Hamlet 2.2

	King	Welcome, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern!
4		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 I call it,
8		Since nor the 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 the understanding of himself,
12		I cannot dream of: I entreat you both,
		That, being of so young days brought up with him,
		And since so neighbour’d to his youth and humour,
		That you vouchsafe your rest here in our court
16		Some little time; so by your companies
		To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather,
		So much as from occasion you may glean,
		Whe’r aught to us unknown afflicts him thus,
20		That, open’d, lies within our remedy.
	Queen	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
24		To show us so much gentry and good will
		As to expend your time with us awhile,
back to top		For the supply and profit of our hope,
		Your visitation shall receive such thanks
28		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
32		Than to entreaty.
	Guildenstern	But we both obey,
		And here give up ourselves, in the full bent,
		To lay our service freely at your feet,
36		To be commanded.
	King	Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern.
	Queen	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 practices
		Pleasant and helpful to him!
44	Queen	Ay, amen! [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and some Attendants.]
		Enter POLONIUS.
	Polonius	The ambassadors from Norway, my good lord,
		Are joyfully return’d.
48	King	Thou still hast been the father of good news.
	Polonius	Have I, my lord? Assure you, my good liege,
back to top		I hold my duty, as I hold my soul,
		Both to my God and to my gracious king;
52		And I do think—or else this brain of mine
		Hunts not the trail of policy so sure
		As it hath us’d to do—that I have found
		The very cause of Hamlet’s lunacy.
56	King	O! speak of that; that do I long to hear.
	Polonius	Give first admittance to the ambassadors;
		My news shall be the fruit to that great feast.
	King	Thyself do grace to them, and bring them in. [Exit POLONIUS.]
60		He tells me, my sweet queen, that 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.
64	King	Well, we shall sift him.
		Re-Enter POLONIUS, with VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS.
		Welcome, my good friends!
		Say, Voltimand, what from our brother Norway?
68	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;
72		But, better look’d into, he truly found
		It was against your highness: whereat griev’d,
		That so his sickness, age, and impotence
back to top		Was falsely borne in hand, sends out arrests
76		On Fortinbras; which he, in brief, obeys,
		Receives rebuke from Norway, and, in fine,
		Makes vow before his uncle never more
		To give the assay of arms against your majesty.
80		Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy,
		Gives him three thousand crowns in annual fee,
		And his commission to employ those soldiers,
		So levied as before, against the Polack;
84		With an entreaty, herein further shown, [Giving a paper.]
		That it might please you to give quiet pass
		Through your dominions for this enterprise,
		On such regards of safety and allowance
88		As therein are set down.
	King	It likes us well;
		And at our more consider’d time we’ll read,
		Answer, and think upon this business:
92		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.]
	Polonius	This business is well ended.
96		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.
100		Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
		And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
back to top		I will be brief. Your noble son is mad:
		Mad call I it; for, to define true madness,
104		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.
108		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.
		Mad let us grant him, then; and now remains
112		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.
116		Perpend.
		I have a daughter, have while she is mine;
		Who, in her duty and obedience, mark,
		Hath given me this: now, gather, and surmise.
120		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:
		In her excellent white bosom, these, &c.—
	Queen	Came this from Hamlet to her?
124	Polonius	Good madam, stay awhile; I will be faithful.
		Doubt thou the stars are fire;
back to top		Doubt that the sun doth move;
		Doubt truth to be a liar;
128		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.
		Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this machine is to him, HAMLET.
132		This in obedience hath my daughter shown me;
		And more above, hath his solicitings,
		As they fell out by time, by means, and place,
		All given to mine ear.
136	King	But how hath she
		Receiv’d his love?
	Polonius	What do you think of me?
	King	As of a man faithful and honourable.
140	Polonius	I would fain prove so. But what might you think,
		When I had seen this hot love on the wing,—
		As I perceiv’d it, I must tell you that,
		Before my daughter told me,—what might you,
144		Or my dear majesty, your queen here, think,
		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;
148		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;
back to top		This must not be:’ and then I precepts gave her,
152		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, repulsed,—a short tale to make,—
156		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,
160		And all we wail for.
	King	Do you think ’tis this?
	Queen	It may be, very likely.
	Polonius	Hath there been such a time,—I’d fain know that,—
164		That I have positively said, ‘’Tis so,’
		When it prov’d otherwise?
	King	Not that I know.
	Polonius	Take this from this, if this be otherwise: [Pointing to his head and shoulder.]
168		If circumstances lead me, I will find
		Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed
		Within the centre.
	King	How may we try it further?
172	Polonius	You know sometimes he walks four hours together
		Here in the lobby.
	Queen	So he does indeed.
back to top	Polonius	At such a time I’ll loose my daughter to him;
176		Be you and I behind an arras then;
		Mark the encounter; if he love her not,
		And be not from his reason fallen thereon,
		Let me be no assistant for a state,
180		But keep a farm, and carters.
	King	We will try it.
	Queen	But look, where sadly the poor wretch comes reading.
	Polonius	Away! I do beseech you, both away.
184		I’ll board him presently. [Exeunt KING, QUEEN, and Attendants.]
		Enter HAMLET, reading.
		O! give me leave.
		How does my good Lord Hamlet?
188	Hamlet	Well, God a-mercy.
	Polonius	Do you know me, my lord?
	Hamlet	Excellent well; you are a fishmonger.
	Polonius	Not I, my lord.
192	Hamlet	Then I would you were so honest a man.
	Polonius	Honest, my lord!
back to top	Hamlet	Ay, sir; to be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.
	Polonius	That’s very true, my lord.
196	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.
	Hamlet	Let her not walk i’ the sun: conception is a blessing; but not 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 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?
200	Hamlet	Words, words, words.
back to top	Polonius	What is the matter, my lord?
