Hamlet: Act 2 Scene 2
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1 | A room in the castle. | *Kelkuvi mì kelutral. | |
Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and Attendants | Fpxäkìm KLLAWTYUSÌ alu OLO'EYKTAN, KÄRTRRUT alu TSAHÌK, ROSENGRAN, KÌLTXENSTEN, sì Atenten | ||
KING CLAUDIUS | Welcome, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern! | ||
Moreover that we much did long to see you, | |||
5 | The need we have to use you did provoke | ||
Our hasty sending. Something have you heard | |||
Of Hamlet's transformation; so call it, | |||
Sith nor the exterior nor the inward man | |||
Resembles that it was. What it should be, | |||
10 | More than his father's death, that thus hath put him | ||
So much from the understanding of himself, | |||
I cannot dream of: I entreat you both, | |||
That, being of so young days brought up with him, | |||
And sith so neighbour'd to his youth and havior, | |||
15 | That you vouchsafe your rest here in our court | ||
Some little time: so by your companies | |||
To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather, | |||
So much as from occasion you may glean, | |||
Whether aught, to us unknown, afflicts him thus, | |||
20 | That, open'd, lies within our remedy. | ||
QUEEN GERTRUDE | Good gentlemen, he hath much talk'd of you; | ||
And sure I am two men there are not living | |||
To whom he more adheres. If it will please you | |||
To show us so much gentry and good will | |||
25 | As to expend your time with us awhile, | ||
For the supply and profit of our hope, | |||
Your visitation shall receive such thanks | |||
As fits a king's remembrance. | |||
ROSENCRANTZ | Both your majesties | ||
30 | Might, by the sovereign power you have of us, | ||
Put your dread pleasures more into command | |||
Than to entreaty. | |||
GUILDENSTERN | But we both obey, | ||
And here give up ourselves, in the full bent | |||
35 | To lay our service freely at your feet, | ||
To be commanded. | |||
KING CLAUDIUS | Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern. | ||
QUEEN GERTRUDE | Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz: | ||
And I beseech you instantly to visit | |||
40 | My too much changed son. Go, some of you, | ||
And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is. | |||
GUILDENSTERN | Heavens make our presence and our practises | ||
Pleasant and helpful to him! | |||
QUEEN GERTRUDE | Ay, amen! | ||
45 | Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and some Attendants | ||
Enter POLONIUS | |||
LORD POLONIUS | The ambassadors from Norway, my good lord, | ||
Are joyfully return'd. | |||
KING CLAUDIUS | Thou still hast been the father of good news. | ||
50 | LORD POLONIUS | Have I, my lord? I assure my good liege, | |
I hold my duty, as I hold my soul, | |||
Both to my God and to my gracious king: | |||
And I do think, or else this brain of mine | |||
Hunts not the trail of policy so sure | |||
55 | As it hath used to do, that I have found | ||
The very cause of Hamlet's lunacy. | |||
KING CLAUDIUS | O, speak of that; that do I long to hear. | ||
LORD POLONIUS | Give first admittance to the ambassadors; | ||
My news shall be the fruit to that great feast. | |||
60 | KING CLAUDIUS | Thyself do grace to them, and bring them in. | |
Exit POLONIUS | POLONYUSÌ hum | ||
KING CLAUDIUS | He tells me, my dear Gertrude, he hath found | ||
The head and source of all your son's distemper. | |||
QUEEN GERTRUDE | I doubt it is no other but the main; | ||
65 | His father's death, and our o'erhasty marriage. | ||
KING CLAUDIUS | Well, we shall sift him. | ||
Re-enter POLONIUS, with VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS | |||
KING CLAUDIUS | Welcome, my good friends! | ||
Say, Voltimand, what from our brother Norway? | |||
70 | VOLTIMAND | Most fair return of greetings and desires. | |
Upon our first, he sent out to suppress | |||
His nephew's levies; which to him appear'd | |||
To be a preparation 'gainst the Polack; | |||
But, better look'd into, he truly found | |||
75 | It was against your highness: whereat grieved, | ||
That so his sickness, age and impotence | |||
