Philological Analysis of Shakespeare's Texts

Edition: ham-1603-22275x-hun-c01

Act 1

Scene 1

SEN:

STand: who is that?

BAR:

Tis I.

SEN:

O you come most carefully vpon your watch,

BAR:

And if you meete Marcellus and Horatio,

BAR:

The partners of my watch, bid them make haste.

SEN:

I will: See who goes there.

HOR:

Friends to this ground.

MAR:

And leegemen to the Dane,

MAR:

O farewell honest souldier, who hath releeued you?

SEN:

Barnardo hath my place, giue you good night.

MAR:

Holla, Barnardo.

BAR:

Say, is Horatio there?

HOR:

A peece of him.

BAR:

Welcome Horatio, welcome good Marcellus.

MAR:

What hath this thing appear'd againe to night.

BAR:

I haue seene nothing.

MAR:

Horatio sayes tis but our fantasie,

MAR:

And wil not let beliefe take hold of him,

MAR:

Touching this dreaded sight twice seene by vs,28

MAR:

Therefore I haue intreated him along with vs

MAR:

To watch the minutes of this night,

MAR:

That if againe this apparition come,

MAR:

He may approoue our eyes, and speake to it.

HOR:

Tut, t'will not appeare.

BAR:

Sit downe I pray, and let vs once againe

BAR:

Assaile your eares that are so fortified,

BAR:

What we haue two nights seene.

HOR:

Wel, sit we downe, and let vs heare Bernardo speake of this.

BAR:

Last night of al, when yonder starre that's west­ ward from the pole, had made his course to

BAR:

Illumine that part of heauen. Where now it burnes,

BAR:

The bell then towling one.

MAR:

Breake off your talke, see where it comes againe.

BAR:

In the same figure like the King that's dead,

MAR:

Thou art a scholler, speake to it Horatio.

BAR:

Lookes it not like the king?

HOR:

Most like, it horrors mee with feare and wonder.

BAR:

It would be spoke to.

MAR:

Question it Horatio.

HOR:

What art thou that thus vsurps the state, in

HOR:

Which the Maiestie of buried Denmarke did sometimes

HOR:

Walke? By heauen I charge thee speake.

MAR:

It is offended.exit Ghost.

BAR:

See, it stalkes away.

HOR:

Stay, speake, speake, by heauen I charge thee speake.

MAR:

Tis gone and makes no answer.

BAR:

How now Horatio, you tremble and looke pale,

BAR:

Is not this something more than fantasie?

BAR:

What thinke you on't?

HOR:

Afore my God, I might not this beleeue, without the sensible and true auouch of my owne eyes.

MAR:

Is it not like the King?

HOR:

As thou art to thy selfe,

HOR:

Such was the very armor he had on,

HOR:

When he the ambitious Norway combated.

HOR:

So frownd he once, when in an angry parle

HOR:

He smot the sleaded pollax on the yce,

HOR:

Tis strange.

MAR:

Thus twice before, and iump at this dead hower,

MAR:

With Marshall stalke he passed through our watch.

HOR:

In what particular to worke, I know not,

HOR:

But in the thought and scope of my opinion,

HOR:

This bodes some strange eruption to the state.

MAR:

Good, now sit downe, and tell me he that knowes

MAR:

Why this same strikt and most obseruant watch,

MAR:

So nightly toyles the subiect of the land,

MAR:

Stroke.And why such dayly cost of brazen Cannon

MAR:

And forraine marte, for implements of warre,Stroke.

MAR:

Why such impresse of ship‐writes, whose sore taske

MAR:

Does not diuide the sunday from the weeke:

MAR:

What might be toward that this sweaty march

MAR:

Doth make the night ioynt labourer with the day,

MAR:

Who is't that can informe me?

HOR:

Mary that can I, at least the whisper goes so,

HOR:

Our late King, who as you know was by Forten­ Brasse of Norway,

HOR:

Thereto prickt on by a most emulous cause, dared to

HOR:

The combate, in which our valiant Hamlet,

HOR:

For so this side of our knowne world esteemed him,

HOR:

Did slay this Fortenbrasse,

HOR:

Who by a seale compact well ratified, by law

HOR:

And heraldrie, did forfeit with his life all those

HOR:

His lands which he stoode seazed of by the conqueror,

HOR:

Against the which a moity competent,

HOR:

Was gaged by our King:

HOR:

Now sir, yong Fortenbrasse,

HOR:

Of inapproued mettle hot and full,29Line.

HOR:

Hath in the skirts of Norway here and there,

HOR:

Sharkt vp a sight of lawlesse Resolutes

HOR:

For food and diet to some enterprise,

HOR:

That hath a stomacke in't: and this (I take it) is the

HOR:

Chiefe head and ground of this our watch.

HOR:

But loe, behold, see where it comes againe,

HOR:

Ile crosse it, though it blast me: stay illusion,

HOR:

If there be any good thing to be done,

HOR:

That may doe ease to thee, and grace to mee,

HOR:

Speake to mee.

HOR:

If thou art priuy to thy countries fate,

HOR:

Which happly foreknowing may preuent, O speake to me,

HOR:

Or if thou hast extorted in thy life,

HOR:

Or hoorded treasure in the wombe of earth,

HOR:

For which they say you Spirites oft walke in death, speake to me, stay and speake, speake, stoppe it Marcellus.

BAR:

Tis heere.exit Ghost.

HOR:

Tis heere.

MAR:

Tis gone, O we doe it wrong, being so maiesti­ call, to offer it the shew of violence,

MAR:

For it is as the ayre invelmorable,

MAR:

And our vaine blowes malitious mockery.

BAR:

It was about to speake when the Cocke crew.

HOR:

And then it faded like a guilty thing,

HOR:

Vpon a fearefull summons: I haue heard

HOR:

The Cocke, that is the trumpet to the morning,

HOR:

Doth with his earely and shrill crowing throate,

HOR:

Awake the god of day, and at his sound,

HOR:

Whether in earth or ayre, in sea or fire,

HOR:

The strauagant and erring spirite hies

HOR:

To his confines, and of the trueth heereof

HOR:

This present obiect made probation.

MAR:

It faded on the crowing of the Cocke,

MAR:

Some say, that euer gainst that season comes,

MAR:

Wherein our Sauiours birth is celebrated,

MAR:

The bird of dawning singeth all night long,

MAR:

And then they say, no spirite dare walke abroade,

MAR:

The nights are wholesome, then no planet frikes,

MAR:

No Fairie takes, nor Witch hath powre to charme,

MAR:

So gratious, and so hallowed is that time.

HOR:

So haue I heard, and doe in parte beleeue it:

HOR:

But see the Sunne in russet mantle clad,

HOR:

Walkes ore the deaw of yon hie mountaine top,

HOR:

Breake we our watch vp, and by my aduise,

HOR:

Let vs impart what wee haue seene to night

HOR:

Vnto yong Hamlet: for vpon my life

HOR:

This Spirite dumbe to vs will speake to him:

HOR:

Do you consent, wee shall acquaint him with it,

HOR:

As needefull in our loue, fitting our duetie?

MAR:

Lets doo't I pray, and I this morning know,

MAR:

Where we shall finde him most conueniently.

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Scene 2

DEN:

Lordes, we here haue writ to Fortenbrasse,

DEN:

Nephew to olde Norway, who impudotent

DEN:

And bed‐rid, scarcely heares of this his

DEN:

Nephews purpose: and Wee heere dispatch

DEN:

Yong good Corneliao, and you Voltemar

DEN:

For bearers of these greetings to olde

DEN:

Norway, giuing to you no further personall power

DEN:

To businesse with the King,

DEN:

Then those related articles do shew:

DEN:

Farewell, and let your haste commend your dutie.

COR, VOL:

In this and all things will wee shew our dutie.

DEN:

Wee doubt nothing, hartily farewel:

DEN:

And now Leartes what's the newes with you?

DEN:

You said you had a sute what i'st Leartes?

LAE:

My gratious Lord, your fauorable licence,

LAE:

Now that the funerall rites are all performed,30

LAE:

I may haue leaue to go againe to France,

LAE:

For though the fauour of your grace might stay mee,

LAE:

Yet something is there whispers in my hart,

LAE:

Which makes my minde and spirits bend all for France.

DEN:

Haue you your fathers leaue, Leartes?

CRB:

He hath, my lord, wrung from me a forced graunt,

CRB:

And I beseech you grant your Highnesse leaue.

DEN:

With all our heart, Leartes fare thee well.

LAE:

I in all loue and dutie take my leaue.

DEN:

And now princely Sonne Hamlet,Exit.

DEN:

What meanes these sad and melancholy moodes?

DEN:

For your intent going to Wittenberg,

DEN:

Wee hold it most vnmeet and vnconuenient,

DEN:

Being the Ioy and halfe heart of your mother.

DEN:

Therefore let mee intreat you stay in Court,

DEN:

All Denmarkes hope our coosin and dearest Sonne.

HAM:

My lord, ti's not the sable sute I weare:

HAM:

No nor the teares that still stand in my eyes,

HAM:

Nor the distracted hauiour in the visage,

HAM:

Nor all together mixt with outward semblance,

HAM:

Is equall to the sorrow of my heart,

HAM:

Him haue I lost I must of force forgoe,

HAM:

These but the ornaments and sutes of woe.

DEN:

This shewes a louing care in you, Sonne Hamlet,

DEN:

But you must thinke your father lost a father,

DEN:

That father dead, lost his, and so shalbe vntill the

DEN:

Generall ending. Therefore cease laments,

DEN:

It is a fault gainst heauen, fault gainst the dead,

DEN:

A fault gainst nature, and in reasons

DEN:

Common course most certaine,

DEN:

None liues on earth, but hee is borne to die.

GER:

Let not thy mother loose her praiers Hamlet,

GER:

Stay here with vs, go not to Wittenberg.

HAM:

I shall in all my best obay you madam.

DEN:

Spoke like a kinde and a most louing Sonne,

DEN:

And there's no health the King shall drinke to day,

DEN:

But the great Canon to the clowdes shall tell

DEN:

The rowse the King shall drinke vnto Prince Hamlet.

HAM:

O that this too much grieu'd and sallied flesh

HAM:

Would melt to nothing, or that the vniuersall

HAM:

Globe of heauen would turne al to a Chaos!

HAM:

O God within two moneths; no not two: maried,

HAM:

Mine vncle: O let me not thinke of it,

HAM:

My fathers brother: but no more like

HAM:

My father, then I to Hercules.

HAM:

Within two months, ere yet the salt of most

HAM:

Vnrighteous teates had left their flushing

HAM:

In her galled eyes: she married, O God, a beast

HAM:

Deuoyd of reason would not haue made

HAM:

Such speede: Frailtie, thy name is Woman,

HAM:

Why she would hang on him, as if increase

HAM:

Of appetite had growne by what it looked on.

HAM:

O wicked wicked speede, to make such

HAM:

Dexteritie to incestuous sheetes,

HAM:

Ere yet the shooes were olde,

HAM:

The which she followed my dead fathers corse

HAM:

Like Nyobe, all teares: married, well it is not,

HAM:

Nor it cannot come to good:

HAM:

But breake my heart, for I must holde my tongue.

HOR:

Health to your Lordship.

HAM:

I am very glad to see you, (Horatio) or I much forget my selfe.

HOR:

The same my Lord, and your poore seruant euer.

HAM:

O my good friend, I change that name with you: but what make you from WittenbergHoratio?

HAM:

Marcellus.

MAR:

My good Lord.

HAM:

I am very glad to see you, good euen sirs:

HAM:

But what is your affaire in Elsenoure?

HAM:

Weele teach you to drinke deepe ere you depart.31

HOR:

A trowant disposition, my good Lord.

HAM:

Nor shall you make mee truster

HAM:

Of your owne report against your selfe:

HAM:

Sir, I know you are no trowant:

HAM:

But what is your affaire in Elsenoure?

HOR:

My good Lord, I came to see your fathers funerall.

HAM:

O I pre thee do not mocke mee fellow studient,

HAM:

I thinke it was to see my mothers wedding.

HOR:

Indeede my Lord, it followed hard vpon.

HAM:

Thrift, thrift, Horatio, the funerall bak't meates

HAM:

Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables,

HAM:

Would I had met my deerest foe in heauen

HAM:

Ere euer I had seene that day Horatio;

HAM:

O my father, my father, me thinks I see my father,

HOR:

Where my Lord?

HAM:

Why, in my mindes eye Horatio.

HOR:

I saw him once, he was a gallant King.

HAM:

He was a man, take him for all in all,

HAM:

I shall not looke vpon his like againe.

HOR:

My Lord, I thinke I saw him yesternight,

HAM:

Saw, who?

HOR:

My Lord, the King your father.

