63 William Shakespeare: Hamlet: Act 2
Hamlet
By William Shakespeare
Edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine
with Michael Poston and Rebecca Niles
Folger Shakespeare Library
https://shakespeare.folger.edu/shakespeares-works/hamlet/
Created on Apr 23, 2016, from FDT version 0.9.2.
ACT 2
Scene 1
Enter old Polonius with his man Reynaldo.
POLONIUS
Give him this money and these notes, Reynaldo.
REYNALDO I will, my lord.
POLONIUS
You shall do marvelous wisely, good Reynaldo,
Before you visit him, to make inquire
Of his behavior. 5
REYNALDO My lord, I did intend it.
POLONIUS
Marry, well said, very well said. Look you, sir,
Inquire me first what Danskers are in Paris;
And how, and who, what means, and where they
keep, 10
What company, at what expense; and finding
By this encompassment and drift of question
That they do know my son, come you more nearer
Than your particular demands will touch it.
Take you, as ’twere, some distant knowledge of him, 15
As thus: “I know his father and his friends
And, in part, him.” Do you mark this, Reynaldo?
REYNALDO Ay, very well, my lord.
POLONIUS
“And, in part, him, but,” you may say, “not well.
But if ’t be he I mean, he’s very wild, 20
Addicted so and so.” And there put on him
What forgeries you please—marry, none so rank
As may dishonor him, take heed of that,
But, sir, such wanton, wild, and usual slips
As are companions noted and most known 25
To youth and liberty.
REYNALDO As gaming, my lord.
POLONIUS Ay, or drinking, fencing, swearing,
Quarreling, drabbing—you may go so far.
REYNALDO My lord, that would dishonor him. 30
POLONIUS
Faith, no, as you may season it in the charge.
You must not put another scandal on him
That he is open to incontinency;
That’s not my meaning. But breathe his faults so
quaintly 35
That they may seem the taints of liberty,
The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind,
A savageness in unreclaimèd blood,
Of general assault.
REYNALDO But, my good lord— 40
POLONIUS Wherefore should you do this?
REYNALDO Ay, my lord, I would know that.
POLONIUS Marry, sir, here’s my drift,
And I believe it is a fetch of wit.
You, laying these slight sullies on my son, 45
As ’twere a thing a little soiled i’ th’ working,
Mark you, your party in converse, him you would
sound,
Having ever seen in the prenominate crimes
The youth you breathe of guilty, be assured 50
He closes with you in this consequence:
“Good sir,” or so, or “friend,” or “gentleman,”
According to the phrase or the addition
Of man and country—
REYNALDO Very good, my lord. 55
POLONIUS And then, sir, does he this, he does—what
was I about to say? By the Mass, I was about to say
something. Where did I leave?
REYNALDO At “closes in the consequence,” at “friend,
or so,” and “gentleman.” 60
POLONIUS
At “closes in the consequence”—ay, marry—
He closes thus: “I know the gentleman.
I saw him yesterday,” or “th’ other day”
(Or then, or then, with such or such), “and as you
say, 65
There was he gaming, there o’ertook in ’s rouse,
There falling out at tennis”; or perchance
“I saw him enter such a house of sale”—
Videlicet, a brothel—or so forth. See you now
Your bait of falsehood take this carp of truth; 70
And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,
With windlasses and with assays of bias,
By indirections find directions out.
So by my former lecture and advice
Shall you my son. You have me, have you not? 75
REYNALDO
My lord, I have.
POLONIUS God be wi’ you. Fare you well.
REYNALDO Good my lord.
POLONIUS
Observe his inclination in yourself.
REYNALDO I shall, my lord. 80
POLONIUS And let him ply his music.
REYNALDO Well, my lord.
POLONIUS
Farewell.Reynaldo exits.
Enter Ophelia.
How now, Ophelia, what’s the matter?
OPHELIA
O, my lord, my lord, I have been so affrighted! 85
POLONIUS With what, i’ th’ name of God?
OPHELIA
My lord, as I was sewing in my closet,
Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced,
No hat upon his head, his stockings fouled,
Ungartered, and down-gyvèd to his ankle, 90
Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other,
And with a look so piteous in purport
As if he had been loosèd out of hell
To speak of horrors—he comes before me.
POLONIUS
Mad for thy love? 95
OPHELIA My lord, I do not know,
But truly I do fear it.
POLONIUS What said he?
OPHELIA
He took me by the wrist and held me hard.
Then goes he to the length of all his arm, 100
And, with his other hand thus o’er his brow,
He falls to such perusal of my face
As he would draw it. Long stayed he so.
