstinence; the next more easy;

For use almost can change the stamp of nature,
And either master the devil, or throw him out

With wondrous potency. Once more, good night. 170 And when you are desirous to be bless'd,

I'll blessing beg of you. For this same lord,

[Pointing to POLONIUS.

I do repent; but heaven hath pleas'd it so,
To punish me with this° and this with me,
That I must be their scourge and minister.
I will bestow him, and will answer well

175

The death I gave him. So, again, good night.

I must be cruel, only to be kind.

Thus bad begins and worse remains behind.

One word more, good lady.

Queen.

What shall I do?

180

Hamlet. Not this, by no means, that I bid you do: Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed;

Pinch wanton on your cheek; call you his mouse;
And let him, for a pair of reechy kisses,

Or paddling in your neck with his damn'd fingers, 185
Make you to ravel all this matter out,

That I essentially am not in madness,

But mad in craft. 'Twere good you let him know;
For who, that's but a queen, fair, sober, wise,
Would from a paddock,° from a bat, a gib,°

Such dear concernings hide? Who would do so?
No, in despite of sense and secrecy,

Unpeg the basket on the house's top,

Let the birds fly, and, like the famous ape,°

To try conclusions, in the basket creep,

And break your own neck down.

190

195

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

breath,

And breath of life, I have no life to breathe

What thou hast said to me.

Hamlet. I must to England; you know that?
Queen.

I had forgot. 'Tis so concluded on.

Alack,

201

Hamlet. There's letters seal'd; and my two schoolfellows,

Whom I will trust as I will adders fang'd,

They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way,
And marshal me to knavery. Let it work;
For 'tis the sport to have the enginer°

Hoist with his own petar°; and't shall go hard
But I will delve one yard below their mines,
And blow them at the moon: O, 'tis most sweet,
When in one line two crafts directly meet.
This man shall set me packing.°

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

205

210

215

[Exeunt severally; HAMLET dragging in POLONIUS.

SCENE I.

ACT IV

A Room in the Castle

Enter KING, QUEEN, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDEN

STERN

King. There's matter in these sighs; these profound°

heaves

You must translate.

Where is your son?

'Tis fit we understand them.

Queen. Bestow this place on us a little while.

[Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.

5

Ah, my good lord, what have I seen to-night!
King. What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet?
Queen. Mad as the sea and wind, when both contend
Which is the mightier. In his lawless fit,
Behind the arras hearing something stir,
Whips out his rapier, cries, "A rat, a rat,”
And in this brainish° apprehension kills
The unseen good old man.

King.

O heavy deed!

It had been so with us, had we been there.

His liberty is full of threats to all,

To you yourself, to us, to every one.

ΤΟ

15