HAM:

Ha, ha, the King my father ke you.

HOR:

Ceasen your admiration for a while

HOR:

With an attentiue eare, till I may deliuer,

HOR:

Vpon the witnesse of these Gentlemen

HOR:

This wonder to you.

HAM:

For Gods loue let me heare it.

HOR:

Two nights together had these Gentlemen,

HOR:

Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch,

HOR:

In the dead vast and middle of the night.

HOR:

Beene thus incountered by a figure like your father,

HOR:

Armed to poynt, exactly Capapea

HOR:

Appeeres before them thrise, he walkes

HOR:

Before their weake and feare oppressed eies.

HOR:

Within his tronchions length,

HOR:

While they distilled almost to gelly.

HOR:

With the act of feare stands dumbe,

HOR:

And speake not to him: this to mee

HOR:

In dreadfull secresie impart they did.

HOR:

And I with them the third night kept the watch,

HOR:

Where as they had deliuered forme of the thing.

HOR:

Each part made true and good,

HOR:

The Apparition comes: I knew your father,

HOR:

These handes are not more like.

HAM:

Tis very strange.

HOR:

As I do liue, my honord lord, tis true,

HOR:

And wee did thinke it right done,

HOR:

In our dutie to let you know it.

HAM:

Where was this?

MAR:

My Lord, vpon the platforme where we watched.

HAM:

Did you not speake to it?

HOR:

My Lord we did, but answere made it none,

HOR:

Yet once me thought it was about to speake,

HOR:

And lifted vp his head to motion,

HOR:

Like as he would speake, but euen then

HOR:

The morning cocke crew lowd, and in all haste,

HOR:

It shruncke in haste away, and vanished

HOR:

Our sight.

HAM:

Indeed, indeed sirs, but this troubles me:

HAM:

Hold you the watch to night?

HOR, MAR, BAR:

We do my Lord.

HAM:

Armed say ye?

HOR, MAR, BAR:

Armed my good Lord.

HAM:

From top to toe?

HOR, MAR, BAR:

My good Lord, from head to foote.

HAM:

Why then saw you not his face?

HOR:

O yes my Lord, he wore his beuer vp.

HAM:

How look't he, frowningly?

HOR:

A countenance more in sorrow than in anger.

HAM:

Pale, or red?

HOR:

Nay, verie pal32

HAM:

And fixt his eies vpon you.

HOR:

Most constantly.

HAM:

I would I had beene there.

HOR:

It would a much amazed you.

HAM:

Yea very like, very like, staid it long?

HOR:

While one with moderate pace

HOR:

Might tell a hundred.

MAR:

O longer, longer.

HAM:

His beard was grisleld, no.

HOR:

It was as I haue seene it in his life,

HOR:

A sable siluer.

HAM:

I wil watch to night, perchance t'wil walke againe.

HOR:

I warrant it will.

HAM:

If it assume my noble fathers person,

HAM:

Ile speake to it, if hell it selfe should gape,

HAM:

And bid me hold my peace, Gentlemen,

HAM:

If you haue hither consealed this sight,

HAM:

Let it be tenible in your silence still,

HAM:

And whatsoeuer else shall chance to night,

HAM:

Giue it an vnderstanding, but no tongue,

HAM:

I will requit your loues, so fare you well,

HAM:

Vpon the platforme, twixt eleuen and twelue,

HAM:

Ile visit you.

HOR, MAR, BAR:

Our duties to your honor.excunt.

HAM:

O your loues, your loues, as mine to you,

HAM:

Farewell, my fathers spirit in Armes,

HAM:

Well, all's not well. I doubt some foule play,

HAM:

Would the night were come,

HAM:

Till then, sit still my soule, foule deeds will rise

HAM:

Though all the world orewhelme them to mens eies.Exit.

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Scene 3

LAE:

My necessaries are inbarkt, I must aboord,

LAE:

But ere I part, marke what I say to thee:

LAE:

I see Pince Hamlet makes a shew of loue

LAE:

Beware Ofelia, do not trust his vowes,

LAE:

Perhaps he loues you now, and now his tongue,

LAE:

Speakes from his heart, but yet take heed my sister,

LAE:

The Chariest maide is prodigall enough,

LAE:

If she vnmaske hir beautie to the Moone.

LAE:

Vertue it selfe scapes not calumnious thoughts,

LAE:

Belieu't Ofelia, therefore keepe a loofe

LAE:

Lest that he trip thy honor and thy fame.

OPH:

Brother, to this I haue lent attentiue eare,

OPH:

And doubt not but to keepe my honour firme,

OPH:

But my deere brother, do not you

OPH:

Like to a cunning Sophister,

OPH:

Teach me the path and ready way to heauen,

OPH:

While you forgetting what is said to me,

OPH:

Your selfe, like to a carelesse libertine

OPH:

Doth giue his heart, his appetite at ful,

OPH:

And little recks how that his honour dies.

LAE:

No, feare it not my deere Ofelia,

LAE:

Here comes my father, occasion smiles vpon a second leaue.

CRB:

Yet here Leartes? aboord, aboord, for shame,

CRB:

The winde sits in the shoulder of your saile,

CRB:

And you are staid for, there my blessing with thee

CRB:

And these few precepts in thy memory.

CRB:

“Be thou familiar, but by no meanes vulgare;

CRB:

“Those friends thou hast, and their adoptions tried,

CRB:

“Graple them to thee with a hoope of steele,

CRB:

“But do not dull the palme with entertaine,

CRB:

“Of euery new vnfleg'd courage,

CRB:

“Beware of entrance into a quarrell; but being in,

CRB:

“Beare it that the opposed may beware of thee,

CRB:

“Costly thy apparrell, as thy purse can buy.

CRB:

“But not exprest in fashion,

CRB:

“For the apparell oft proclaimes the man.

CRB:

And they of France of the chiefe rancke and station

CRB:

Are of a most select and generall chiefe in that:

CRB:

“This aboue all, to thy owne selfe be true,

CRB:

And it must follow as the night the day,33

CRB:

Thou canst not then be false to any one,

CRB:

Farewel, my blessing with thee.

LAE:

I humbly take my leaue, farewell Ofelia,

LAE:

And remember well what I haue said to you.exit.

OPH:

It is already lock't within my hart,

OPH:

And you your selfe shall keepe the key of it.

CRB:

What i'st Ofelia he hath saide to you?

OPH:

Somthing touching the prince Hamlet.

CRB:

Mary wel thought on, t'is giuen me to vnderstand,

CRB:

That you haue bin too prodigall of your maiden presence

CRB:

Vnto Prince Hamlet, if it be so,

CRB:

As so tis giuen to mee, and that in waie of caution

CRB:

I must tell you; you do not vnderstand your selfe

CRB:

So well as befits my honor, and your credite.

OPH:

My lord, he hath made many tenders of his loue to me.

CRB:

Tenders, I, I, tenders you may call them.

OPH:

And withall, such earnest vowes.

CRB:

Springes to catch woodcocks,

CRB:

What, do not I know when the blood doth burne,

CRB:

How prodigall the tongue lends the heart vowes,

CRB:

In briefe, be more scanter of your maiden presence,

CRB:

Or tendring thus you'l tender mee a foole.

OPH:

I shall obay my lord in all I may.

CRB:

Ofelia, receiue none of his letters,

CRB:

“For louers lines are snares to intrap the heart;

CRB:

“Refuse his tokens, both of them are keyes

CRB:

To vnlocke Chastitie vnto Desire;

CRB:

Come in Ofelia, such men often proue,

CRB:

“Great in their wordes, but little in their loue.

OPH:

I will my lord.exeunt.

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Scene 4

HAM:

The ayre bites shrewd; it is an eager and

HAM:

An nipping winde, what houre i'st?

HOR:

I think it lacks of twelue,Sound Trumpets.

MAR:

No, t'is strucke.

HOR:

Indeed I heard it not, what doth this mean my lord?

HAM:

O the king doth wake to night, & takes his rowse,

HAM:

Keepe wassel, and the swaggering vp‐spring reeles,

HAM:

And as he dreames, his draughts of renish downe,

HAM:

The kettle, drumme, and trumpet, thus bray out,

HAM:

The triumphes of his pledge.

HOR:

Is it a custome here?

HAM:

I mary i'st and though I am

HAM:

Natiue here, and to the maner borne,

HAM:

It is a custome, more honourd in the breach,

HAM:

Then in the obseruance.

HOR:

Looke my Lord, it comes.

HAM:

Angels and Ministers of grace defend vs,

HAM:

Be thou a spirite of health, or goblin damn'd,

HAM:

Bring with thee ayres from heauen, or blasts from hell:

HAM:

Be thy intents wicked or charitable,

HAM:

Thou commest in such questionable shape,

HAM:

That I will speake to thee,

HAM:

Ile call thee Hamlet, King, Father, Royall Dane,

HAM:

O answere mee, let mee not burst in ignorance,

HAM:

But say why thy canonizd bones hearsed in death

HAM:

Haue burst their ceremonies: why thy Sepulcher,

HAM:

In which wee saw thee quietly interr'd,

HAM:

Hath burst his ponderous and marble Iawes,

HAM:

To cast thee vp againe: what may this meane,

HAM:

That thou, dead corse, againe in compleate steele,

HAM:

Reuissets thus the glimses of the Moone,

HAM:

Making night hideous, and we fooles of nature,

HAM:

So horridely to shake our disposition,

HAM:

With thoughts beyond the reaches of our soules?

HAM:

Say, speake, wherefore, what may this meane?

HOR:

It beckons you, as though it had something

HOR:

To impart to you alone.

MAR:

Looke with what courteous action

MAR:

It waues you to a more remoued ground,34

MAR:

But do not go with it.

HOR:

No, by no meanes my Lord.

HAM:

It will not speake, then will I follow it.

HOR:

What if it tempt you toward the flood my Lord.

HOR:

That beckles ore his bace, into the sea,

HOR:

And there assume some other horrible shape,

HOR:

Which might depriue your soueraigntie of reason,

HOR:

And driue you into madnesse: thinke of it.

HAM:

Still am I called, go on, ile follow thee.

HOR:

My Lord, you shall not go.

HAM:

Why what should be the feare?

HAM:

I do not set my life at a pinnes fee,

HAM:

And for my soule, what can it do to that?

HAM:

Being a thing immortall, like it selfe,

HAM:

Go on, ile follow thee.

MAR:

My Lord be rulde, you shall not goe.

HAM:

My fate cries out, and makes each pety Artiue

HAM:

As hardy as the Nemeon Lyons nerue,

HAM:

Still am I cald, vnhand me gentlemen;

HAM:

By heauen ile make a ghost of him that lets me,

HAM:

Away I say, go on, ile follow thee.

HOR:

He waxeth desperate with imagination.

MAR:

Something is rotten in the state of Denmarke.

HOR:

Haue after; to what issue will this sort?

MAR:

Lets follow, tis not fit thus to obey him.exit.

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Scene 5

HAM:

Ile go no farther, whither wilt thou leade me?

GHO:

Marke me.

HAM:

I will.

GHO:

I am thy fathers spirit, doomd for a time

GHO:

To walke the night, and all the day

GHO:

Confinde in flaming fire,

GHO:

Till the foule crimes done in my dayes of Nature

GHO:

Arepurged and burnt away.

HAM:

Alas poore Ghost.

GHO:

Nay pitty me not, but to my vnfolding

GHO:

Lend thy listning eare, but that I am forbid

GHO:

To tell the secrets of my prison house

GHO:

I would a tale vnfold, whose lightest word

GHO:

Would harrow vp thy soule, freeze thy yong blood,

GHO:

Make thy two eyes like stars start from their spheres,

GHO:

Thy knotted and combined locks to part,

GHO:

And each particular haire to stand on end

GHO:

Like quils vpon the fretfull Porpentine,

GHO:

But this same blazon must not be, to eares of flesh and blood

GHO:

Hamlet, if euer thou didst thy deere father loue.

HAM:

O God.

GHO:

Reuenge his foule, and most vnnaturall murder:

HAM:

Murder.

GHO:

Yea, murder in the highest degree,

GHO:

As in the least tis bad,

GHO:

But mine most foule, beastly, and vnnaturall.

HAM:

Haste me to knowe it, that with wings as swift as meditation, or the thought of it, may sweepe to my reuenge.

GHO:

O I finde thee apt, and duller shouldst thou be

GHO:

Then the fat weede which rootes it selfe in ease

GHO:

On Lethe wharffe: briefe let me be.

GHO:

Tis giuen out, that sleeping in my orchard,

GHO:

A Serpent stung me; so the whole eare of Denmarke

GHO:

Is with a forged Prosses of my death rankely abusde:

GHO:

But know thou noble Youth: he that did sting

GHO:

Thy fathers heart, now weares his Crowne.