Was falsely borne in hand, sends out arrests | |||
On Fortinbras; which he, in brief, obeys; | |||
Receives rebuke from Norway, and in fine | |||
80 | Makes vow before his uncle never more | ||
To give the assay of arms against your majesty. | |||
Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy, | |||
Gives him three thousand crowns in annual fee, | |||
And his commission to employ those soldiers, | |||
85 | So levied as before, against the Polack: | ||
With an entreaty, herein further shown, | |||
Giving a paper | |||
That it might please you to give quiet pass | |||
Through your dominions for this enterprise, | |||
90 | On such regards of safety and allowance | ||
As therein are set down. | |||
KING CLAUDIUS | It likes us well; | ||
And at our more consider'd time well read, | |||
Answer, and think upon this business. | |||
95 | Meantime we thank you for your well-took labour: | ||
Go to your rest; at night we'll feast together: | |||
Most welcome home! | |||
Exeunt VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS | |||
LORD POLONIUS | This business is well ended. | ||
100 | My liege, and madam, to expostulate | ||
What majesty should be, what duty is, | |||
Why day is day, night night, and time is time, | |||
Were nothing but to waste night, day and time. | |||
Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit, | |||
105 | And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, | ||
I will be brief: your noble son is mad: | |||
Mad call I it; for, to define true madness, | |||
What is't but to be nothing else but mad? | |||
But let that go. | |||
110 | QUEEN GERTRUDE | More matter, with less art. | |
LORD POLONIUS | Madam, I swear I use no art at all. | ||
That he is mad, 'tis true: 'tis true 'tis pity; | |||
And pity 'tis 'tis true: a foolish figure; | |||
But farewell it, for I will use no art. | |||
115 | Mad let us grant him, then: and now remains | ||
That we find out the cause of this effect, | |||
Or rather say, the cause of this defect, | |||
For this effect defective comes by cause: | |||
Thus it remains, and the remainder thus. Perpend. | |||
120 | I have a daughter--have while she is mine-- | ||
Who, in her duty and obedience, mark, | |||
Hath given me this: now gather, and surmise. | |||
Reads | |||
'To the celestial and my soul's idol, the most | |||
125 | beautified Ophelia,'-- | ||
That's an ill phrase, a vile phrase; 'beautified' is | |||
a vile phrase: but you shall hear. Thus: | |||
Reads | |||
'In her excellent white bosom, these, & c.' | |||
130 | QUEEN GERTRUDE | Came this from Hamlet to her? | |
LORD POLONIUS | Good madam, stay awhile; I will be faithful. | ||
Reads | |||
'Doubt thou the stars are fire; | |||
Doubt that the sun doth move; | |||
135 | Doubt truth to be a liar; | ||
But never doubt I love. | |||
'O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers; | |||
I have not art to reckon my groans: but that | |||
I love thee best, O most best, believe it. Adieu. | |||
140 | 'Thine evermore most dear lady, whilst | ||
this machine is to him, HAMLET.' | |||
, in obedience, hath my daughter shown me, | |||
And more above, hath his solicitings, | |||
As they fell out by time, by means and place, | |||
145 | All given to mine ear. | ||
KING CLAUDIUS | But how hath she | ||
Received his love? | |||
LORD POLONIUS | What do you think of me? | ||
KING CLAUDIUS | As of a man faithful and honourable. | ||
150 | LORD POLONIUS | I would fain prove so. But what might you think, | |
When I had seen this hot love on the wing-- | |||
As I perceived it, I must tell you that, | |||
Before my daughter told me--what might you, | |||
Or my dear majesty your queen here, think, | |||
155 | If I had play'd the desk or table-book, | ||
Or given my heart a winking, mute and dumb, | |||
Or look'd upon this love with idle sight; | |||
What might you think? No, I went round to work, | |||
And my young mistress thus I did bespeak: | |||
160 | 'Lord Hamlet is a prince, out of thy star; | ||
This must not be:' and then I precepts gave her, | |||
That she should lock herself from his resort, | |||
no messengers, receive no tokens. | |||