At last, a little shaking of mine arm,
And thrice his head thus waving up and down, 105
He raised a sigh so piteous and profound
As it did seem to shatter all his bulk
And end his being. That done, he lets me go,
And, with his head over his shoulder turned,
He seemed to find his way without his eyes, 110
For out o’ doors he went without their helps
And to the last bended their light on me.
POLONIUS
Come, go with me. I will go seek the King.
This is the very ecstasy of love,
Whose violent property fordoes itself 115
And leads the will to desperate undertakings
As oft as any passions under heaven
That does afflict our natures. I am sorry.
What, have you given him any hard words of late?
OPHELIA
No, my good lord, but as you did command 120
I did repel his letters and denied
His access to me.
POLONIUS That hath made him mad.
I am sorry that with better heed and judgment
I had not coted him. I feared he did but trifle 125
And meant to wrack thee. But beshrew my jealousy!
By heaven, it is as proper to our age
To cast beyond ourselves in our opinions
As it is common for the younger sort
To lack discretion. Come, go we to the King. 130
This must be known, which, being kept close, might
move
More grief to hide than hate to utter love.
Come.
They exit.
Scene 2
Flourish. Enter King and Queen, Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern and Attendants.
KING
Welcome, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
Moreover that we much did long to see you,
The need we have to use you did provoke
Our hasty sending. Something have you heard
Of Hamlet’s transformation, so call it, 5
Sith nor th’ exterior nor the inward man
Resembles that it was. What it should be,
More than his father’s death, that thus hath put him
So much from th’ understanding of himself
I cannot dream of. I entreat you both 10
That, being of so young days brought up with him
And sith so neighbored to his youth and havior,
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 15
So much as from occasion you may glean,
Whether aught to us unknown afflicts him thus
That, opened, lies within our remedy.
QUEEN
Good gentlemen, he hath much talked of you,
And sure I am two men there is not living 20
To whom he more adheres. If it will please you
To show us so much gentry and goodwill
As to expend your time with us awhile
For the supply and profit of our hope,
Your visitation shall receive such thanks 25
As fits a king’s remembrance.
ROSENCRANTZ Both your Majesties
Might, by the sovereign power you have of us,
Put your dread pleasures more into command
Than to entreaty. 30
GUILDENSTERN But we both obey,
And here give up ourselves in the full bent
To lay our service freely at your feet,
To be commanded.
KING
Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern. 35
QUEEN
Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz.
And I beseech you instantly to visit
My too much changèd son.—Go, some of you,
And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is.
GUILDENSTERN
Heavens make our presence and our practices 40
Pleasant and helpful to him!
QUEEN Ay, amen!
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern exit
with some Attendants.
Enter Polonius.
POLONIUS
Th’ ambassadors from Norway, my good lord,
Are joyfully returned.
KING
Thou still hast been the father of good news. 45
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 50
As it hath used to do, that I have found
The very cause of Hamlet’s lunacy.
KING
O, speak of that! That do I long to hear.
POLONIUS
Give first admittance to th’ ambassadors.
My news shall be the fruit to that great feast. 55
KING
Thyself do grace to them and bring them in.
Polonius exits.
He tells me, my dear Gertrude, he hath found
The head and source of all your son’s distemper.
QUEEN
I doubt it is no other but the main—
His father’s death and our o’erhasty marriage. 60
KING
Well, we shall sift him.
Enter Ambassadors Voltemand and Cornelius with
Polonius.
Welcome, my good friends.
Say, Voltemand, what from our brother Norway?
VOLTEMAND
Most fair return of greetings and desires.
Upon our first, he sent out to suppress 65
His nephew’s levies, which to him appeared
To be a preparation ’gainst the Polack,
But, better looked into, he truly found
It was against your Highness. Whereat, grieved
That so his sickness, age, and impotence 70
Was falsely borne in hand, sends out arrests
On Fortinbras, which he, in brief, obeys,
Receives rebuke from Norway, and, in fine,
Makes vow before his uncle never more
To give th’ assay of arms against your Majesty. 75
Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy,
Gives him three-score thousand crowns in annual
fee
And his commission to employ those soldiers,
So levied as before, against the Polack 80
With an entreaty, herein further shown,
He gives a paper.
That it might please you to give quiet pass
Through your dominions for this enterprise,
On such regards of safety and allowance
As therein are set down. 85
KING It likes us well,
And, at our more considered time, we’ll read,
Answer, and think upon this business.
Meantime, we thank you for your well-took labor.