HAM:

O my prophetike soule, my vncle! my vncle!

GHO:

Yea he, that incestuous wretch, wonne to his will (with gifts,

GHO:

O wicked will, and gifts! that haue the power

GHO:

So to seduce my most seeming vertuous Queene,

GHO:

But vertue, as it neuer will be moued,

GHO:

Though Lewdnesse court it in a shape of heauen,

GHO:

So Lust, though to a radiant angle linckt,

GHO:

Would fate it selfe from a celestiall bedde,

GHO:

And prey on garbage: but soft, me thinkes

GHO:

I sent the mornings ayre, briefe let me be,35

GHO:

Sleeping within my Orchard, my custome alwayes

GHO:

In the after noone, vpon my secure houre

GHO:

Thy vncle came, with iuyce of Hebona

GHO:

In a viall, and through the porches of my eares

GHO:

Did powre the leaprous distilment, whose effect

GHO:

Hold such an enmitie with blood of man,

GHO:

That swift as quickesiluer, it posteth through

GHO:

The naturall gates and allies of the body,

GHO:

And turnes the thinne and wholesome blood

GHO:

Like eager dropings into milke.

GHO:

And all my smoothe body, barked, and tetterd ouer.

GHO:

Thus was I sleeping by a brothers hand

GHO:

Of Crowne, of Queene, of life, of dignitie

GHO:

At once depriued, no reckoning made of,

GHO:

But sent vnto my graue,

GHO:

With all my accompts and sinnes vpon my head,

GHO:

O horrible, most horrible!

HAM:

O God!

GHO:

If thou hast nature in thee, beare it not,

GHO:

But howsoeuer, let not thy heart

GHO:

Conspire against thy mother aught,

GHO:

Leaue her to heauen,

GHO:

And to the burthen that her conscience beares.

GHO:

I must be gone, the Glo‐worme shewes the Martin

GHO:

To be neere, and gin's to pale his vneffectuall fire:

GHO:

Hamlet adue, adue, adue: remember me.Exit

HAM:

O all you hoste of heauen! O earth, what else?

HAM:

And shall I couple hell; remember thee?

HAM:

Yes thou poore Ghost; from the tables

HAM:

Of my memorie, ile wipe away all sawes of Bookes,

HAM:

All triuiall fond conceites

HAM:

That euer youth, or else obseruance noted,

HAM:

And thy remembrance, all alone shall sit.

HAM:

Yes, yes, by heauen, a damnd pernitious villaine,

HAM:

Murderous, bawdy, smiling damned villaine,

HAM:

(My tables) meet it is I set it downe,

HAM:

That one may smile, and smile, and be a villayne;

HAM:

At least I am sure, it may be so in Dnmarke.

HAM:

So vncle, there you are, there you are.

HAM:

Now to the words; it is adue adue: remember me,

HAM:

Soe t'is enough I haue sworne.

HOR:

My lord, my lord.

MAR:

Lord Hamlet.

HOR:

Ill, lo, lo, ho, ho.

MAR:

Ill, lo, lo, so, ho, so, come boy, come.

HOR:

Heauens secure him.

MAR:

How i'st my noble lord?

HOR:

What news my lord?

HAM:

O wonderfull, wonderful.

HOR:

Good my lord tel it.

HAM:

No not I, you'l reueale it.

HOR:

Not I my Lord by heauen.

MAR:

Nor I my Lord.

HAM:

How say you then? would hart of man

HAM:

Once thinke it? but you'l be secret.

HOR, MAR:

I by heauen, my lord.

HAM:

There's neuer a villaine dwelling in all Denmarke,

HAM:

But hee's an arrant knaue.

HOR:

There need no Ghost come from the graue to tell you this.

HAM:

Right, you are in the right, and therefore

HAM:

I holde it meet without more circumstance at all,

HAM:

Wee shake hands and part; you as your busines

HAM:

And desiers shall leade you: for looke you,

HAM:

Euery man hath busines, and desires, such

HAM:

As it is, and for my owne poore parte, ile go pray.

HOR:

These are but wild and wherling words, my Lord.

HAM:

I am sory they offend you; hartely, yes faith hartily.

HOR:

Ther's no offence my Lord.

HAM:

Yes by Saint Patrike but there is Horatio,

HAM:

And much offence too, touching this vision,

HAM:

It is an honest ghost, that let mee tell you,36

HAM:

For your desires to know what is betweene vs,

HAM:

Or'emaister it as you may:

HAM:

And now kind frends, as you are frends,

HAM:

Schollers and gentlmen,

HAM:

Grant mee one poore request.

HOR, MAR:

What i'st my Lord?

HAM:

Neuer make known what you haue seene to night

HOR, MAR:

My lord, we will not.

HAM:

Nay but sweare.

HOR:

In faith my Lord not I.

MAR:

Nor I my Lord in faith.

HAM:

Nay vpon my sword, indeed vpon my sword.

GHO:

Sweare.

HAM:

Ha, ha, come you here, this fellow in the sllrige,

HAM:

Here consent to sweare.

HOR:

Propose the oth my Lord.

HAM:

Neuer to speake what you haue seene to night,

HAM:

Sweare by my sword.

GHO:

Sweare.

HAM:

Hic & vbique; nay then weele shift our ground:

HAM:

Come hither Gentlemen, and lay your handes

HAM:

Againe vpon this sword, neuer to speake

HAM:

Of that which you haue seene, sweare by my sword.

GHO:

Sweare.

HAM:

Well said old Mole, can'st worke in the earth? so fast, a worthy Pioner, once more remoue.

HOR:

Day and night, but this is wondrous strange.

HAM:

And therefore as a stranger giue it welcome,

HAM:

There are more things in heauen and earth Horatio,

HAM:

Then are Dream't of, in your philosophie,

HAM:

But come here, as before you neuer shall

HAM:

How strange or odde soere I beare my selfe,

HAM:

As I perchance hereafter shall thinke meet,

HAM:

To put an Anticke disposition on,

HAM:

That you at such times seeing me, neuer shall

HAM:

With Armes, incombred thus, or this head shake,

HAM:

Or by pronouncing some vndoubtfull phrase,

HAM:

As well well, wee know, or wee could and if we would,

HAM:

Or there be, and if they might, or such ambiguous:

HAM:

Giuing out to note, that you know aught of mee,

HAM:

This not to doe, so grace, and mercie

HAM:

At your most need helpe you, sweare

GHO:

sweare.

HAM:

Rest, rest, perturbed spirit: so gentlemen,

HAM:

In all my loue I do commend mee to you,

HAM:

And what so poore a man as Hamlet may,

HAM:

To pleasure you, God willing shall not want,

HAM:

Nay come lett's go together,

HAM:

But stil your fingers on your lippes I pray,

HAM:

The time is out of ioynt, O cursed spite,

HAM:

That euer I was borne to set it right,

HAM:

Nay come lett's go together.Exeunt.

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Act 2

Scene 1

CRB:

Montano, here, these letters to my sonne,

CRB:

And this same mony with my blessing to him,

CRB:

And bid him ply his learning good Montano.

MON:

I will my lord.

CRB:

You shall do very well Montano, to say thus,

CRB:

I knew the gentleman, or know his father,

CRB:

To inquire the manner of his life,

CRB:

As thus; being amongst his acquaintance,

CRB:

You may say, you saw him at such a time, marke you mee,

CRB:

At game, or drincking, swearing, or drabbing,

CRB:

You may go so farre.

MON:

My lord, that will impeach his reputation.

CRB:

I faith not a whit, no not a whit,

CRB:

Now happely hee closeth with you in the consequence,

CRB:

As you may bridle it not disparage him a iote.

CRB:

What was I a bout to say,

MON:

He closeth with him in the consequence.

CRB:

I, you say right, he closeth with him thus,37

CRB:

This will hee say, let mee see what hee will say,

CRB:

Mary this, I saw him yesterday, or tother day,

CRB:

Or then, or at such a time, a dicing,

CRB:

Or at Tennis, I or drincking drunke, or entring

CRB:

Of a howse of lightnes viz. brothell,

CRB:

Thus sir do wee that know the world, being men of reach,

CRB:

By indirections, finde directions forth,

CRB:

And so shall you my sonne; you ha me, ha you not?

MON:

I haue my lord.

CRB:

Wel, fare you well, commend mee to him.

MON:

I will my lord.

CRB:

And bid him ply his musicke

MON:

My lord I wil.exit.

CRB:

Farewel, how now Ofelia, what's the news with you?

OPH:

O my deare father, such a change in nature,

OPH:

So great an alteration in a Prince,

OPH:

So pitifull to him, fearefull to mee,

OPH:

A maidens eye ne're looked on.

CRB:

Why what's the matter my Ofelia?

OPH:

O yong Prince Hamlet, the only floure of Denmark,

OPH:

Hee is bereft of all the wealth he had,

OPH:

The Iewell that ador'nd his feature most

OPH:

Is filcht and stolne away, his wit's bereft him,

OPH:

Hee found mee walking in the gallery all alone,

OPH:

There comes hee to mee, with a distracted looke,

OPH:

His garters lagging downe, his shooes vntide,

OPH:

And fixt his eyes so stedfast on my face,

OPH:

As if they had vow'd, this is their latest obiect.

OPH:

Small while he stoode, but gripes me by the wrist,

OPH:

And there he holdes my pulse till with a sigh

OPH:

He doth vnclaspe his holde, and parts away

OPH:

Silent, as is the mid time of the night:

OPH:

And as he went, his eie was still on mee,

OPH:

For thus his head ouer his shoulder looked,

OPH:

He seemed to finde the way without his eies:

OPH:

For out of doores he went without their helpe,

OPH:

And so did leaue me.

CRB:

Madde for thy loue,

CRB:

What haue you giuen him any crosse wordes of late?

OPH:

I did repell his letters, deny his gifts,

OPH:

As you did charge me.

CRB:

Why that hath made him madde:

CRB:

By heau'n t'is as proper for our age to cast

CRB:

Beyond our selues, as t'is for the yonger sort

CRB:

To leaue their wantonnesse. Well, I am sory

CRB:

That I was so rash: but what remedy?

CRB:

Lets to the King, this madnesse may prooue,

CRB:

Though wilde a while, yet more true to thy loue.exeunt.

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Scene 2

DEN:

Right noble friends, that our deere cosin Hamlet

DEN:

Hath lost the very heart of all his sence,

DEN:

It is most right, and we most sory for him:

DEN:

Therefore we doe desire, euen as you tender

DEN:

Our care to him, and our great loue to you,

DEN:

That you will labour but to wring from him

DEN:

The cause and ground of his distemperancie.

DEN:

Doe this, the king of Denmarke shal be thankefull.

ROS:

My Lord, whatsoeuer lies within our power

ROS:

Your maiestie may more commaund in wordes

ROS:

Then vse perswasions to your liege men, bound

ROS:

By loue, by duetie, and obedience.

GUI:

What we may doe for both your Maiesties

GUI:

To know the griefe troubles the Prince your sonne,

GUI:

We will indeuour all the best we may,

GUI:

So in all duetie doe we take our leaue.

DEN:

Thankes Guilderstone, and gentle Rossencraft.

GER:

Thankes Rossencraft, and gentle Gilderstone.

CRB:

My Lord, the Ambassadors are ioyfully

CRB:

Return'd from Norway.

DEN:

Thou still hast beene the father of good news.38

CRB:

Haue I my Lord? I assure your grace,

CRB:

I holde my duetie as I holde my life,

CRB:

Both to my God, and to my soueraigne King:

CRB:

And I beleeue, or else this braine of mine

CRB:

Hunts not the traine of policie so well

CRB:

As it had wont to doe, but I haue found

CRB:

The very depth of Hamlets lunacie.

GER:

God graunt he hath.

DEN:

Now Voltemar, what from our brother Norway?

VOL:

Most faire returnes of greetings and desires,

VOL:

Vpon our first he sent forth to suppresse

VOL:

His nephews leuies, which to him appear'd

VOL:

To be a preparation gainst the Polacke:

VOL:

But better look't into, he truely found

VOL:

It was against your Highnesse, whereat grieued,

VOL:

That so his sickenesse, age, and impotence,

VOL:

Was falsely borne in hand, sends out arrests

VOL:

On Fortenbrasse, which he in briefe obays,

VOL:

Receiues rebuke from Norway: and in fine,

VOL:

Makes vow before his vncle, neuer more

VOL:

To giue the assay of Armes against your Maiestie,

VOL:

Whereon olde Norway ouercome with ioy,

VOL:

Giues him three thousand crownes in annuall fee,

VOL:

And his Commission to employ those souldiers,

VOL:

So leuied as before, against the Polacke,

VOL:

With an intreaty heerein further shewne,

VOL:

That it would please you to giue quiet passe

VOL:

Through your dominions, for that enterprise

VOL:

On such regardes of safety and allowances

VOL:

As therein are set downe.