done, she took the fruits of my advice; | |||
165 | he, repulsed--a short tale to make-- | ||
into a sadness, then into a fast, | |||
Thence to a watch, thence into a weakness, | |||
Thence to a lightness, and, by this declension, | |||
Into the madness wherein now he raves, | |||
170 | And all we mourn for. | ||
KING CLAUDIUS | Do you think 'tis this? | ||
QUEEN GERTRUDE | It may be, very likely. | ||
LORD POLONIUS | Hath there been such a time--I'd fain know that-- | ||
That I have positively said 'Tis so,' | |||
175 | When it proved otherwise? | ||
KING CLAUDIUS | Not that I know. | ||
LORD POLONIUS | [Pointing to his head and shoulder] | ||
Take this from this, if this be otherwise: | |||
If circumstances lead me, I will find | |||
180 | Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed | ||
Within the centre. | |||
KING CLAUDIUS | How may we try it further? | ||
LORD POLONIUS | You know, sometimes he walks four hours together | ||
Here in the lobby. | |||
185 | QUEEN GERTRUDE | So he does indeed. | |
LORD POLONIUS | At such a time I'll loose my daughter to him: | ||
Be you and I behind an arras then; | |||
Mark the encounter: if he love her not | |||
And be not from his reason fall'n thereon, | |||
190 | Let me be no assistant for a state, | ||
But keep a farm and carters. | |||
KING CLAUDIUS | We will try it. | ||
QUEEN GERTRUDE | But, look, where sadly the poor wretch comes reading. | ||
LORD POLONIUS | Away, I do beseech you, both away: | ||
195 | I'll board him presently. | ||
Exeunt KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, and Attendants | |||
Enter HAMLET, reading | |||
HAMLET | O, give me leave: | ||
How does my good Lord Hamlet? | |||
200 | HAMLET | Well, God-a-mercy. | |
LORD POLONIUS | Do you know me, my lord? | ||
HAMLET | Excellent well; you are a fishmonger. | ||
LORD POLONIUS | Not I, my lord. | ||
HAMLET | Then I would you were so honest a man. | ||
LORD POLONIUS | Honest, my lord! | ||
HAMLET | Ay, sir; to be honest, as this world goes, is to be | ||
one man picked out of ten thousand. | |||
LORD POLONIUS | That's very true, my lord. | ||
HAMLET | For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a | ||
god kissing carrion,--Have you a daughter? | |||
LORD POLONIUS | I have, my lord. | ||
HAMLET | Let her not walk i' the sun: conception is a | ||
blessing: but not as your daughter may conceive. | |||
Friend, look to 't. | |||
LORD POLONIUS | [Aside] How say you by that? Still harping on my | ||
daughter: yet he knew me not at first; he said I | |||
was a fishmonger: he is far gone, far gone: and | |||
truly in my youth I suffered much extremity for | |||
love; very near this. I'll speak to him again. | |||
What do you read, my lord? | |||
HAMLET | Words, words, words. | ||
LORD POLONIUS | What is the matter, my lord? | ||
HAMLET | Between who? | ||
LORD POLONIUS | I mean, the matter that you read, my lord. | ||
HAMLET | Slanders, sir: for the satirical rogue says here | ||
that old men have grey beards, that their faces are | |||
wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and | |||
plum-tree gum and that they have a plentiful lack of | |||
wit, together with most weak hams: all which, sir, | |||
though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet | |||
I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down, for | |||
yourself, sir, should be old as I am, if like a crab | |||
you could go backward. | |||
LORD POLONIUS | [Aside] Though this be madness, yet there is method | ||
in 't. Will you walk out of the air, my lord? | |||
HAMLET | Into my grave. | ||
LORD POLONIUS | Indeed, that is out o' the air. | ||
Aside | |||
How pregnant sometimes his replies are! a happiness | |||
that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity | |||
could not so prosperously be delivered of. I will | |||
leave him, and suddenly contrive the means of | |||
meeting between him and my daughter.--My honourable | |||
lord, I will most humbly take my leave of you. | |||
HAMLET | You cannot, sir, take from me any thing that I will | ||
more willingly part withal: except my life, except | |||
my life, except my life. | |||