	Hamlet	Between who?
	Polonius	I mean the matter that you read, my lord.
204	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 you yourself, sir, should be 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?
	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.
208	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.
	Polonius	Fare you well, my lord. [Going.]
	Hamlet	These tedious old fools!
		Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.
212		POLONIUSYou go to seek the Lord Hamlet; there he is.
back to top		ROSENCRANTZ [To POLONIUS.] God save you, sir! [Exit POLONIUS.]
	Guildenstern	Mine honoured lord!
	Rosencrantz	My most dear lord!
216	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.
220	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.
224	Hamlet	In the secret parts of Fortune? O! most true; she is a strumpet. What 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!
228	Hamlet	Denmark’s a prison.
	Rosencrantz	Then is the world one.
back to top	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.
232	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 nutshell, 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.
236	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.
	Rosencrantz& Guildenstern	We’ll wait upon you.
240	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.
back to top	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, come, deal justly with me: come, come; nay, speak.
	Guildenstern	What should we say, my lord?
244	Hamlet	Why anything, 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?
248	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 but 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, in 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.
252	Hamlet	Why did you laugh then, when I said, ‘man delights not me?’
back to top	Rosencrantz	To think, my lord, if you delight not in man, what lenten 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 humorous man shall end his part in peace; the clown shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickle 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, tragedians of the city.
256	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 they are not.
260	Hamlet	How comes it? Do they grow rusty?
back to top	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.
264	Hamlet	Is it 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.
268	Hamlet	It is not very strange; for my uncle is King of Denmark, and those that would make mows at him while my father lived, give twenty, forty, fifty, a 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.
back to top	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?
272	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; at each ear a hearer: that great baby you see there is not yet out of his swaddling-clouts.
276	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.
	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,—
280	Polonius	The actors are come hither, my lord.
	Hamlet	Buzz, buzz!
	Polonius	Upon my honour,—
	Hamlet	Then came each actor on his ass,—
284	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.
back to top	Hamlet	O Jephthah, judge of Israel, what a treasure hadst thou!
	Polonius	What a treasure had he, my lord?
	Hamlet	Why
288		One fair daughter and no more,
		The which he loved passing well.
	Polonius	[Aside.] Still on my daughter.
	Hamlet	Am I not i’ the right, old Jephthah?
292	Polonius	If you call me Jephthah, my lord, I have a daughter that I love passing well.
	Hamlet	Nay, that follows not.
	Polonius	What follows, then, my lord?
	Hamlet	Why,
296		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 abridgment comes.
300		[Enter four or five Players.]
back to top		You are welcome, masters; welcome, all. I am glad to see thee well: welcome, good friends. O, my old friend! Thy face is valanced 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 heaven than when I saw you last, by 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 your 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; ’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 Æneas’ 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:—
304		The rugged Pyrrhus, like the Hyrcanian beast,—
		’tis not so, it begins with Pyrrhus:—
		The rugged Pyrrhus, he, whose sable arm,
		Black as his purpose, did the night resemble
308		When he lay couched in the ominous horse,
		Hath now this dread and black complexion smear’d
back to top		With heraldry more dismal; head to foot
		Now is he total gules; horridly trick’d
312		With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons,
		Bak’d and impasted with the parching streets,
		That lend a tyrannous and damned light
		To their vile murders: roasted in wrath and fire,
316		And thus o’er-sized with coagulate gore,
		With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus
		Old grandsire Priam seeks.
		So proceed you.
320	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,
324		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,
328		Seeming to feel this blow, with flaming top
		Stoops to his base, and with a hideous crash
back to top		Takes prisoner Pyrrhus’ ear: for lo! his sword,
		Which was declining on the milky head
332		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.
336		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
340		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, forg’d for proof eterne,
344		With less remorse than Pyrrhus’ bleeding sword
		Now falls on Priam.
back to top		Out, out, thou strumpet, Fortune! All you gods,
		In general synod, take away her power;
348		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!
	Polonius	This is too long.
352	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?’—
	Polonius	That’s good; ‘mobled queen’ is good.
356	First Player	Run barefoot up and down, threat’ning 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,
360		A blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up;
		Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steep’d,
back to top		’Gainst Fortune’s state would treason have pronounc’d:
		But if the gods themselves did see her then,
364		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—
368		Would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven,
		And passion in the gods.
	Polonius	Look! wh’er he has not turned his colour and has tears in’s eyes. Prithee, 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 abstracts and brief chronicles of the time: after your death you were better have a bad epitaph than their ill report while you live.
372	Polonius	My lord, I will use them according to their desert.
	Hamlet	God’s bodikins, 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.
	Polonius	Come, sirs.
back to top	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?
376	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.] [To ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.] My good friends, I’ll leave you till night; you are welcome to Elsinore.
380	Rosencrantz	Good my lord! [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.]
	Hamlet	Ay, so, God be wi’ ye! Now I am alone.
		O! what a rogue and peasant slave am I:
		Is it not monstrous that this player here,
384		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,
388		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
392		That he should weep for her? What would he do
		Had he the motive and the cue for passion
back to top		That I have? He would drown the stage with tears,
		And cleave the general ear with horrid speech,
396		Make mad the guilty and appal the free,
		Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed
		The very faculties of eyes and ears.
		Yet I,
400		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
404		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,
408		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
412		To make oppression bitter, or ere this
		I should have fatted all the region kites
		With this slave’s offal. Bloody, bawdy villain!
back to top		Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!
416		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,
420		Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words,
		And fall a-cursing, like a very drab,
		A scullion!
		Fie upon’t! foh! About, my brain! I have heard,
424		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;
428		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;
432		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
436		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
440		Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the KING [Exit.]
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William Shakespeare (1564 -1616). The Oxford Shakespeare. 1914.
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