DEN:

It likes vs well, and at fit time and leasure

DEN:

Weele reade and answere these his Articles,

DEN:

Meane time we thanke you for your well

DEN:

Tooke labour: go to your rest, at night weele feast togither:

DEN:

Right welcome home.exeunt Ambassadors.

CRB:

This busines is very well dispatched.

CRB:

Now my Lord, touching the yong Prince Hamlet,

CRB:

Certaine it is that hee is madde: mad let vs grant him then:

CRB:

Now to know the cause of this effect,

CRB:

Or else to say the cause of this defect,

CRB:

For this effect defectiue comes by cause.

GER:

Good my Lord be briefe.

CRB:

Madam I will: my Lord, I haue a daughter,

CRB:

Haue while shee's mine: for that we thinke

CRB:

Is surest, we often loose: now to the Prince.

CRB:

My Lord, but note this letter,

CRB:

The which my daughter in obedience

CRB:

Deliuer'd to my handes.

DEN:

Reade it my Lord.

CRB:

Marke my Lord.

CRB:

Doubt that in earth is fire,

CRB:

Doubt that the starres doe moue,

CRB:

Doubt trueth to be a liar,

CRB:

But doe not doubt I loue.

CRB:

My Lord, what doe you thinke of me?

CRB:

I, or what might you thinke when I sawe this?

DEN:

As of a true friend and a most louing subiect.

CRB:

I would be glad to prooue so.

CRB:

Now when I saw this letter, thus I bespake my maiden:

CRB:

Lord Hamlet is a Prince out of your starre,

CRB:

And one that is vnequall for your loue:

CRB:

Therefore I did commaund her refuse his letters,

CRB:

Deny his tokens, and to absent her selfe.

CRB:

Shee as my childe obediently obey'd me.

CRB:

Now since which time, seeing his loue thus cross'd,

CRB:

Which I tooke to be idle, and but sport,

CRB:

He straitway grew into a melancholy,

CRB:

From that vnto a fast, then vnto distraction,

CRB:

Then into a sadnesse, from that vnto a madnesse,39

CRB:

And so by continuance, and weakenesse of the braine

CRB:

Into this frensie, which now possesseth him:

CRB:

And if this be not true, take this from this.

DEN:

Thinke you t'is so?

CRB:

How? so my Lord, I would very faine know

CRB:

That thing that I haue saide t'is so, positiuely,

CRB:

And it hath fallen out otherwise.

CRB:

Nay, if circumstances leade me on,

CRB:

Ile finde it out, if it were hid

CRB:

As deepe as the centre of the earth.

DEN:

how should wee trie this same?

CRB:

Mary my good lord thus,

CRB:

The Princes walke is here in the galery,

CRB:

There let Ofelia, walke vntill hee comes:

CRB:

Your selfe and I will stand close in the study,

CRB:

There shall you heare the effect of all his hart,

CRB:

And if it proue any otherwise then loue,

CRB:

Then let my censure faile an other time.

DEN:

see where hee comes poring vppon a booke.

CRB:

Madame, will it please your grace

CRB:

To leaue vs here?

GER:

With all my hart.exit.

CRB:

And here Ofelia, reade you on this booke,

CRB:

And walke aloofe, the King shal be vnseene.

HAM:

To be, or not to be, I here's the point,

HAM:

To Die, to sleepe, is that all? I all:

HAM:

No, to sleepe, to dreame, I mary there it goes,

HAM:

For in that dreame of death, when wee awake,

HAM:

And borne before an euerlasting Iudge,

HAM:

From whence no passenger euer retur'nd,

HAM:

The vndiscouered country, at whose sight

HAM:

The happy smile, and the accursed damn'd.

HAM:

But for this, the ioyfull hope of this,

HAM:

Whol'd beare the scornes and flattery of the world,

HAM:

Scorned by the right rich, the rich curssed of the poore?

HAM:

The widow being oppressed, the orphan wrong'd,

HAM:

The taste of hunger, or a tirants raigne,

HAM:

And thousand more calamities besides,

HAM:

To grunt and sweate vnder this weary life,

HAM:

When that he may his full Quietus make,

HAM:

With a bare bodkin, who would this indure,

HAM:

But for a hope of something after death?

HAM:

Which pusles the braine, and doth confound the sence,

HAM:

Which makes vs rather beare those euilles we haue,

HAM:

Than flie to others that we know not of.

HAM:

I that, O this conscience makes cowardes of vs all,

HAM:

Lady in thy orizons, be all my sinnes remembred.

OPH:

My Lord, I haue sought opportunitie, which now

OPH:

I haue, to redeliuer to your worthy handes, a small remem­ brance, such tokens which I haue receiued of you.

HAM:

Are you faire?

OPH:

My Lord.

HAM:

Are you honest?

OPH:

What meanes my Lord?

HAM:

That if you be faire and honest,

HAM:

Your beauty should admit no discourse to your honesty.

OPH:

My Lord, can beauty haue better priuiledge than with honesty?

HAM:

Yea mary may it; for Beauty may transforme

HAM:

Honesty, from what she was into a bawd:sooner,

HAM:

Then Honesty can transforme Beauty:

HAM:

This was sometimes a Paradox,

HAM:

But now the time giues it scope.

HAM:

I neuer gaue you nothing.

OPH:

My Lord, you know right well you did,

OPH:

And with them such earnest vowes of loue,

OPH:

As would haue moou'd the stoniest breast aliue,

OPH:

But now too true I finde,

OPH:

Rich giftes waxe poore, when giuers grow vnkinde.

HAM:

I neuer loued you.

OPH:

You made me beleeue you did.40

HAM:

O thou shouldst not a beleeued me!

HAM:

Go to a Nunnery goe, why shouldst thou

HAM:

Be a breeder of sinners? I am my selfe indifferent honest,

HAM:

But I could accuse my selfe of such crimes

HAM:

As iIt had beene better my mother had ne're borne me,

HAM:

O I am very prowde, ambitious, disdainefull,

HAM:

With more sinnes at my beacke, then I haue thoughts

HAM:

To put them in, what should such fellowes as I

HAM:

Do, crawling between heauen and earth?

HAM:

To a Nunnery goe, we are arrant knaues all,

HAM:

Beleeue none of vs, to a Nunnery goe.

OPH:

O heauens secure him!

HAM:

Wher's thy father?

OPH:

At home my lord.

HAM:

For Gods sake let the doores be shut on him,

HAM:

He may play the foole no where but in his

HAM:

Owne house: to a Nunnery goe.

OPH:

Help him good God.

HAM:

If thou dost marry, Ile giue thee

HAM:

This plague to thy dowry:

HAM:

Be thou as chaste as yce, as pure as snowe,

HAM:

Thou shalt not scape calumny, to a Nunnery goe.

OPH:

Alas, what change is this?

HAM:

But if thou wilt needes marry, marry a foole,

HAM:

For wisemen know well enough,

HAM:

What monsters you make of them, to a Nunnery goe.

OPH:

Pray God restore him.

HAM:

Nay, I haue heard of your paintings too,

HAM:

God hath giuen you one face,

HAM:

And you make your selues another,

HAM:

You fig, and you amble, and you nickname Gods creatures,

HAM:

Making your wantonnesse, your ignorance,

HAM:

A pox, t'is scuruy, Ile no more of it,

HAM:

It hath made me madde: Ile no more marriages,

HAM:

All that are married but one, shall liue,

HAM:

The rest shall keepe as they are, to a Nunnery goe,

HAM:

To a Nunnery goe.exit.

OPH:

Great God of heauen, what a quicke change is this?

OPH:

The Courtier, Scholler, Souldier, all in him,

OPH:

All dasht and splinterd thence, O woe is me,

OPH:

To a seene what I haue seene, see what I see.exit.

Back to Top

Scene 3

DEN:

Loue? No, no, that's not the cause,Enter King and Corambis.

DEN:

Some deeper thing it is that troubles him.

CRB:

Wel, something it is: my Lord, content you a while,

CRB:

I will my selfe goe feele him: let me worke,

CRB:

Ile try him euery way: see where he comes,

CRB:

Send you those Gentlemen, let me alone

CRB:

To finde the depth of this, away, be gone.exit King.

CRB:

Now my good Lord, do you know me?Enter Hamlet.

HAM:

Yea very well, y'are a fishmonger.

CRB:

Not I my Lord.

HAM:

Then sir, I would you were so honest a man,

HAM:

For to be honest, as this age goes,

HAM:

Is one man to be pickt out of tenne thousand.

CRB:

What doe you reade my Lord?

HAM:

Wordes, wordes.

CRB:

What's the matter my Lord?

HAM:

Betweene who?

CRB:

I meane the matter you reade my Lord.

HAM:

Mary most vile heresie:

HAM:

For here the Satyricall Satyre writes,

HAM:

That olde men haue hollow eyes, weake backes,

HAM:

Grey beardes, pittifull weake hammes, gowty legges,

HAM:

All which sir, I most potently beleeue not:

HAM:

For sir, your selfe shalbe olde as I am,

HAM:

If like a Crabbe, you could goe backeward.

CRB:

How pregnant his replies are, and full of wit:

CRB:

Yet at first he tooke me for a fishmonger:

CRB:

All this comes by loue, the vemencie of loue,

CRB:

And when I was yong, I was very idle,

CRB:

And suffered much extasie in loue, very neere this:

CRB:

Will you walke out of the aire my Lord?41

HAM:

Into my graue.

CRB:

By the masse that's out of the aire indeed,

CRB:

Very shrewd answers,

CRB:

My lord I will take my leaue of you.

HAM:

You can take nothing from me sir,

HAM:

I will more willingly part with all,

HAM:

Olde doating foole.

CRB:

You seeke Prince Hamlet, see, there he is.exit.

GUI:

Health to your Lordship.

HAM:

What, Gilderstone, and Rossencraft,

HAM:

Welcome kinde Schoole‐fellowes to Elsanoure.

GUI:

We thanke your Grace, and would be very glad

GUI:

You were as when we were at Wittenberg.

HAM:

I thanke you, but is this visitation free of

HAM:

Your selues, or were you not sent for?

HAM:

Tell me true, come, I know the good King and Queene

HAM:

Sent for you, there is a kinde of confession in your eye:

HAM:

Come, I know you were sent for.

GUI:

What say you?

HAM:

Nay then I see how the winde sits,

HAM:

Come, you were sent for.

ROS:

My lord, we were, and willingly if we might,

ROS:

Know the cause and ground of your discontent.

HAM:

Why I want preferment.

ROS:

I thinke not so my lord.

HAM:

Yes faith, this great world you see contents me not,

HAM:

No nor the spangled heauens, nor earth, nor sea,

HAM:

No nor Man that is so glorious a creature,

HAM:

Contents not me, no nor woman too, though you laugh.

GUI:

My lord, we laugh not at that.

HAM:

Why did you laugh then,

HAM:

When I said, Man did not content mee?

GUI:

My Lord, we laughed, when you said, Man did not content you.

GUI:

What entertainement the Players shall haue,

GUI:

We boorded them a the way: they are comming to you.

HAM:

Players, what Players be they?

ROS:

My Lord, the Tragedians of the Citty,

ROS:

Those that you tooke delight to see so often.

HAM:

How comes it that they trauell? Do they grow re­ (stie?

GUI:

No my Lord, their reputation holds as it was wont.

HAM:

How then?

GUI:

Y faith my Lord, noueltie carries it away,

GUI:

For the principall publike audience that

GUI:

Came to them, are turned to priuate playes,

GUI:

And to the humour of children.

HAM:

I doe not greatly wonder of it,

HAM:

For those that would make mops and moes

HAM:

At my vncle, when my father liued,

HAM:

Now giue a hundred, two hundred pounds

HAM:

For his picture: but they shall be welcome,

HAM:

He that playes the King shall haue tribute of me,

HAM:

The ventrous Knight shall vse his foyle and target,

HAM:

The louer shall sigh gratis,

HAM:

The clowne shall make them laugh

HAM:

That are tickled in the lungs, or the blanke verse shall halt (for't,

HAM:

And the Lady shall haue leaue to speake her minde freely.

HAM:

Do you see yonder great baby?

HAM:

He is not yet out of his swadling clowts.

GUI:

That may be, for they say an olde man

GUI:

Is twice a childe.

HAM:

Ile prophecie to you, hee comes to tell mee a the (Players,

HAM:

You say true, a monday last, t'was so indeede.

CRB:

My lord, I haue news to tell you.

HAM:

My Lord, I haue newes to tell you:

HAM:

When Rossios was an Actor in Rome.