LORD POLONIUS | Fare you well, my lord. | ||
HAMLET | These tedious old fools! | ||
Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN | |||
LORD POLONIUS | You go to seek the Lord Hamlet; there he is. | ||
ROSENCRANTZ | [To POLONIUS] God save you, sir! | ||
Exit POLONIUS | |||
GUILDENSTERN | My honoured lord! | ||
ROSENCRANTZ | My most dear lord! | ||
HAMLET | My excellent good friends! How dost thou, | ||
Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do ye both? | |||
ROSENCRANTZ | As the indifferent children of the earth. | ||
GUILDENSTERN | Happy, in that we are not over-happy; | ||
On fortune's cap we are not the very button. | |||
HAMLET | Nor the soles of her shoe? | ||
ROSENCRANTZ | Neither, my lord. | ||
HAMLET | Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of | ||
her favours? | |||
GUILDENSTERN | 'Faith, her privates we. | ||
HAMLET | In the secret parts of fortune? O, most true; she | ||
is a strumpet. What's the news? | |||
ROSENCRANTZ | None, my lord, but that the world's grown honest. | ||
HAMLET | Then is doomsday near: but your news is not true. | ||
Let me question more in particular: what have you, | |||
my good friends, deserved at the hands of fortune, | |||
that she sends you to prison hither? | |||
GUILDENSTERN | Prison, my lord! | ||
HAMLET | Denmark's a prison. | ||
ROSENCRANTZ | Then is the world one. | ||
HAMLET | A goodly one; in which there are many confines, | ||
wards and dungeons, Denmark being one o' the worst. | |||
ROSENCRANTZ | We think not so, my lord. | ||
HAMLET | Why, then, 'tis none to you; for there is nothing | ||
either good or bad, but thinking makes it so: to me | |||
it is a prison. | |||
ROSENCRANTZ | Why then, your ambition makes it one; 'tis too | ||
narrow for your mind. | |||
HAMLET | O God, I could be bounded in a nut shell and count | ||
myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I | |||
have bad dreams. | |||
GUILDENSTERN | Which dreams indeed are ambition, for the very | ||
substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream. | |||
HAMLET | A dream itself is but a shadow. | ||
ROSENCRANTZ | Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a | ||
quality that it is but a shadow's shadow. | |||
HAMLET | Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and | ||
outstretched heroes the beggars' shadows. Shall we | |||
to the court? for, by my fay, I cannot reason. | |||
GUILDENSTERN | We'll wait upon you. | ||
HAMLET | No such matter: I will not sort you with the rest | ||
of my servants, for, to speak to you like an honest | |||
man, I am most dreadfully attended. But, in the | |||
beaten way of friendship, what make you at Elsinore? | |||
ROSENCRANTZ | To visit you, my lord; no other occasion. | ||
HAMLET | Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks; but I | ||
thank you: and sure, dear friends, my thanks are | |||
too dear a halfpenny. Were you not sent for? Is it | |||
your own inclining? Is it a free visitation? Come, | |||
deal justly with me: come, come; nay, speak. | |||
GUILDENSTERN | What should we say, my lord? | ||
HAMLET | Why, any thing, but to the purpose. You were sent | ||
for; and there is a kind of confession in your looks | |||
which your modesties have not craft enough to colour: | |||
I know the good king and queen have sent for you. | |||
ROSENCRANTZ | To what end, my lord? | ||
HAMLET | That you must teach me. But let me conjure you, by | ||
the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy of | |||
our youth, by the obligation of our ever-preserved | |||
love, and by what more dear a better proposer could | |||
charge you withal, be even and direct with me, | |||
whether you were sent for, or no? | |||
ROSENCRANTZ | [Aside to GUILDENSTERN] What say you? | ||
HAMLET | [Aside] Nay, then, I have an eye of you.--If you | ||
love me, hold not off. | |||
GUILDENSTERN | My lord, we were sent for. | ||
HAMLET | I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation | ||
prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the king | |||
and queen moult no feather. I have of late--but | |||