Go to your rest. At night we’ll feast together. 90
Most welcome home!
Voltemand and Cornelius exit.
POLONIUS This business is well ended.
My liege, and madam, to expostulate
What majesty should be, what duty is,
Why day is day, night night, and time is time 95
Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time.
Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
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, 100
What is ’t but to be nothing else but mad?
But let that go.
QUEEN More matter with less art.
POLONIUS
Madam, I swear I use no art at all.
That he’s mad, ’tis true; ’tis true ’tis pity, 105
And pity ’tis ’tis true—a foolish figure,
But farewell it, for I will use no art.
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, 110
For this effect defective comes by cause.
Thus it remains, and the remainder thus.
Perpend.
I have a daughter (have while she is mine)
Who, in her duty and obedience, mark, 115
Hath given me this. Now gather and surmise.
He reads. To the celestial, and my soul’s idol, the
most beautified Ophelia—
That’s an ill phrase, a vile phrase; “beautified” is a
vile phrase. But you shall hear. Thus: He reads. 120
In her excellent white bosom, these, etc.—
QUEEN Came this from Hamlet to her?
POLONIUS
Good madam, stay awhile. I will be faithful.
He reads the letter.
Doubt thou the stars are fire,
Doubt that the sun doth move, 125
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. 130
Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst
this machine is to him, Hamlet.
This, in obedience, hath my daughter shown me,
And more above, hath his solicitings,
As they fell out by time, by means, and place, 135
All given to mine ear.
KING But how hath she received his love?
POLONIUS What do you think of me?
KING
As of a man faithful and honorable.
POLONIUS
I would fain prove so. But what might you think, 140
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,
If I had played the desk or table-book 145
Or given my heart a winking, mute and dumb,
Or looked upon this love with idle sight?
What might you think? No, I went round to work,
And my young mistress thus I did bespeak:
“Lord Hamlet is a prince, out of thy star. 150
This must not be.” And then I prescripts gave her,
That she should lock herself from his resort,
Admit no messengers, receive no tokens;
Which done, she took the fruits of my advice,
And he, repelled (a short tale to make), 155
Fell 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
And all we mourn for. 160
KING, to Queen Do you think ’tis this?
QUEEN It may be, very like.
POLONIUS
Hath there been such a time (I would fain know
that)
That I have positively said “’Tis so,” 165
When it proved otherwise?
KING Not that I know.
POLONIUS
Take this from this, if this be otherwise.
If circumstances lead me, I will find
Where truth is hid, though it were hid, indeed, 170
Within the center.
KING How may we try it further?
POLONIUS
You know sometimes he walks four hours together
Here in the lobby.
QUEEN So he does indeed. 175
POLONIUS
At such a time I’ll loose my daughter to him.
To the King. 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,
Let me be no assistant for a state, 180
But keep a farm and carters.
KING We will try it.
Enter Hamlet reading on a book.
QUEEN
But look where sadly the poor wretch comes
reading.
POLONIUS
Away, I do beseech you both, away. 185
I’ll board him presently. O, give me leave.
King and Queen exit with Attendants.
How does my good Lord Hamlet?
HAMLET Well, God-a-mercy.
POLONIUS Do you know me, my lord?
HAMLET Excellent well. You are a fishmonger.190
POLONIUS Not I, my lord.
HAMLET Then I would you were so honest a man.
POLONIUS Honest, my lord?
HAMLET Ay, sir. To be honest, as this world goes, is to
be one man picked out of ten thousand.195
POLONIUS That’s very true, my lord.
HAMLET For if the sun breed maggots in a dead
dog, being a good kissing carrion—Have you a
daughter?
POLONIUS I have, my lord.200
HAMLET Let her not walk i’ th’ sun. Conception is a
blessing, but, as your daughter may conceive,
friend, look to ’t.
POLONIUS, aside How say you by that? Still harping on
my daughter. Yet he knew me not at first; he said I205
was a fishmonger. He is 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.210
POLONIUS What is the matter, my lord?
HAMLET Between who?
POLONIUS I mean the matter that you read, my lord.
HAMLET Slanders, sir; for the satirical rogue says here
that old men have gray beards, that their faces are215
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; for220
yourself, sir, shall grow old as I am, if, like a crab,
you could go backward.
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?225
POLONIUS Indeed, that’s out of 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 of230
meeting between him and my daughter.—My lord,
I will take my leave of you.
HAMLET You cannot, sir, take from me anything that I
will more willingly part withal—except my life,
except my life, except my life.235
POLONIUS Fare you well, my lord.