CRB:

The Actors are come hither, my lord.

HAM:

Buz, buz.

CRB:

The best Actors in Christendome,

CRB:

Either for Comedy, Tragedy, Historie, Pastorall,42

CRB:

Pastorall, Historicall, Historicall, Comicall,

CRB:

Comicall historicall, Pastorall, Tragedy historicall:

CRB:

Seneca cannot be too heauy, nor Plato too light:

CRB:

For the law hath writ those are the onely men.

HAM:

O Iepha Iudge of Israel! what a treasure hadst thou?

CRB:

Why what a treasure had he my lord?

HAM:

Why one faire daughter, and no more,

HAM:

The which he loued passing well.

CRB:

A, stil harping a my daughter! well my Lord,

CRB:

If you call me Iepha, I haue a daughter that

CRB:

I loue passing well.

HAM:

Nay that followes not.

CRB:

What followes then my Lord?

HAM:

Why by lot, or God wot, or as it came to passe,

HAM:

And so it was, the first verse of the godly Ballet

HAM:

Wil tel you all: for look you where my abridgement comes:

HAM:

Welcome maisters, welcome all,Enter players.

HAM:

What my olde friend, thy face is vallanced

HAM:

Since I saw thee last, com'st thou to beard me in Denmarke?

HAM:

My yong lady and mistris, burlady but your

HAM:

Ladiship is growne by the altitude of a chopine higher than (you were:

HAM:

Pray God sir your voyce, like a peece of vncurrant

HAM:

Golde, be not crack't in the ring: come on maisters,

HAM:

Weele euen too't, like French Falconers,

HAM:

Flie at any thing we see, come, a taste of your

HAM:

Quallitie, a speech, a passionate speech.

PLS:

What speech my good lord?

HAM:

I heard thee speake a speech once,

HAM:

But it was neuer acted: or if it were,

HAM:

Neuer aboue twice, for as I remember,

HAM:

It pleased not the vulgar, it was cauiary

HAM:

To the million: but to me

HAM:

And others, that receiued it in the like kinde,

HAM:

Cried in the toppe of their iudgements, an excellent play,

HAM:

Set downe with as great modestie as cunning:

HAM:

One said there was no sallets in the lines to make thēthem sauory,

HAM:

But called it an honest methode, as wholesome as sweete.

HAM:

Come, a speech in it I chiefly remember

HAM:

Was Æneas tale to Dido,

HAM:

And then especially where he talkes of Princes slaughter,

HAM:

If it liue in thy memory beginne at this line,

HAM:

Let me see.

HAM:

The rugged Pyrrus, like th'arganian beast:

HAM:

No t'is not so, it begins with Pirrus:

HAM:

O I haue it.

HAM:

The rugged Pirrus, he whose sable armes,

HAM:

Blacke as his purpose did the night resemble,

HAM:

When he lay couched in the ominous horse,

HAM:

Hath now his blacke and grimme complexion smeered

HAM:

With Heraldry more dismall, head to foote,

HAM:

Now is he totall guise, horridely tricked

HAM:

With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sonnes,

HAM:

Back't and imparched in calagulate gore,

HAM:

Rifted in earth and fire, olde grandsire Pryam seekes:

HAM:

So goe on.

CRB:

Afore God, my Lord, well spoke, and with good (accent.

PLA:

Anone he finds him striking too short at Greeks,

PLA:

His antike sword rebellious to his Arme,

PLA:

Lies where it falles, vnable to resist.

PLA:

Pyrrus at Pryam driues, but all in rage,

PLA:

Strikes wide, but with the whiffe and winde

PLA:

Of his fell sword, th'unnerued father falles.

CRB:

Enough my friend, t'is too long.

HAM:

It shall to the Barbers with your beard:

HAM:

A pox, hee's for a ligge, or a tale of bawdry,

HAM:

Or else he sleepes, come on to Hecuba, come.

PLA:

But who, O who had seene the mobled Queene?

CRB:

Mobled Queene is good, faith very good.

PLA:

All in the alarum and feare of death rose vp,

PLA:

And o're her weake and all ore‐teeming loynes, a blancket

PLA:

And a kercher on that head, where late the diademe stoode,

PLA:

Who this had seene with tongue inuenom'd speech,43

PLA:

Would treason haue pronounced,

PLA:

For if the gods themselues had seene her then,

PLA:

When she saw Pirrus with malitious strokes,

PLA:

Mincing her husbandes limbs,

PLA:

It would haue made milch the burning eyes of heauen,

PLA:

And passion in the gods.

CRB:

Looke my lord if he hath not changde his colour,

CRB:

And hath teares in his eyes: no more good heart, no more.

HAM:

T'is well, t'is very well, I pray my lord,

HAM:

Will you see the Players well bestowed,

HAM:

I tell you they are the Chronicles

HAM:

And briefe abstracts of the time,

HAM:

After your death I can tell you,

HAM:

You were better haue a bad Epiteeth,

HAM:

Then their ill report while you liue.

CRB:

My lord, I will vse them according to their deserts.

HAM:

O farre better man, vse euery man after his deserts,

HAM:

Then who should scape whipping?

HAM:

Vse them after your owne honor and dignitie,

HAM:

The lesse they deserue, the greater credit's yours.

CRB:

Welcome my good fellowes.exit.

HAM:

Come hither maisters, can you not play the mur­ der of Gonsago?

PLS:

Yes my Lord.

HAM:

And could'st not thou for a neede study me

HAM:

Some dozen or sixteene lines,

HAM:

Which I would set downe and insert?

PLS:

Yes very easily my good Lord.

HAM:

T'is well, I thanke you: follow that lord:

HAM:

And doe you heare sirs? take heede you mocke him not.

HAM:

Gentlemen, for your kindnes I thanke you,

HAM:

And for a time I would desire you leaue me.

GUI:

Our loue and duetie is at your commaund.

HAM:

Why what a dunghill idiote slaue am I?

HAM:

Why these Players here draw water from eyes:

HAM:

For Hecuba, why what is Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba?

HAM:

What would he do and if he had my losse?

HAM:

His father murdred, and a Crowne bereft him,

HAM:

He would turne all his teares to droppes of blood,

HAM:

Amaze the standers by with his laments,

HAM:

Strike more then wonder in the iudiciall eares,

HAM:

Confound the ignorant, and make mute the wise,

HAM:

Indeede his passion would be generall.

HAM:

Yet I like to an asse and Iohn a Dreames,

HAM:

Hauing my father murdred by a villaine,

HAM:

Stand still, and let it passe, why sure I am a coward:

HAM:

Who pluckes me by the beard, or twites my nose,

HAM:

Giue's me the lie i'th throate downe to the lungs,

HAM:

Sure I should take it, or else I haue no gall,

HAM:

Or by this I should a fatted all the region kites

HAM:

With this slaues offell, this damned villaine,

HAM:

Treacherous, bawdy, murderous villaine:

HAM:

Why this is braue, that I the sonne of my deare father,

HAM:

Should like a scalion, like a very drabbe

HAM:

Thus raile in wordes. About my braine,

HAM:

I haue heard that guilty creatures sitting at a play,

HAM:

Hath, by the very cunning of the scene, confest a murder

HAM:

Committed long before.

HAM:

This spirit that I haue seene may be the Diuell,

HAM:

And out of my weakenesse and my melancholy,

HAM:

As he is very potent with such men,

HAM:

Doth seeke to damne me, I will haue sounder proofes,

HAM:

The play's the thing,

HAM:

Wherein I'le catch the conscience of the King.exit.

Back to Top

Act 3

Scene 1

DEN:

Lordes, can you by no meanes finde

DEN:

The cause of our sonne Hamlets lunacie?

DEN:

You being so neere in loue, euen from his youth,

DEN:

Me thinkes should gaine more than a stranger should.44

GUI:

My lord, we haue done all the best we could,

GUI:

To wring from him the cause of all his griefe,

GUI:

But still he puts vs off, and by no meanes

GUI:

Would make an answere to that we exposde.

ROS:

Yet was he something more inclin'd to mirth

ROS:

Before we left him, and I take it,

ROS:

He hath giuen order for a play to night,

ROS:

At which he craues your highnesse company.

DEN:

With all our heart, it likes vs very well:

DEN:

Gentlemen, seeke still to increase his mirth,

DEN:

Spare for no cost, our coffers shall be open,

DEN:

And we vnto your selues will still be thankefull.

ROS, GUI:

In all wee can, be sure you shall commaund.

GER:

Thankes gentlemen, and what the Queene of (Denmarke

GER:

May pleasure you, be sure you shall not want.

GUI:

Weele once againe vnto the noble Prince.

DEN:

Thanks to you both: Gertred you'l see this play.

GER:

My lord I will, and it ioyes me at the soule

GER:

He is inclin'd to any kinde of mirth.

CRB:

Madame, I pray be ruled by me:

CRB:

And my good Soueraigne, giue me leaue to speake,

CRB:

We cannot yet finde out the very ground

CRB:

Of his distemperance, therefore

CRB:

I holde it meete, if so it please you,

CRB:

Else they shall not meete, and thus it is.

DEN:

What i'st Corambis?

CRB:

Mary my good lord this, soone when the sports are (done,

CRB:

Madam, send you in haste to speake with him,

CRB:

And I my selfe will stand behind the Arras,

CRB:

There question you the cause of all his griefe,

CRB:

And then in loue and nature vnto you, hee'le tell you all:

CRB:

My Lord, how thinke you on'

DEN:

It likes vs well, Gerterd, what say you?

GER:

With all my heart, soone will I send for him.

CRB:

My selfe will be that happy messenger,

CRB:

Who hopes his griefe will be reueal'd to her.exeunt omnes

Back to Top

Scene 2

HAM:

Pronounce me this speech trippingly a the tongue as I taught thee,

HAM:

Mary and you mouth it, as a many of your players do

HAM:

I'de rather heare a towne bull bellow,

HAM:

Then such a fellow speake my lines.

HAM:

Nor do not saw the aire thus with your hands,

HAM:

But giue euery thing his action with temperance.

HAM:

O it offends mee to the soule, to heare a rebustious periwig (fellow,

HAM:

To teare a passion in totters, into very ragges,

HAM:

To split the eares of the ignorant, who for the

HAM:

Most parte are capable of nothing but dumbe shewes and (noises,

HAM:

I would haue such a fellow whipt, for o're doing, tarmagant

HAM:

It out, Herodes Herod.

PLS:

My Lorde, wee haue indifferently reformed that among vs.

HAM:

The better, the better, mend it all together:

HAM:

There be fellowes that I haue seene play,

HAM:

And heard others commend them, and that highly too,

HAM:

That hauing neither the gate of Christian, Pagan,

HAM:

Nor Turke, haue so strutted and bellowed,

HAM:

That you would a thought, some of Natures journeymen

HAM:

Had made men, and not made them well,

HAM:

They imitated humanitie, so abhominable:

HAM:

Take heede, auoyde it.

PLS:

I warrant you my Lord.

HAM:

And doe you heare? let not your Clowne speake

HAM:

More then is set downe, there be of them I can tell you

HAM:

That will laugh themselues, to set on some

HAM:

Quantitie of barren spectators to laugh with them,

HAM:

Albeit there is some necessary point in the Play

HAM:

Then to be obserued: O t'is vile, and shewes

HAM:

A pittifull ambition in the foole that vseth it.

HAM:

And then you haue some agen, that keepes one sute

HAM:

Os ieasts, as a man is knowne by one sute of

HAM:

Apparell, and Gentlemen quotes his ieasts downe45

HAM:

In their tables, before they come to the play, as thus:

HAM:

Cannot you stay till I eate my porrige? and, you owe me

HAM:

A quarters wages: and, my coate wants a cullison:

HAM:

And, your beer is sowre: and, blabbering with his lips,

HAM:

And thus keeping in his cinkapase of ieasts,

HAM:

When, God knows, the warme Clowne cannot make a iest

HAM:

Vnlesse by chance, as the blinde man catcheth a hare:

HAM:

Maisters tell him of it.

PLS:

We will my Lord.

HAM:

Well, goe make you ready.exeunt players.

HOR:

Heere my Lord.

HAM:

Horatio, thou art euen as iust a man,

HAM:

As e're my conuersation cop'd withall.

HOR:

O my lord!

HAM:

Nay why should I flatter thee?

HAM:

Why should the poore be flattered?

HAM:

What gaine should I receiue by flattering thee,

HAM:

That nothing hath but thy good minde?

HAM:

Let flattery sit on those time‐pleasing tongs,

HAM:

To glose with them that loues to heare their praise,

HAM:

And not with such as thou Horatio.