wherefore I know not--lost all my mirth, forgone all | |||
custom of exercises; and indeed it goes so heavily | |||
with my disposition that this goodly frame, the | |||
earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this most | |||
excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave | |||
o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted | |||
with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to | |||
me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. | |||
What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! | |||
how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how | |||
express and admirable! in action how like an angel! | |||
in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the | |||
world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, | |||
what is this quintessence of dust? man delights not | |||
me: no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling | |||
you seem to say so. | |||
ROSENCRANTZ | My lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts. | ||
HAMLET | Why did you laugh then, when I said 'man delights not me'? | ||
ROSENCRANTZ | To think, my lord, if you delight not in man, what | ||
entertainment the players shall receive from | |||
you: we coted them on the way; and hither are they | |||
coming, to offer you service. | |||
HAMLET | He that plays the king shall be welcome; his majesty | ||
shall have tribute of me; the adventurous knight | |||
shall use his foil and target; the lover shall not | |||
sigh gratis; the humourous man shall end his part | |||
in peace; the clown shall make those laugh whose | |||
lungs are tickled o' the sere; and the lady shall | |||
say her mind freely, or the blank verse shall halt | |||
for't. What players are they? | |||
ROSENCRANTZ | Even those you were wont to take delight in, the | ||
tragedians of the city. | |||
HAMLET | How chances it they travel? their residence, both | ||
in reputation and profit, was better both ways. | |||
ROSENCRANTZ | I think their inhibition comes by the means of the | ||
late innovation. | |||
HAMLET | Do they hold the same estimation they did when I was | ||
in the city? are they so followed? | |||
ROSENCRANTZ | No, indeed, are they not. | ||
HAMLET | How comes it? do they grow rusty? | ||
ROSENCRANTZ | Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace: but | ||
there is, sir, an aery of children, little eyases, | |||
that cry out on the top of question, and are most | |||
tyrannically clapped for't: these are now the | |||
fashion, and so berattle the common stages--so they | |||
call them--that many wearing rapiers are afraid of | |||
goose-quills and dare scarce come thither. | |||
HAMLET | What, are they children? who maintains 'em? how are | ||
they escoted? Will they pursue the quality no | |||
longer than they can sing? will they not say | |||
afterwards, if they should grow themselves to common | |||
players--as it is most like, if their means are no | |||
better--their writers do them wrong, to make them | |||
exclaim against their own succession? | |||
ROSENCRANTZ | 'Faith, there has been much to do on both sides; and | ||
the nation holds it no sin to tarre them to | |||
controversy: there was, for a while, no money bid | |||
for argument, unless the poet and the player went to | |||
cuffs in the question. | |||
HAMLET | Is't possible? | ||
GUILDENSTERN | O, there has been much throwing about of brains. | ||
HAMLET | Do the boys carry it away? | ||
ROSENCRANTZ | Ay, that they do, my lord; Hercules and his load too. | ||
HAMLET | It is not very strange; for mine uncle is king of | ||
Denmark, and those that would make mows at him while | |||
my father lived, give twenty, forty, fifty, an | |||
hundred ducats a-piece for his picture in little. | |||
'Sblood, there is something in this more than | |||
natural, if philosophy could find it out. | |||
Flourish of trumpets within | |||
GUILDENSTERN | There are the players. | ||
HAMLET | Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands, | ||
come then: the appurtenance of welcome is fashion | |||
and ceremony: let me comply with you in this garb, | |||
