SCENE II. A room in the castle. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark  Shakespeare homepage  |  Hamlet  | Act 2, Scene 2 

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 Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and Attendants  KING CLAUDIUS  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, 

 Sith 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, 

 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, 

 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, 

 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 

 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 

 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 

 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 

 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! 



 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. 

 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 

 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. 

 KING CLAUDIUS  Thyself do grace to them, and bring them in. 



 Exit POLONIUS  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; 

 His father's death, and our o'erhasty marriage. 

 KING CLAUDIUS  Well, we shall sift him. 



 Re-enter POLONIUS, with VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS  Welcome, my good friends! 

 Say, Voltimand, what from our brother Norway? 

 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 

 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 

 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, 

 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, 

 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. 

 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. 

 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, 

 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. 

 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. 

 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. 

 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 

 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.' 

 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; 

 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. 

 '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, 

 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. 

 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, 

 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: 

 '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, 

 Admit no messengers, receive no tokens. 

 Which done, she took the fruits of my advice; 

 And he, repulsed--a short tale to make-- 

 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. 

 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,' 

 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 

 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. 

 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, 

 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: 

 I'll board him presently. 



 Exeunt KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, and Attendants 

 Enter HAMLET, reading  O, give me leave: 

 How does my good Lord Hamlet? 

 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. 

 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 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 

 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 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, 

 That lend a tyrannous and damned light 

 To their lord's murder: roasted in wrath and fire, 

 And thus o'er-sized with coagulate gore, 

 With 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! 

 HAMLET  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, 

 And 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. 



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