HAMLET, aside These tedious old fools.
Enter Guildenstern and Rosencrantz.
POLONIUS You go to seek the Lord Hamlet. There he is.
ROSENCRANTZ, to Polonius God save you, sir.
Polonius exits.
GUILDENSTERN My honored lord.240
ROSENCRANTZ My most dear lord.
HAMLET My excellent good friends! How dost thou,
Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do
you both?
ROSENCRANTZ
As the indifferent children of the earth.245
GUILDENSTERN
Happy in that we are not overhappy.
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 the250
middle of her favors?
GUILDENSTERN Faith, her privates we.
HAMLET In the secret parts of Fortune? O, most true!
She is a strumpet. What news?
ROSENCRANTZ None, my lord, but that the world’s255
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?260
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’265
th’ 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.270
ROSENCRANTZ Why, then, your ambition makes it one.
’Tis too narrow for your mind.
HAMLET O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and
count myself a king of infinite space, were it not
that I have bad dreams.275
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 airy280
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 th’ court? For, by my fay, I cannot
reason.285
ROSENCRANTZ/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 at290
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?295
Is it your own inclining? Is it a free visitation?
Come, come, deal justly with me. Come, come; nay,
speak.
GUILDENSTERN What should we say, my lord?
HAMLET Anything but to th’ purpose. You were sent300
for, and there is a kind of confession in your looks
which your modesties have not craft enough to
color. I know the good king and queen have sent for
you.
ROSENCRANTZ To what end, my lord?305
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 can charge you withal: be even and direct310
with me whether you were sent for or no.
ROSENCRANTZ, 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.315
HAMLET I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation
prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the
King and Queen molt 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 heavily320
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 appeareth nothing to me325
but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapors.
What a piece of work is a man, how noble in
reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving
how express and admirable; in action how like
an angel, in apprehension how like a god: the330
beauty of the world, the paragon of animals—and
yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man
delights not me, no, nor women neither, though by
your smiling you seem to say so.
ROSENCRANTZ My lord, there was no such stuff in my335
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 Lenten entertainment the players shall340
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 on me. The adventurous
knight shall use his foil and target, the lover shall345
not sigh gratis, the humorous man shall end his
part in peace, the clown shall make those laugh
whose lungs are tickle o’ th’ sear, and the lady
shall say her mind freely, or the blank verse shall
halt for ’t. What players are they?350
ROSENCRANTZ Even those you were wont to take such
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 the355
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?360
ROSENCRANTZ Nay, their endeavor keeps in the wonted
pace. But there is, sir, an aerie 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 (so365
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 say370
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 on375
both sides, and the nation holds it no sin to tar
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?380
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.385
HAMLET It is not very strange; for my uncle is King of
Denmark, and those that would make mouths at
him while my father lived give twenty, forty, fifty,
a hundred ducats apiece for his picture in little.
’Sblood, there is something in this more than natural,390
if philosophy could find it out.
A flourish for the Players.
GUILDENSTERN There are the players.
HAMLET Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore.
Your hands, come then. Th’ appurtenance of welcome
is fashion and ceremony. Let me comply395
with you in this garb, lest my extent to the players,
which, I tell you, must show fairly outwards, should
more appear like entertainment than yours. You are
welcome. But my uncle-father and aunt-mother are
deceived.400
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.
POLONIUS Well be with you, gentlemen.
HAMLET Hark you, Guildenstern, and you too—at405
each ear a hearer! That great baby you see there is
not yet out of his swaddling clouts.
ROSENCRANTZ Haply he is 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 the410
players; mark it.—You say right, sir, a Monday
morning, ’twas then indeed.
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—415
POLONIUS The actors are come hither, my lord.
HAMLET Buzz, buzz.
POLONIUS Upon my honor—
HAMLET Then came each actor on his ass.
POLONIUS The best actors in the world, either for420
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,425
these are the only men.
HAMLET O Jephthah, judge of Israel, what a treasure
hadst thou!
POLONIUS What a treasure had he, my lord?
HAMLET Why,430
One fair daughter, and no more,
The which he lovèd passing well.
POLONIUS, aside Still on my daughter.
HAMLET Am I not i’ th’ right, old Jephthah?
POLONIUS If you call me “Jephthah,” my lord: I have a435
daughter that I love passing well.
HAMLET Nay, that follows not.
POLONIUS What follows then, my lord?
HAMLET Why,
As by lot, God wot440
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 abridgment comes.
Enter the Players.