lest my extent to the players, which, I tell you, | |||
must show fairly outward, should more appear like | |||
entertainment than yours. You are welcome: but my | |||
uncle-father and aunt-mother are deceived. | |||
GUILDENSTERN | In what, my dear lord? | ||
HAMLET | I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is | ||
southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw. | |||
Enter POLONIUS | |||
LORD POLONIUS | Well be with you, gentlemen! | ||
HAMLET | Hark you, Guildenstern; and you too: at each ear a | ||
hearer: that great baby you see there is not yet | |||
out of his swaddling-clouts. | |||
ROSENCRANTZ | Happily he's the second time come to them; for they | ||
say an old man is twice a child. | |||
HAMLET | I will prophesy he comes to tell me of the players; | ||
mark it. You say right, sir: o' Monday morning; | |||
'twas so indeed. | |||
LORD POLONIUS | My lord, I have news to tell you. | ||
HAMLET | My lord, I have news to tell you. | ||
When Roscius was an actor in Rome,-- | |||
LORD POLONIUS | The actors are come hither, my lord. | ||
HAMLET | Buz, buz! | ||
LORD POLONIUS | Upon mine honour,-- | ||
HAMLET | Then came each actor on his ass,-- | ||
LORD POLONIUS | |||
The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, | |||
comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, | |||
historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical- | |||
comical-historical-pastoral, scene individable, or | |||
poem unlimited: Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor | |||
Plautus too light. For the law of writ and the | |||
liberty, these are the only men. | |||
HAMLET | O Jephthah, judge of Israel, what a treasure hadst thou! | ||
LORD POLONIUS | What a treasure had he, my lord? | ||
HAMLET | Why, | ||
'One fair daughter and no more, | |||
The which he loved passing well.' | |||
LORD POLONIUS | [Aside] Still on my daughter. | ||
HAMLET | Am I not i' the right, old Jephthah? | ||
LORD POLONIUS | If you call me Jephthah, my lord, I have a daughter | ||
that I love passing well. | |||
HAMLET | Nay, that follows not. | ||
LORD POLONIUS | What follows, then, my lord? | ||
HAMLET | Why, | ||
'As by lot, God wot,' | |||
and then, you know, | |||
'It came to pass, as most like it was,'-- | |||
the first row of the pious chanson will show you | |||
more; for look, where my abridgement comes. | |||
Enter four or five Players | |||
You are welcome, masters; welcome, all. I am glad | |||
to see thee well. Welcome, good friends. O, my old | |||
friend! thy face is valenced since I saw thee last: | |||
comest thou to beard me in Denmark? What, my young | |||
lady and mistress! By'r lady, your ladyship is | |||
nearer to heaven than when I saw you last, by the | |||
altitude of a chopine. Pray God, your voice, like | |||
apiece of uncurrent gold, be not cracked within the | |||
ring. Masters, you are all welcome. We'll e'en | |||
to't like French falconers, fly at any thing we see: | |||
we'll have a speech straight: come, give us a taste | |||
of your quality; come, a passionate speech. | |||
FIRST PLAYER | What speech, my lord? | ||
HAMLET | I heard thee speak me a speech once, but it was | ||
never acted; or, if it was, not above once; for the | |||
play, I remember, pleased not the million; 'twas | |||
caviare to the general: but it was--as I received | |||
it, and others, whose judgments in such matters | |||
cried in the top of mine--an excellent play, well | |||
digested in the scenes, set down with as much | |||
modesty as cunning. I remember, one said there | |||
were no sallets in the lines to make the matter | |||
savoury, nor no matter in the phrase that might | |||
indict the author of affectation; but called it an | |||
honest method, as wholesome as sweet, and by very | |||
much more handsome than fine. One speech in it I | |||
chiefly loved: 'twas Aeneas' tale to Dido; and | |||
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-- | |||
'The rugged Pyrrhus, like the Hyrcanian beast,'-- | |||
it is not so:--it begins with Pyrrhus:-- | |||
'The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms, | |||