HAM:

There is a play to night, wherein one Sceane they haue

HAM:

Comes very neere the murder of my father,

HAM:

When thou shalt see that Act afoote,

HAM:

Marke thou the King, doe but obserue his lookes,

HAM:

For I mine eies will riuet to his face:

HAM:

And if he doe not bleach, and change at that,

HAM:

It is a damned ghost that we haue seene.

HAM:

Horatio, haue a care, obserue him well.

HOR:

My lord, mine eies shall still be on his face,

HOR:

And not the smallest alteration

HOR:

That shall appeare in him, but I shall note it.

HAM:

Harke, they come.

DEN:

How now son Hamlet, how fare you, shall we haue (a play?

HAM:

Yfaith the Camelions dish, not capon cramm'd,

HAM:

feede a the ayre.

HAM:

I father: My lord, you playd in the Vniuersitie.

CRB:

That I did my L: and I was counted a good actor.

HAM:

What did you enact there?

CRB:

My lord, I did act Iulius Cæsar, I was killed

CRB:

in the Capitoll, Brutus killed me.

HAM:

It was a brute parte of him,

HAM:

To kill so capitall a calfe.

HAM:

Come, be these Players ready?

GER:

Hamlet come sit downe by me.

HAM:

No by my faith mother, heere's a mettle more at­ (tractiue:

HAM:

Lady will you giue me leaue, and so forth:

HAM:

To lay my head in your lappe?

OPH:

No my Lord.

HAM:

Vpon your lap, what do you thinke I meant con­ (trary matters?

OPH:

What meanes this my Lord?Enter the Prologue.

HAM:

This is myching Mallico, that meanes my chiefe.

OPH:

What doth this meane my lord?

HAM:

you shall heare anone, this fellow will tell you all.

OPH:

Will he tell vs what this shew meanes?

HAM:

I, or any shew you'le shew him,

HAM:

Be not afeard to shew, hee'le not be afeard to tell:

HAM:

O these Players cannot keepe counsell, thei'le tell all.

PRO:

For vs, and for our Tragedie,

PRO:

Heere stowping to your clemencie,

PRO:

We begge your hearing patiently.

HAM:

I'st a prologue, or a poesie for a ring?

OPH:

T'is short my Lord.

HAM:

As womens loue.

PLK:

Full fortie yeares are past, their date is gone,46

PLK:

Since happy time ioyn'd both our hearts as one:

PLK:

And now the blood that fill'd my youthfull veines,

PLK:

Runnes weakely in their pipes, and all the straines

PLK:

Of musicke, which whilome pleasde mine eare,

PLK:

Is now a burthen that Age cannot beare:

PLK:

And therefore sweete Nature must pay his due,

PLK:

To heauen must I, and leaue the earth with you.

PLQ:

O say not so, lest that you kill my heart,

PLQ:

When death takes you, let life from me depart.

PLK:

Content thy selfe, when ended is my date,

PLK:

Thou maist (perchance) haue a more noble mate,

PLK:

More wise, more youthfull, and one.

PLQ:

O speake no more, for then I am accurst,

PLQ:

None weds the second, but she kils the first:

PLQ:

A second time I kill my Lord that's dead,

PLQ:

When second husband kisses me in bed.

HAM:

O wormewood, wormewood!

PLK:

I doe beleeue you sweete, what now you speake,

PLK:

But what we doe determine oft we breake,

PLK:

For our demises stil are ouerthrowne,

PLK:

Our thoughts are ours, their end's none of our owne:

PLK:

So thinke you will no second husband wed,

PLK:

But die thy thoughts, when thy first Lord is dead.

PLQ:

Both here and there pursue me lasting strife,

PLQ:

If once a widdow, euer I be wife.

HAM:

If she should breake now.

PLK:

T'is deepely sworne, sweete leaue me here a while,

PLK:

My spirites growe dull, and faine I would beguil the tedi­ ous time with sleepe.

PLQ:

Sleepe rocke thy braine,

PLQ:

And neuer come mischance betweene vs twaine.exit Lady

HAM:

Madam, how do you like this play?

GER:

The Lady protests too much.

HAM:

O but shee'le keepe her word.

DEN:

Haue you heard the argument, is there no offence in it?

HAM:

No offence in the world, poyson in iest, poison in (iest.

DEN:

What do you call the name of the ply?

HAM:

Mouse‐trap: mary how trapically: this play is

HAM:

The image of a murder done in guyana, Albert

HAM:

Was the Dukes name, his wife Baptista,

HAM:

Father, it is a knauish peece a worke: but what

HAM:

A that, it toucheth not vs, you and I that haue free

HAM:

Soules, let the galld iade wince, this is one

HAM:

Lucianus nephew to the King.

OPH:

Ya're as good as a Chorus my lord.

HAM:

I could interpret the loue you beare, if I sawe the poopies dallying.

OPH:

Y'are very pleasant my lord.

HAM:

Who I, your onlie jig‐maker, why what shoulde a man do but be merry? for looke how cheerefully my mo­ ther lookes, my father died within these two houres.

OPH:

Nay, t'is twice two months, my Lord.

HAM:

Two months, nay then let the diuell weare blacke,

HAM:

For i'le haue a sute of Sables: Iesus, two months dead,

HAM:

And not forgotten yet? nay then there's some

HAM:

Likelyhood, a gentlemans death may outliue memorie,

HAM:

But by my faith hee must build churches then,

HAM:

Or els hee must follow the olde Epit itaphe,

HAM:

With hoh, with ho, the hobi‐horse is forgot.

OPH:

Your iests are keene my Lord.

HAM:

It would cost you a groning to take them off.

OPH:

Still better and worse.

HAM:

So you must take your husband, begin. Murdred

HAM:

Begin, a poxe, leaue thy damnable faces and begin,

HAM:

Come, the croking rauen doth bellow for reuenge.

LUC:

Thoughts blacke, hands apt, drugs fit, and time (agreeing.

LUC:

Confederate season, else no creature seeing:

LUC:

Thou mixture rancke, of midnight weedes collected,

LUC:

With Hecates bane thrise blasted, thrise infected,

LUC:

Thy naturall magicke, and dire propertie,

LUC:

One wholesome life vsurps immediately.47exit.

HAM:

He poysons him for his estate.

DEN:

Lights, I will to bed.

CRB:

The king rises, lights hoe.

HAM:

What, frighted with false fires?

HAM:

Then let the stricken deere goe weepe,

HAM:

The Hart vngalled play,

HAM:

For some must laugh, while some must weepe,

HAM:

Thus runnes the world away.

HOR:

The king is mooued my lord.

HOR:

I Horatio, i'le take the Ghosts word

HOR:

For more then all the coyne in Denmarke.

ROS:

Now my lord, how i'st with you?

HAM:

And if the king like not the tragedy,

HAM:

Why then belike he likes it not perdy.

ROS:

We are very glad to see your grace so pleasant,

ROS:

My good lord, let vs againe intreate

ROS:

To know of you the ground and cause of your distempera­ (ture

GUI:

My lord, your mother craues to speake with you.

HAM:

We shall obey, were she ten times our mother.

ROS:

But my good Lord, shall I intreate thus much?

HAM:

I pray will you play vpon this pipe?

ROS:

Alas my lord I cannot.

HAM:

Pray will you.

GUI:

I haue no skill my Lord.

HAM:

why looke, it is a thing of nothing,

HAM:

T'is but stopping of these holes,

HAM:

And with a little breath from your lips,

HAM:

It will giue most delicate musick.

GUI:

But this cannot wee do my Lord.

HAM:

Pray now, pray hartily, I beseech you.

ROS:

My lord wee cannot.

HAM:

Why how vnworthy a thing would you make of (me?

HAM:

You would seeme to know my stops, you would play vpon mee,

HAM:

You would search the very inward part of my hart,

HAM:

And diue into the secreet of my soule.

HAM:

Zownds do you thinke Iam easier to be pla'yd

HAM:

On, then a pipe? call mee what Instrument

HAM:

You will, though you can frett mee, yet you can not

HAM:

Play vpon mee, besides, to be demanded by a spunge.

ROS:

How a spunge my Lord?

HAM:

I sir, a spunge, that sokes vp the kings

HAM:

Countenance, fauours, and rewardes, that makes

HAM:

His liberalitie your store house: but such as you,

HAM:

Do the king, in the end, best seruise;

HAM:

For hee doth keep you as an Ape doth nuttes,

HAM:

In the corner of his Iaw, first mouthes you,

HAM:

Then swallowes you: so when hee hath need

HAM:

Of you, t'is but squeesing of you,

HAM:

And spunge, you shall be dry againe, you shall.

ROS:

Wel my Lord wee'le take our leaue.

HAM:

Farewell, farewell, God blesse you.

CRB:

My lord, the Queene would speake with you.

HAM:

Do you see yonder clowd in the shape of a camell?

CRB:

T'is like a camell in deed.

HAM:

Now me thinkes it's like a weasel.

CRB:

T'is back't like a weasell.

HAM:

Or like a whale.

CRB:

Very like a whale.exit Coram.

HAM:

Why then tell my mother i'le come by and by.

HAM:

Good night Horatio.

HOR:

Good night vnto your Lordship.exit Horatio.

HAM:

My mother she hath sent to speake with me:

HAM:

O God, let ne're the heart of Nero enter

HAM:

This soft bosome.

HAM:

Let me be cruell, not vnnaturall.48

HAM:

I will speake daggers, those sharpe wordes being spent,

HAM:

To doe her wrong my soule shall ne're consent.exit.

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Scene 3

DEN:

O that this wet that falles vpon my face

DEN:

Would wash the crime cleere from my conscience!

DEN:

When I looke vp to heauen, I see my trespasse,

DEN:

The earth doth still crie out vpon my fact,

DEN:

Pay me the murder of a brother and a king,

DEN:

And the adulterous fault I haue committed:

DEN:

O these are sinnes that are vnpardonable:

DEN:

Why say thy sinnes were blacker then is ieat,

DEN:

Yet may contrition make them as white as snowe:

DEN:

I but still to perseuer in a sinne,

DEN:

It is an act gainst the vniuersall power,

DEN:

Most wretched man, stoope, bend thee to thy prayer,

DEN:

Aske grace of heauen to keepe thee from despaire.

HAM:

I so, come forth and worke thy last,

HAM:

And thus hee dies: and so am I reuenged:

HAM:

No, not so: he tooke my father sleeping, his sins brim full,

HAM:

And how his soule stoode to the state of heauen

HAM:

Who knowes, saue the immortall powres,

HAM:

And shall I kill him now,

HAM:

When he is purging of his soule?

HAM:

Making his way for heauen, this is a benefit,

HAM:

And not reuenge: no, get thee vp agen,

HAM:

When hee's at game swaring, taking his carowse, drinking (drunke,

HAM:

Or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed,

HAM:

Or at some act that hath no relish

HAM:

Of saluation in't, then trip him

HAM:

That his heeles may kicke at heauen,

HAM:

And fall as lowe as hel: my mother stayes,

HAM:

This phisicke but prolongs thy weary dayes.exit Ham.

DEN:

My wordes fly vp, my sinnes remaine below.

DEN:

No King on earth is safe, if Gods his foe.exit King.

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Scene 4

CRB:

Madame, I heare yong Hamlet comming,

CRB:

I'le shrowde my selfe behinde the Arras.exit Cor.

GER:

Do so my Lord.

HAM:

Mother, mother, O are you here?

HAM:

How i'st with you mother?

GER:

How i'st with you?

HAM:

I'le tell you, but first weele make all safe.

GER:

Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.

HAM:

Mother, you haue my father much offended.

GER:

How now boy?

HAM:

How now mother! come here, sit downe, for you shall heare me speake.

GER:

What wilt thou doe? thou wilt not murder me:

GER:

elpe hoe.

CRB:

Helpe for the Queene.

HAM:

I a Rat, dead for a Duckat.

HAM:

Rash intruding foole, farewell,

HAM:

I tooke thee for thy better.

GER:

Hamlet, what hast thou done?

HAM:

Not so much harme, good mother,

HAM:

As to kill a king, and marry with his brother.

GER:

How! kill a king!

HAM:

I a King: nay sit you downe, and ere you part,

HAM:

If you be made of penitrable stuffe,

HAM:

I'le make your eyes looke downe into your heart,

HAM:

And see how horride there and blacke it shews.

GER:

Hamlet, what mean'st thou by these killing (words?

HAM:

Why this I meane, see here, behold this picture,

HAM:

It is the portraiture, of your deceased husband,

HAM:

See here a face, to outface Mars himselfe,

HAM:

An eye, at which his foes did tremble at,

HAM:

A front wherin all vertues are set downe

HAM:

For to adorne a king, and guild his crowne,

HAM:

Whose heart went hand in hand euen with that vow,49

HAM:

He made to you in marriage, and he is dead.

