Hamlet Read online

  But look, amazement on thy mother sits.

  O, step between her and her fighting soul:

  Conceit117 in weakest bodies strongest works: Speak to her, Hamlet.

  HAMLET How is it with you, lady?

  GERTRUDE Alas, how is't with you,

  That you do bend your eye on vacancy

  And with th'incorporal122 air do hold discourse?

  Forth at your eyes your spirits123 wildly peep, And, as the sleeping soldiers in th'alarm124, Your bedded hair, like life in excrements125, Start up and stand on end. O gentle son,

  Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper

  Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look?

  HAMLET On him, on him! Look you how pale he glares!

  His form and cause conjoined130, preaching to stones,

  Would make them capable.-- Do not look upon me,

  To the Ghost

  Lest with this piteous action you convert132

  My stern effects: then what I have to do

  Will want true colour134; tears perchance for blood.

  GERTRUDE To who do you speak this?

  HAMLET Do you see nothing there?

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

  HAMLET Nor did you nothing hear?

  GERTRUDE No, nothing but ourselves.

  HAMLET Why, look you there: look, how it steals away.

  My father, in his habit as141 he lived!

  Look where he goes even now out at the portal.

  Exit [Ghost]

  GERTRUDE This is the very coinage143 of your brain: This bodiless creation ecstasy is very cunning144 in.

  HAMLET Ecstasy?

  My pulse as yours doth temperately keep time,

  And makes as healthful music: it is not madness

  That I have uttered. Bring me to the test,

  And I the matter will reword149, which madness Would gambol150 from. Mother, for love of grace, Lay not a flattering unction151 to your soul That not your trespass152, but my madness speaks: It will but skin and film153 the ulcerous place, Whilst rank corruption, mining154 all within, Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven,

  Repent what's past, avoid what is to come,

  And do not spread the compost o'er the weeds

  To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue158, For in the fatness of these pursy159 times Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg,

  Yea, curb and woo161 for leave to do him good.

  GERTRUDE 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.

  Goodnight. But go not to mine uncle's bed:

  Assume a virtue, if you have it not.

  Refrain tonight,

  And that shall lend a kind of easiness

  To the next abstinence. Once more, goodnight:

  And when you are desirous to be blessed,

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

  Points to the body

  I do repent, but heaven hath pleased it so

  To punish me with this, and this with me,

  That I must be their scourge and minister174.

  I will bestow him, and will answer well175

  The death I gave him. So, again, goodnight.

  I must be cruel, only to be kind:

  Thus bad begins and worse remains behind178.

  GERTRUDE What shall I do?

  HAMLET Not this by no means that I bid you do:

  Let the bloat181 king tempt you again to bed, Pinch wanton on your cheek, call you his mouse182, And let him, for a pair of reechy183 kisses, Or paddling in your neck with his damned fingers,

  Make you to ravel all this matter out185, That I essentially am not in madness,

  But mad in craft187. 'Twere good you let him know, For who that's but a queen, fair, sober, wise,

  Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib189, Such dear concernings190 hide? Who would do so?

  No, in despite of sense and secrecy,

  Unpeg192 the basket on the house's top, Let the birds fly, and like the famous ape193, To try conclusions194, in the basket creep, And break your own neck down.

  GERTRUDE Be thou assured, 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?

  GERTRUDE Alack,

  I had forgot: 'tis so concluded on.

  HAMLET This man shall set me packing202: I'll lug the guts into the neighbour room.

  Mother, goodnight. Indeed this counsellor

  Is now most still, most secret and most grave205, Who was in life a foolish prating206 knave.--

  Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you207.--

  Goodnight, mother.

  Exit Hamlet tugging in Polonius

  Enter King

  KING There's matter209 in these sighs, these profound heaves, You must translate: 'tis fit we understand them.

  Where is your son?

  GERTRUDE Ah, my good lord, what have I seen tonight!

  KING What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet?

  GERTRUDE Mad as the seas and wind when both contend

  Which is the mightier: in his lawless fit,

  Behind the arras hearing something stir,

  He whips his rapier out and cries, 'A rat, a rat!'

  And in his brainish apprehension218 kills The unseen good old man.

  KING O, heavy220 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 everyone.

  Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answered224?

  It will be laid to us, whose providence225

  Should have kept short, restrained and out of haunt226

  This mad young man: but so much was our love,

  We would not understand what was most fit,

  But, like the owner of a foul disease,

  To keep it from divulging230, lets it feed Even on the pith of life. Where is he gone?

  GERTRUDE To draw apart232 the body he hath killed, O'er whom his very madness, like some ore233

  Among a mineral234 of metals base, Shows itself pure: he weeps for what is done.

  KING O Gertrude, come away!

  The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch,

  But we will ship him hence, and this vile deed

  We must with all our majesty and skill,

  Both countenance240 and excuse.--

  Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

  Ho, Guildenstern!

  Friends both, go join you with some further aid.

  Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain,

  And from his mother's closet hath he dragged him:

  Go seek him out, speak fair, and bring the body

  Into the chapel. I pray you haste in this.

  Exeunt Gentlemen [Ros. and Guild.]