Black as his purpose, did the night resemble | |||
When he lay couched in the ominous horse, | |||
Hath now this dread and black complexion smear'd | |||
With heraldry more dismal; head to foot | |||
Now is he total gules; horridly trick'd | |||
With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, | |||
Baked and impasted with the parching streets, | |||
lend a tyrannous and damned light | |||
To their lord's murder: roasted in wrath and fire, | |||
And thus o'er-sized with coagulate gore, | |||
eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus | |||
Old grandsire Priam seeks.' | |||
So, proceed you. | |||
LORD POLONIUS | 'Fore God, my lord, well spoken, with good accent and | ||
good discretion. | |||
FIRST PLAYER | 'Anon he finds him | ||
Striking too short at Greeks; his antique sword, | |||
Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls, | |||
Repugnant to command: unequal match'd, | |||
Pyrrhus at Priam drives; in rage strikes wide; | |||
But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword | |||
The unnerved father falls. Then senseless Ilium, | |||
Seeming to feel this blow, with flaming top | |||
Stoops to his base, and with a hideous crash | |||
Takes prisoner Pyrrhus' ear: for, lo! his sword, | |||
Which was declining on the milky head | |||
Of reverend Priam, seem'd i' the air to stick: | |||
So, as a painted tyrant, Pyrrhus stood, | |||
And like a neutral to his will and matter, | |||
Did nothing. | |||
But, as we often see, against some storm, | |||
A silence in the heavens, the rack stand still, | |||
The bold winds speechless and the orb below | |||
As hush as death, anon the dreadful thunder | |||
Doth rend the region, so, after Pyrrhus' pause, | |||
Aroused vengeance sets him new a-work; | |||
And never did the Cyclops' hammers fall | |||
On Mars's armour forged for proof eterne | |||
With less remorse than Pyrrhus' bleeding sword | |||
Now falls on Priam. | |||
Out, out, thou strumpet, Fortune! All you gods, | |||
In general synod 'take away her power; | |||
Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel, | |||
And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven, | |||
As low as to the fiends!' | |||
LORD POLONIUS | This is too long. | ||
HAMLET | It shall to the barber's, with your beard. Prithee, | ||
say on: he's for a jig or a tale of bawdry, or he | |||
sleeps: say on: come to Hecuba. | |||
FIRST PLAYER | 'But who, O, who had seen the mobled queen--' | ||
HAMLET | 'The mobled queen?' | ||
LORD POLONIUS | That's good; 'mobled queen' is good. | ||
FIRST PLAYER | 'Run barefoot up and down, threatening the flames | ||
With bisson rheum; a clout upon that head | |||
Where late the diadem stood, and for a robe, | |||
About her lank and all o'er-teemed loins, | |||
A blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up; | |||
Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steep'd, | |||
'Gainst Fortune's state would treason have | |||
pronounced: | |||
But if the gods themselves did see her then | |||
When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport | |||
In mincing with his sword her husband's limbs, | |||
The instant burst of clamour that she made, | |||
Unless things mortal move them not at all, | |||
Would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven, | |||
And passion in the gods.' | |||
LORD POLONIUS | Look, whether he has not turned his colour and has | ||
tears in's eyes. Pray you, no more. | |||
HAMLET | 'Tis well: I'll have thee speak out the rest soon. | ||
Good my lord, will you see the players well | |||
bestowed? Do you hear, let them be well used; for | |||
they are the abstract and brief chronicles of the | |||
time: after your death you were better have a bad | |||
epitaph than their ill report while you live. | |||
LORD POLONIUS | My lord, I will use them according to their desert. | ||
HAMLET | God's bodykins, man, much better: use every man | ||
after his desert, and who should 'scape whipping? | |||
Use them after your own honour and dignity: the less | |||
they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty. | |||
Take them in. | |||