HAM:

Murdred, damnably murdred, this was your husband,

HAM:

Looke you now, here is your husband,

HAM:

With a face like Vulcan.

HAM:

A looke fit for a murder and a rape,

HAM:

A dull dead hanging looke, and a hell‐bred eie,

HAM:

To affright children and amaze the world:

HAM:

And this same haue you left to change with this.

HAM:

What Diuell thus hath cosoned you at hob‐man blinde?

HAM:

A! haue you eyes and can you looke on him

HAM:

That slew my father, and your deere husband,

HAM:

To liue in the incestuous pleasure of his bed?

GER:

O Hamlet, speake no more.

HAM:

To leaue him that bare a Monarkes minde,

HAM:

For a king of clowts, of very shreads.

GER:

Sweete Hamlet cease.

HAM:

Nay but still to persist and dwell in sinne,

HAM:

To sweate vnder the yoke of infamie,

HAM:

To make increase of shame, to seale damnation.

GER:

Hamlet, no more.

HAM:

Why appetite with you is in the waine,

HAM:

Your blood runnes backeward now from whence it came,

HAM:

Who'le chide hote blood within a Virgins heart,

HAM:

When lust shall dwell within a matrons breast?

GER:

Hamlet, thou cleaues my heart in twaine.

HAM:

O throw away the worser part of it, and keepe the better.

HAM:

Saue me, saue me, you gratious

HAM:

Powers aboue, and houer ouer mee,

HAM:

With your celestiall wings.

HAM:

Doe you not come your tardy sonne to chide,

HAM:

That I thus long haue let reuenge slippe by?

HAM:

O do not glare with lookes so pittifull!

HAM:

Lest that my heart of stone yeelde to compassion,

HAM:

And euery part that should assist reunge,

HAM:

Forgoe their proper powers, and fall to pitty.

GHO:

Hamlet, I once againe appeare to thee,

GHO:

To put thee in remembrance of my death:

GHO:

Doe not neglect, nor long time put it off.

GHO:

But I perceiue by thy distracted lookes,

GHO:

Thy mother's fearefull, and she stands amazde:

GHO:

Speake to her Hamlet, for her sex is weake,

GHO:

Comfort thy mother, Hamlet, thinke on me.

HAM:

How i'st with you Lady?

GER:

Nay, how i'st with you

GER:

That thus you bend your eyes on vacancie,

GER:

And holde discourse with nothing but with ayre?

HAM:

Why doe you nothing heare?

GER:

Not I.

HAM:

Nor doe you nothing see?

GER:

No neither.

HAM:

No, why see the king my father, my father, in the (habite

HAM:

As he liued, looke you how pale he lookes,

HAM:

See how he steales away out of the Portall,

HAM:

Looke, there he goes.exit ghost.

GER:

Alas, it is the weakenesse of thy braine,

GER:

Which makes thy tongue to blazon thy hearts griefe:

GER:

But as I haue a soule, I sweare by heauen,

GER:

I neuer knew of this most horride murder:

GER:

But Hamlet, this is onely fantasie,

GER:

And for my loue forget these idle fits.

HAM:

Idle, no mother, my pulse doth beate like yours,

HAM:

It is not madnesse that possesseth Hamlet.

HAM:

O mother, if euer you did my deare father loue,

HAM:

Forbeare the adulterous bed to night,

HAM:

And win your selfe by little as you may,

HAM:

In time it may be you wil lothe him quite:

HAM:

And mother, but assist mee in reuenge,

HAM:

And in his death your infamy shall die.

GER:

Hamlet, I vow by that maiesty,50

GER:

That knowes our thoughts, and lookes into our hearts,

GER:

I will conceale, consent, and doe my best,

GER:

What stratagem soe're thou shalt deuise.

HAM:

It is enough, mother good night:

HAM:

Come sir, I'le prouide for you a graue,

HAM:

Who was in life a foolish prating knaue.

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Act 4

Scene 1

DEN:

Now Gertred, what sayes our sonne, how doe you finde him?

GER:

Alas my lord, as raging as the sea:

GER:

Whenas he came, I first bespake him faire,

GER:

But then he throwes and tosses me about,

GER:

As one forgetting that I was his mother:

GER:

At last I call'd for help: and as I cried, Corambis

GER:

Call'd, which Hamlet no sooner heard, but whips me

GER:

Out his rapier, and cries, a Rat, a Rat, and in his rage

GER:

The good olde man he killes.

DEN:

Why this his madnesse will vndoe our state.

DEN:

Lordes goe to him, inquire the body out.

GUI:

We will my Lord.Exeunt Lordes.

DEN:

Gertred, your sonne shall presently to England,

DEN:

His shipping is already furnished,

DEN:

And we haue sent by Rossencrafi and Gilderstone,

DEN:

Our letters to our deare brother of England,

DEN:

For Hamlets welfare and his happinesse:

DEN:

Happly the aire and climate of the Country

DEN:

May please him better than his natiue home:

DEN:

See where he comes.

GUI:

My lord, we can by no meanes

GUI:

Know of him where the body is.

DEN:

Now sonne Hamlet, where is this dead body?

HAM:

At supper, not where he is eating, but

HAM:

Where he is eaten, a certaine company of politicke wormes are euen now at him.

HAM:

Father, your fatte King, and your leane Beggar

HAM:

Are but variable seruices, two dishes to one messe:

HAM:

Looke you, a man may fish with that worme

HAM:

That hath eaten of a King,

HAM:

And a Beggar eate that fish,

HAM:

Which that worme hath caught.

DEN:

What of this?

HAM:

Nothing father, but to tell you, how a King

HAM:

May go a progresse through the guttes of a Beggar.

DEN:

But sonne Hamlet, where is this body?

HAM:

In heau'n, if you chance to misse him there,

HAM:

Father, you had best looke in the other partes below

HAM:

For him, and if you cannot finde him there,

HAM:

You may chance to nose him as you go vp the lobby.

DEN:

Make haste and finde him out.

HAM:

Nay doe you heare? do not make too much haste,

HAM:

I'le warrant you hee'le stay till you come.

DEN:

Well sonne Hamlet, we in care of you: but specially in tender preseruation of your health,

DEN:

The which we price euen as our proper selfe,

DEN:

It is our minde you forthwith goe for England,

DEN:

The winde fits faire, you shall aboorde to night,

DEN:

Lord Rossencraft and Gilderstone shall goe along with you.

HAM:

O with all my heart: farewel mother.

DEN:

Your louing father, Hamlet.

HAM:

My mother I say: you married my mother,

HAM:

My mother is your wife, man and wife is one flesh,

HAM:

And so (my mother) farewel: for England hoe.

DEN:

Gertred, leaue me,

DEN:

And take your leaue of Hamlet,

DEN:

To England is he gone, ne're to returne:

DEN:

Our Letters are vnto the King of England,

DEN:

That on the sight of them, on his allegeance,51

DEN:

He presently without demaunding why,

DEN:

That Hamlet loose his head, for he must die,

DEN:

There's more in him than shallow eyes can see:

DEN:

He once being dead, why then our state is free.exit.

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Scene 2

FOR:

Captaine, from vs goe greete

FOR:

The king of Denmarke:

FOR:

Tell him that Fortenbrasse nephew to old Norway,

FOR:

Craues a free passe and conduct ouer his land,

FOR:

According to the Articles agreed on:

FOR:

You know our Randevous, goe march away.exeunt all.

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Scene 3

DEN:

Hamlet is ship't for England, fare him well,

DEN:

I hope to heare good newes from thence ere long,

DEN:

If euery thing fall out to our content,

DEN:

As I doe make no doubt but so it shall.

GER:

God grant it may, heau'ns keep my Hamlet safe:

GER:

But this mischance of olde Corambis death,

GER:

Hath piersed so the yong Ofeliaes heart,

GER:

That she, poore maide, is quite bereft her wittes.

DEN:

Alas deere heart! And on the other side,

DEN:

We vnderstand her brother's come from France,

DEN:

And he hath halfe the heart of all our Land,

DEN:

And hardly hee'le forget his fathers death,

DEN:

Vnlesse by some meanes he be pacified.

GER:

O see where the yong Ofelia is!

OPH:

How should I your true loue know

OPH:

From another man?

OPH:

By his cockle hatte, and his staffe,

OPH:

And his sandall shoone.

OPH:

White his shrowde as mountaine snowe,

OPH:

Larded with sweete flowers,

OPH:

That bewept to the graue did not goe

OPH:

With true louers showers:

OPH:

He is dead and gone Lady, he is dead and gone,

OPH:

At his head a grasse greene turffe,

OPH:

At his heeles a stone.

DEN:

How i'st with you sweete Ofelia?

OPH:

Well God yeeld you,

OPH:

It grieues me to see how they laid him in the cold ground,

OPH:

I could not chuse but weepe:

OPH:

And will he not come againe?

OPH:

And will he not come againe?

OPH:

No, no, hee's gone, and we cast away mone,

OPH:

And he neuer will come againe.

OPH:

His beard as white as snowe:

OPH:

All flaxen was his pole,

OPH:

He is dead, he is gone,

OPH:

And we cast away moane:

OPH:

God a mercy on his soule.

OPH:

And of all christen soules I pray God.

OPH:

God be with you Ladies, God be with you.exit Ofelia.

DEN:

A pretty wretch! this is a change indeede:

DEN:

O Time, how swiftly runnes our ioyes away?

DEN:

Content on earth was neuer certaine bred,

DEN:

To day we laugh and liue, to morrow dead.

DEN:

How now, what noyse is that?

LAE:

Stay there vntill I come,

LAE:

O thou vilde king, giue me my father:

LAE:

Speake, say, where's my father?

DEN:

Dead.

LAE:

Who hath murdred him? speake, i'le not

LAE:

Be juggled with, for he is murdred.

GER:

True, but not by him.52

LAE:

By whome, by heau'n I'le be resolued.

DEN:

Let him goe Gertred, away, I feare him not,

DEN:

There's fuch diuinitie doth wall a king,

DEN:

That treason dares not looke on.

DEN:

Let him goe Gertred, that your father is murdred,

DEN:

T'is true, and we most sory for it,

DEN:

Being the chiefest piller of our state:

DEN:

Therefore will you like a most desperate gamster,

DEN:

Swoop‐stake‐like, draw at friend, and foe, and all?

LAE:

To his good friends thus wide I'le ope mine arms,

LAE:

And locke them in my hart, but to his foes,

LAE:

I will no reconcilement but by bloud.

DEN:

Why now you speake like a most louing sonne:

DEN:

And that in soule we sorrow for for his death,

DEN:

Your selfe ere long shall be a witnesse,

DEN:

Meane while be patient, and content your selfe.

LAE:

Who's this, Ofelia? O my deere sister!

LAE:

I'st possible a yong maides life,

LAE:

Should be as mortall as an olde mans sawe?

LAE:

O heau'ns themselues! how now Ofelia?

OPH:

Wel God a mercy, I a bin gathering of floures:

OPH:

Here, here is rew for you,

OPH:

You may call it hearb a grace a Sundayes,

OPH:

Heere's some for me too: you must weare your rew

OPH:

With a difference, there's a dazie.

OPH:

Here Loue, there's rosemary for you

OPH:

For remembrance: I pray Loue remember,

OPH:

And there's pansey for thoughts.

LAE:

A document in madnes, thoughts, remembrance:

LAE:

O God, O God!

OPH:

There is fennell for you, I would a giu'n you

OPH:

Some violets, but they all withered, when

OPH:

My father died: alas, they say the owle was

OPH:

A Bakers daughter, we see what we are,

OPH:

But can not tell what we shall be.

OPH:

For bonny sweete Robin is all my ioy.

LAE:

Thoughts & afflictions, torments worse than hell.

OPH:

Nay Loue, I pray you make no words of this now:

OPH:

I pray now, you shall sing a downe,

OPH:

And you a downe a, t'is a the Kings daughter

OPH:

And the false steward, and if any body

OPH:

Aske you of any thing, say you this.

OPH:

To morrow is saint Valentines day,

OPH:

All in the morning betime,

OPH:

And a maide at your window,

OPH:

To be your Valentine:

OPH:

The yong man rose, and dan'd his clothes,

OPH:

And dupt the chamber doore,

OPH:

Let in the maide, that out a maide

OPH:

Neuer departed more.

OPH:

Nay I pray marke now,

OPH:

By gisse, and by saint Charitie,

OPH:

Away, and fie for shame:

OPH:

Yong men will doo't when they come too't:

OPH:

By cocke they are too blame.

OPH:

Quoth she, before you tumbled me,

OPH:

You promised me to wed.

OPH:

So would I a done, by yonder Sunne,

OPH:

If thou hadst not come to my bed.

OPH:

So God be with you all, God bwy Ladies.