  Come, Gertrude, we'll call up our wisest friends

  To let them know, both what we mean to do

  And what's untimely done248. O, come away!

  My soul is full of discord and dismay.

  Exeunt

  [Act 4 Scene 1]

  running scene 11

  Enter Hamlet

  HAMLET Safely stowed1.

  GENTLEMEN Hamlet, Lord Hamlet!

  Within

  HAMLET What noise? Who calls on Hamlet? O, here they come.

  Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

  With Attendants?

  ROSENCRANTZ What have you done, my lord, with the dead body?

  HAMLET Compounded5 it with dust, whereto 'tis kin.

  ROSENCRANTZ Tell us where 'tis, that we may take it thence and bear it to the chapel.

  HAMLET Do not believe it.

  ROSENCRANTZ Believe what?

  HAMLET That I can keep your counsel and not mine own10.

  Besides, to be demanded of a sponge, what replication11

  sho
uld be made by the son of a king?

  ROSENCRANTZ Take you me for a sponge, my lord?

  HAMLET Ay, sir, that soaks up the king's countenance14, his rewards, his authorities15. But such officers do the king best service in the end: he keeps them, like an ape an apple, in the

  corner of his jaw, first mouthed17 to be last swallowed: when he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you,

  and, sponge, you shall be dry again.

  ROSENCRANTZ I understand you not, my lord.

  HAMLET I am glad of it: a knavish speech sleeps in21 a foolish ear.

  ROSENCRANTZ My lord, you must tell us where the body is, and go with us to the king.

  HAMLET The body is with the king, but the king is not with25

  the body. The king is a thing--

  GUILDENSTERN A thing, my lord?

  HAMLET Of nothing. Bring me to him. Hide fox, and all after28.

  Running

  Exeunt

  [Act 4 Scene 2]

  running scene 11 continues

  Enter King

  KING I have sent to seek him and to find the body.

  How dangerous is it that this man goes loose!

  Yet must not we put the strong law on him:

  He's loved of the distracted4 multitude, Who like not in their judgement, but their eyes,

  And where 'tis so, th'offender's scourge is weighed6, But ne'er the offence. To bear all smooth and even7, This sudden sending him away must seem

  Deliberate pause9. Diseases desperate grown By desperate appliance10 are relieved, Or not at all.

  Enter Rosencrantz

  How now? What hath befall'n?

  ROSENCRANTZ Where the dead body is bestowed, my lord, We cannot get from him.

  KING But where is he?

  ROSENCRANTZ Without15, my lord, guarded, to know your pleasure.

  KING Bring him before us.

  ROSENCRANTZ Ho, Guildenstern! Bring in my lord.

  Calls

  Enter Hamlet and Guildenstern

  With Attendants?

  KING Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius?

  HAMLET At supper.

  KING At supper? Where?

  HAMLET Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain convocation of worms are e'en22 at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else to fat us, and

  we fat ourselves for maggots: your fat king and your lean

  beggar is but variable service25, two dishes, but to one table.

  That's the end.

  KING Alas, alas!

  HAMLET A man may fish with the worm that hath eat28 of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.

  KING What dost thou mean by this?

  HAMLET Nothing but to show you how a king may go a

  progress32 through the guts of a beggar.

  KING Where is Polonius?

  HAMLET In heaven, send thither to see. If your messenger find him not there, seek him i'th'other place yourself. But

  indeed, if you find him not this month, you shall nose him as

  you go up the stairs into the lobby.

  To Rosencrantz or Attendants

  KING Go seek him there.

  HAMLET He will stay till ye come.

  [Exit Rosencrantz or Attendants]

  KING Hamlet, this deed of thine, for thine especial safety --

  Which we do tender41, as we dearly grieve For that which thou hast done -- must send thee hence

  With fiery quickness: therefore prepare thyself.

  The bark44 is ready and the wind at help, Th'associates tend and everything at bent45

  For England.

  HAMLET For England?

  KING Ay, Hamlet.

  HAMLET Good.

  KING So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes.

  HAMLET I see a cherub51 that sees them. But come, for England! Farewell, dear mother.

  KING Thy loving father, Hamlet.

  HAMLET My mother. Father and mother is man and wife: man and wife is one flesh, and so, my mother. Come, for

  England!

  Exit

  KING Follow him at foot57, tempt him with speed aboard: Delay it not, I'll have him hence tonight.

  Away! For everything is sealed and done

  That else leans on60 th'affair: pray you make haste.

  [Exit Guildenstern and perhaps Rosencrantz]

  And, England, if my love thou hold'st at aught61 --

  As my great power thereof may give thee sense62, Since yet thy cicatrice63 looks raw and red After the Danish sword, and thy free awe64

  Pays homage to us -- thou mayst not coldly set65

  Our sovereign process, which imports at full66, By letters conjuring67 to that effect, The present68 death of Hamlet. Do it, England, For like the hectic69 in my blood he rages, And thou must cure me. Till I know 'tis done,

  Howe'er my haps71, my joys were ne'er begun.