You are welcome, masters; welcome all.—I am glad445
to see thee well.—Welcome, good friends.—O my
old friend! Why, thy face is valanced since I saw thee
last. Com’st 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, by450
the altitude of a chopine. Pray God your voice, like a
piece 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 anything we see. We’ll
have a speech straight. Come, give us a taste of your455
quality. Come, a passionate speech.
FIRST PLAYER What speech, my good 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:460
’twas caviary 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 there465
were no sallets in the lines to make the matter
savory, nor no matter in the phrase that might indict
the author of affection, but called it an honest
method, as wholesome as sweet and, by very much,
more handsome than fine. One speech in ’t I470
chiefly loved. ’Twas Aeneas’ tale to Dido, and
thereabout of it especially when 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 th’ Hyrcanian beast—475
’tis not so; it begins with Pyrrhus:
The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms,
Black as his purpose, did the night resemble
When he lay couchèd in th’ ominous horse,
Hath now this dread and black complexion smeared480
With heraldry more dismal. Head to foot,
Now is he total gules, horridly tricked
With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons,
Baked and impasted with the parching streets,
That lend a tyrannous and a damnèd light485
To their lord’s murder. Roasted in wrath and fire,
And thus o’ersizèd with coagulate gore,
With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus
Old grandsire Priam seeks.
So, proceed you.490
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,495
Repugnant to command. Unequal matched,
Pyrrhus at Priam drives, in rage strikes wide;
But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword
Th’ unnervèd father falls. Then senseless Ilium,
Seeming to feel this blow, with flaming top500
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, seemed i’ th’ air to stick.
So as a painted tyrant Pyrrhus stood505
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 below510
As hush as death, anon the dreadful thunder
Doth rend the region; so, after Pyrrhus’ pause,
Arousèd vengeance sets him new a-work,
And never did the Cyclops’ hammers fall
On Mars’s armor, forged for proof eterne,515
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,520
And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven
As low as to the fiends!
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, or525
he sleeps. Say on; come to Hecuba.
FIRST PLAYER
But who, ah woe, had seen the moblèd queen—
HAMLET “The moblèd queen”?
POLONIUS That’s good. “Moblèd queen” is good.
FIRST PLAYER
Run barefoot up and down, threat’ning the flames530
With bisson rheum, a clout upon that head
Where late the diadem stood, and for a robe,
About her lank and all o’erteemèd loins
A blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up—
Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steeped,535
’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,540
The instant burst of clamor 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.
POLONIUS Look whe’er he has not turned his color and545
has tears in ’s eyes. Prithee, no more.
HAMLET ’Tis well. I’ll have thee speak out the rest of
this 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 the550
time. After your death you were better have a bad
epitaph than their ill report while you live.
POLONIUS My lord, I will use them according to their
desert.
HAMLET God’s bodykins, man, much better! Use every555
man after his desert and who shall ’scape
whipping? Use them after your own honor and
dignity. The less they deserve, the more merit is in
your bounty. Take them in.
POLONIUS Come, sirs.560
HAMLET Follow him, friends. We’ll hear a play
tomorrow. As Polonius and Players exit, Hamlet speaks to
the First Player. Dost thou hear me, old friend? Can
you play “The Murder of Gonzago”?
FIRST PLAYER Ay, my lord.565
HAMLET We’ll ha ’t tomorrow 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.570
HAMLET Very well. Follow that lord—and look you
mock him not. First Player exits. My good friends,
I’ll leave you till night. You are welcome to Elsinore.
ROSENCRANTZ Good my lord.
HAMLET
Ay, so, good-bye to you.575
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern exit.
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 conceit580
That from her working all his visage wanned,
Tears in his eyes, distraction in his aspect,
A broken voice, and his whole function suiting
With forms to his conceit—and all for nothing!
For Hecuba!585
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,590
Make mad the guilty and appall 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,595
And can say nothing—no, not for a king
Upon whose property and most dear life
A damned 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?600
Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i’ th’ 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-livered and lack gall
To make oppression bitter, or ere this605
I should have fatted all the region kites
With this slave’s offal. Bloody, bawdy villain!
Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless
villain!
O vengeance!610
Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave,
That I, the son of a dear father murdered,
Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,
Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words
And fall a-cursing like a very drab,615
A stallion! Fie upon ’t! Foh!
About, my brains!—Hum, 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 presently620
They have proclaimed 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;625
I’ll tent him to the quick. If he do blench,
I know my course. The spirit that I have seen
May be a devil, and the devil hath power
T’ assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps,
Out of my weakness and my melancholy,630
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.
He exits.