LORD POLONIUS | Come, sirs. | ||
HAMLET | Follow him, friends: we'll hear a play to-morrow. | ||
Exit POLONIUS with all the Players but the First | |||
Dost thou hear me, old friend; can you play the | |||
Murder of Gonzago? | |||
FIRST PLAYER | Ay, my lord. | ||
HAMLET | We'll ha't to-morrow night. You could, for a need, | ||
study a speech of some dozen or sixteen lines, which | |||
I would set down and insert in't, could you not? | |||
FIRST PLAYER | Ay, my lord. | ||
HAMLET | Very well. Follow that lord; and look you mock him | ||
not. | |||
Exit First Player | |||
My good friends, I'll leave you till night: you are | |||
welcome to Elsinore. | |||
ROSENCRANTZ | Good my lord! | ||
Ay, so, God be wi' ye; | |||
Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN | |||
Now I am alone. | |||
O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I! | |||
Is it not monstrous that this player here, | |||
But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, | |||
Could force his soul so to his own conceit | |||
That from her working all his visage wann'd, | |||
Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect, | |||
A broken voice, and his whole function suiting | |||
With forms to his conceit? and all for nothing! | |||
For Hecuba! | |||
What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, | |||
That he should weep for her? What would he do, | |||
Had he the motive and the cue for passion | |||
That I have? He would drown the stage with tears | |||
And cleave the general ear with horrid speech, | |||
Make mad the guilty and appal the free, | |||
Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed | |||
The very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet I, | |||
A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak, | |||
Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause, | |||
And can say nothing; no, not for a king, | |||
Upon whose property and most dear life | |||
A damn'd defeat was made. Am I a coward? | |||
Who calls me villain? breaks my pate across? | |||
Plucks off my beard, and blows it in my face? | |||
Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i' the throat, | |||
As deep as to the lungs? who does me this? | |||
Ha! | |||
'Swounds, I should take it: for it cannot be | |||
But I am pigeon-liver'd and lack gall | |||
To make oppression bitter, or ere this | |||
I should have fatted all the region kites | |||
With this slave's offal: bloody, bawdy villain! | |||
Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain! | |||
O, vengeance! | |||
Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave, | |||
That I, the son of a dear father murder'd, | |||
Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, | |||
Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words, | |||
fall a-cursing, like a very drab, | |||
A scullion! | |||
Fie upon't! foh! About, my brain! I have heard | |||
That guilty creatures sitting at a play | |||
Have by the very cunning of the scene | |||
Been struck so to the soul that presently | |||
They have proclaim'd their malefactions; | |||
For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak | |||
With most miraculous organ. I'll have these players | |||
Play something like the murder of my father | |||
Before mine uncle: I'll observe his looks; | |||
I'll tent him to the quick: if he but blench, | |||
I know my course. The spirit that I have seen | |||
May be the devil: and the devil hath power | |||
To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps | |||
Out of my weakness and my melancholy, | |||
As he is very potent with such spirits, | |||
Abuses me to damn me: I'll have grounds | |||
More relative than this: the play 's the thing | |||
Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king. | |||
Exit |
Hamlet | ||
---|---|---|
Act 1 | Scene 1 • Scene 2 • Scene 3 • Scene 4 • Scene 5 | |
Act 2 | Scene 1 • Scene 2 | |
Act 3 | Scene 1 • Scene 2 • Scene 3 • Scene 4 | |
Act 4 | Scene 1 • Scene 2 • Scene 3 • Scene 4 • Scene 5 • Scene 6 • Scene 7 | |
Act 5 | Scene 1 • Scene 2 | |
other | Missing Words • Missing Phrases • Proper Nouns • Progress • Contributors | |