  Exit

  [Act 4 Scene 3]

  running scene 12

  Enter Fortinbras with an army

  FORTINBRAS Go, captain, from me greet the Danish king: Tell him that by his licence2 Fortinbras Claims the conveyance of3 a promised march Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous.

  If that his majesty would aught with us,

  We shall express our duty in his eye6, And let him know so.

  CAPTAIN I will do't, my lord.

  FORTINBRAS Go softly9 on.

  Exeunt

  [Act 4 Scene 4]

  running scene 13

  Enter Queen and Horatio

  GERTRUDE I will not speak with her.

  HORATIO She is importunate, indeed distract2: Her mood will needs be pitied.

  GERTRUDE What would she have?

  HORATIO She speaks much of her father; says she hears There's tricks i'th'world, and hems6, and beats her heart, Spurns enviously at straws, speaks things in doubt7

  That carry but half sense: her speech is nothing,

  Yet the unshaped use9 of it doth move The hearers to collection; they aim10 at it, And botch11 the words up fit to their own thoughts, Which, as her winks and nods and gestures yield12 them, Indeed would make one think there might be thought13, Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily14.

  GERTRUDE 'Twere good she were spoken with, for she may strew Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding16 minds.

  Let her come in.

  Horatio goes to the door or may exit

  Aside

  To my sick soul -- as sin's true nature is --

  Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss19: So full of artless jealousy20 is guilt, It spills itself in fearing to be spilt21.

  Enter Ophelia, distracted

  With Horatio?

  OPHELIA Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark?

  GERTRUDE How now, Ophelia!

  Sings

  OPHELIA How should I your true love know

  From another one?

  By his cockle hat26 and staff, And his sandal shoon27.

  GERTRUDE Alas, sweet lady, what imports this song?

  OPHELIA Say you? Nay, pray you, mark.

  Sings

  He is dead and gone, lady,

  He is dead and gone.

  At his head a grass-green turf,

  At his heels a stone.

  Enter King

  GERTRUDE Nay, but, Ophelia--

  OPHELIA Pray you, mark.

  Sings

  White his shroud as the mountain snow--

  GERTRUDE Alas, look here, my lord.

  Sings

  OPHELIA Larded38 with sweet flowers Which bewept to the grave did not go

  With true-love showers40.

  KING How do ye, pretty lady?

  OPHELIA Well, God yield you! They say the owl was a baker's42

  daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but know not what

  we may be. God be at your table!

  KING Conceit upon45 her father.

  OPHELIA Pray you let's have no words of this, but when they ask you what it means, say you
this:

  Sings

  'Tomorrow is Saint Valentine's day,

  All in the morning betime49, And I a maid at your window,

  To be your Valentine51.'

  Then up he rose52, and donned his clothes, And dupped the chamber door53: Let in the maid54, that out a maid Never departed more.

  KING Pretty Ophelia.

  OPHELIA Indeed, la, without an oath, I'll make an end on't:

  Sings

  By Gis58 and by Saint Charity, Alack, and fie for shame!

  Young men will do't60, if they come to't, By cock61, they are to blame.

  Quoth she, 'Before you tumbled62 me, You promised me to wed.'

  'So would I ha' done, by yonder sun,

  An65 thou hadst not come to my bed.'

  KING How long hath she been thus?

  OPHELIA I hope all will be well. We must be patient, but I cannot choose but weep to think they should lay him

  i'th'cold ground. My brother shall know of it: and so I thank

  you for your good counsel. Come, my coach! Goodnight,

  ladies, goodnight, sweet ladies, goodnight, goodnight.

  Exit

  To Horatio

  KING Follow her close: give her good watch,

  I pray you.

  [Exit Horatio]

  O, this is the poison of deep grief: it springs

  All from her father's death. O Gertrude, Gertrude,

  When sorrows come, they come not single spies76

  But in battalions. First, her father slain:

  Next, your son gone, and he most violent author

  Of his own just remove: the people muddied79, Thick and unwholesome in their thoughts and whispers

  For good Polonius' death, and we have done but greenly81

  In hugger-mugger82 to inter him: poor Ophelia Divided from herself and her fair judgement,

  Without the which we are pictures or mere beasts:

  Last, and as much containing85 as all these, Her brother is in secret come from France,

  Feeds on his wonder, keeps himself in clouds87, And wants not buzzers88 to infect his ear With pestilent speeches of his father's death,

  Wherein necessity, of matter beggared90, Will nothing stick our persons to arraign91

  In ear and ear. O, my dear Gertrude, this,

  Like to a murdering-piece93, in many places Gives me superfluous death94.

  A noise within

  Enter a Messenger

  GERTRUDE Alack, what noise is this?

  KING Where are my Switzers96? Let them guard the door.--

  What is the matter?

  MESSENGER Save yourself, my lord.

  The ocean, overpeering of his list99, Eats not the flats100 with more impiteous haste Than young Laertes, in a riotous head101, O'erbears your officers. The rabble call him lord,

  And, as103 the world were now but to begin, Antiquity104 forgot, custom not known, The ratifiers and props of every word105, They cry 'Choose we! Laertes shall be king.'