OPH:

God bwy you Loue.exit Ofelia.

LAE:

Griefe vpon griefe, my father murdered,

LAE:

My sister thus distracted:

LAE:

Cursed be his soule that wrought this wicked act.

DEN:

Content you good Leartes for a time,

DEN:

Although I know your griefe is as a floud,

DEN:

Brimme full of sorrow, but forbeare a while,

DEN:

And thinke already the reuenge is done

DEN:

On him that makes you such a haplesse sonne.

LAE:

You haue preuail'd my Lord, a while I'le striue,

LAE:

To bury griefe within a tombe of wrath,53

LAE:

Which once vnhearsed, then the world shall heare

LAE:

Leartes had a father he held deere.

DEN:

No more of that, ere many dayes be done,

DEN:

You shall heare that you do not dreame vpon.exeunt om.

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Scene 4

HOR:

Madame, your sonne is safe arriv'de in Denmarke,

HOR:

This letter I euen now receiv'd of him,

HOR:

Whereas he writes how he escap't the danger,

HOR:

And subtle treason that the king had plotted,

HOR:

Being crossed by the contention of the windes,

HOR:

He found the Packet sent to the king of England,

HOR:

Wherein he saw himselfe betray'd to death,

HOR:

As at his next conuersion with your grace,

HOR:

He will relate the circumstance at full.

GER:

Then I perceiue there's treason in his lookes

GER:

That seem'd to sugar o're his villanie:

GER:

But I will soothe and please him for a time,

GER:

For murderous mindes are alwayes jealous,

GER:

But know not you Horatio where he is?

HOR:

Yes Madame, and he hath appoynted me

HOR:

To meete him on the east side of the Cittie

HOR:

To morrow morning.

GER:

O faile not, good Horatio, and withall, com­ (mend me

GER:

A mothers care to him, bid him a while

GER:

Be wary of his presence, lest that he

GER:

Faile in that he goes about.

HOR:

Madam, neuer make doubt of that:

HOR:

I thinke by this the news be come to court:

HOR:

He is arriv'de, obserue the king, and you shall

HOR:

Quickely finde, Hamlet being here,

HOR:

Things fell not to his minde.

GER:

But what became of Gilderstone and Rossencraft?

HOR:

He being set ashore, they went for England,

HOR:

And in the Packet there writ down that doome

HOR:

To be perform'd on them poynted for him:

HOR:

And by great chance he had his fathers Seale,

HOR:

So all was done without discouerie.

GER:

Thankes be to heauen for blessing of the prince,

GER:

Horatio once againe I take my leaue,

GER:

With thowsand mothers blessings to my sonne.

HOR:

Madam adue.

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Scene 5

DEN:

Hamlet from England! is it possible?

DEN:

What chance is this? they are gone, and he come home.

LAE:

O he is welcome, by my soule he is:

LAE:

At it my iocund heart doth leape for ioy,

LAE:

That I shall liue to tell him, thus he dies.

DEN:

Leartes, content your selfe, be rulde by me,

DEN:

And you shall haue no let for your reuenge.

LAE:

My will, not all the world.

DEN:

Nay but Leartes, marke the plot I haue layde,

DEN:

I haue heard him often with a greedy wish,

DEN:

Vpon some praise that he hath heard of you

DEN:

Touching your weapon, which with all his heart,

DEN:

He might be once tasked for to try your cunning.

LAE:

And how for this?

DEN:

Mary Leartes thus: I'le lay a wager,

DEN:

Shalbe on Hamlets side, and you shall giue the oddes,

DEN:

The which will draw him with a more desire,

DEN:

To try the maistry, that in twelue venies

DEN:

You gaine not three of him: now this being granted,

DEN:

When you are hot in midst of all your play,

DEN:

Among the foyles shall a keene rapier lie,

DEN:

Steeped in a mixtur of deadly poyson,

DEN:

That if it drawes but the least dramme of blood,

DEN:

In any part of him, he cannot liue:

DEN:

This being done will free you from suspition,

DEN:

And not the deerest friend that Hamlet lov'de

DEN:

Will euer haue Leartes in suspect.

LAE:

My lord, I like it well:

LAE:

But say lord Hamlet should refuse this match.

DEN:

I'le warrant you, wee'le put on you54

DEN:

Such a report of singularitie,

DEN:

Will bring him on, although against his will.

DEN:

And lest that all should misse,

DEN:

I'le haue a potion that shall ready stand,

DEN:

In all his heate when that he calles for drinke,

DEN:

Shall be his period and our happinesse.

LAE:

T'is excellent, O would the time were come!

LAE:

Here comes the Queene.enter the Queene.

DEN:

How now Gertred, why looke you heauily?

GER:

O my Lord, the yong Ofelia

GER:

Hauing made a garland of sundry sortes of floures,

GER:

Sitting vpon a willow by a brooke,

GER:

The enuious sprig broke, into the brooke she fell,

GER:

And for a while her clothes spread wide abroade,

GER:

Bore the yong Lady vp: and there she sate smiling,

GER:

Euen Mermaide‐like, twixt heauen and earth,

GER:

Chaunting olde sundry tunes vncapable

GER:

As it were of her distresse, but long it could not be,

GER:

Till that her clothes, being heauy with their drinke,

GER:

Dragg'd the sweete wretch to death.

LAE:

So, she is drownde:

LAE:

Too much of water hast thou Ofelia,

LAE:

Therefore I will not drowne thee in my teares,

LAE:

Reuenge it is must yeeld this heart releefe,

LAE:

For woe begets woe, and griefe hangs on griefe.exeunt.

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Act 5

Scene 1

GR1:

I say no, she ought not to be buried

GR1:

In christian buriall.

GR2:

Why sir?

GR1:

Mary because shee's drownd.

GR2:

But she did not drowne her selfe.

GR1:

No, that's certaine, the water drown'd her.

GR2:

Yea but it was against her will.

GR1:

No, I deny that, for looke you sir, I stand here,

GR1:

If the water come to me, I drowne not my selfe:

GR1:

But if I goe to the water, and am there drown'd,

GR1:

Ergo I am guiltie of my owne death:

GR1:

Y'are gone, goe y'are gone sir.

GR2:

I but see, she hath christian buriall,

GR2:

Because she is a great woman.

GR1:

Mary more's the pitty, that great folke

GR1:

Should haue more authoritie to hang or drowne

GR1:

Themselues, more than other people:

GR1:

Goe fetch me a stope of drinke, but before thou

GR1:

Goest, tell me one thing, who buildes strongest,

GR1:

Of a Mason, a Shipwright, or a Carpenter?

GR2:

Why a Mason, for he buildes all of stone,

GR2:

And will indure long.

GR1:

That's prety, too't agen, too't agen.

GR2:

Why then a Carpenter, for he buildes the gallowes,

GR2:

And that brings many a one to his long home.

GR1:

Prety agen, the gallowes doth well, mary howe dooes it well? the gallowes dooes well to them that doe ill, goe get thee gone:

GR1:

And if any one aske thee hereafter, say,

GR1:

A Graue‐maker, for the houses he buildes

GR1:

Last till Doomes‐day. Fetch me a stope of beere, goe.

GR1:

A picke‐axe and a spade,

GR1:

A spade for and a winding sheete,

GR1:

Most fit it is, for t'will be made,he throwes vp a shouel.

GR1:

For such a ghest most meete.

HAM:

Hath this fellow any feeling of himselfe,

HAM:

That is thus merry in making of a graue?

HAM:

See how the slaue joles their heads against the earth.

HOR:

My lord, Custome hath made it in him seeme no­ (thing.

GR1:

A pick‐axe and a spade, a spade,

GR1:

For and a winding sheete,

GR1:

Most fit it is for to be made,

GR1:

For such a ghest most meet.

HAM:

Looke you, there's another Horatio.55

HAM:

Why mai't not be the scull of some Lawyer?

HAM:

Me thinkes he should indite that fellow

HAM:

Of an action of Batterie, for knocking

HAM:

Him about the pate with's shouel: now where is your

HAM:

Quirkes and quillets now, your vouchers and

HAM:

Double vouchers, your leases and free‐holde,

HAM:

And tenements? why that same boxe there will scarse

HAM:

Holde the conueiance of his land, and must

HAM:

The honor lie there? O pittifull transformance!

HAM:

I prethee tell me Horatio,

HAM:

Is parchment made of sheep‐skinnes?

HOR:

I my Lorde, and of calues‐skinnes too.

HAM:

Ifaith they prooue themselues sheepe and calues

HAM:

That deale with them, or put their trust in them.

HAM:

There's another, why may not that be such a ones

HAM:

Scull, that praised my Lord such a ones horse,

HAM:

When he meant to beg him? Horatio, I prethee

HAM:

Lets question yonder fellow.

HAM:

Now my friend, whose graue is this?

GR1:

Mine sir.

HAM:

But who must lie in it?

GR1:

If I should say, I should, I should lie in my throat (sir.

HAM:

What man must be buried here?

GR1:

No man sir.

HAM:

What woman?

GR1:

No woman neither sir, but indeede

GR1:

One that was a woman.

HAM:

An excellent fellow by the Lord Horatio,

HAM:

This seauen yeares haue I noted it: the toe of the pesant,

HAM:

Comes so neere the heele of the courtier,

HAM:

That hee gawles his kibe, I prethee tell mee one thing,

HAM:

How long will a man lie in the ground before hee rots?

GR1:

I faith sir, if hee be not rotten before

GR1:

He be laide in, as we haue many pocky corses,

GR1:

He will last you, eight yeares, a tanner

GR1:

Will last you eight yeares full out, or nine.

HAM:

And why a tanner?

GR1:

Why his hide is so tanned with his trade,

GR1:

That it will holde out water, that's a parlous

GR1:

Deuourer of your dead body, a great soaker.

GR1:

Looke you, heres a scull hath bin here this dozen yeare,

GR1:

Let me see, I euer since our last king Hamlet

GR1:

Slew Fortenbrasse in combat, yong Hamlets father,

GR1:

Hee that's mad.

HAM:

I mary, how came he madde?

GR1:

Ifaith very strangely, by loosing of his wittes.

HAM:

Vpon what ground?

GR1:

A this ground, in Denmarke.

HAM:

Where is he now?

GR1:

Why now they sent him to England.

HAM:

To England! wherefore?

GR1:

Why they say he shall haue his wittes there,

GR1:

Or if he haue not, t'is no great matter there,

GR1:

It will not be seene there.

HAM:

Why not there?

GR1:

Why there they say the men are as mad as he.

HAM:

Whose scull was this?

GR1:

This, a plague on him, a madde rogues it was,

GR1:

He powred once a whole flagon of Rhenish of my head,

GR1:

Why do not you know him? this was one Yorickes scull.

HAM:

Was this? I prethee let me see it, alas poore Yoricke

HAM:

I knew him Horatio,

HOR:

Euen so my Lord.

HAM:

And smelt thus?56

HOR:

I my lord, no otherwise.

HAM:

Imperious Cæsar dead and turnd to clay,

HAM:

Might stoppe a hole, to keepe the winde away.

HAM:

What funerall's this that all the Court laments?

HAM:

It shews to be some noble parentage:

HAM:

Stand by a while.

LAE:

What ceremony else? say, what ceremony else?

DOC:

My Lord, we haue done all that lies in vs,

DOC:

And more than well the church can tolerate,

DOC:

She hath had a Dirge sung for her maiden soule:

DOC:

And but for fauour of the king, and you,

DOC:

She had beene buried in the open fieldes,

DOC:

Where now she is allowed christian buriall.

LAE:

So, I tell thee churlish Priest, a ministring Angell shall my sister be, when thou liest howling.

HAM:

The faire Ofelia dead!

GER:

Sweetes to the sweete, farewell:

GER:

I had thought to adorne thy bridale bed, faire maide,

GER:

And not to follow thee vnto thy graue.

LAE:

Forbeare the earth a while: sister farewell:

LAE:

Now powre your earth on, lympus hie,

LAE:

And make a hill to o're top olde Pellon:Hamlet leapes in after Leartes

LAE:

Whats he that coniures so?

HAM:

Beholde tis I, Hamlet the Dane.

LAE:

The diuell take thy soule.

HAM:

O thou praiest not well,

HAM:

I prethee take thy hand from off my throate,

HAM:

For there is something in me dangerous,

HAM:

Which let thy wisedome feare, holde off thy hand:

HAM:

I lou'de Ofelia as deere as twenty brothers could:

HAM:

Shew me what thou wilt doe for her:

HAM:

Wilt fight, wilt fast, wilt pray,

HAM:

Wilt drinke vp vessels, eate a crocadile? Ile doot:

HAM:

Com'st thou here to whine?

HAM:

And where thou talk'st of burying thee a liue,

HAM:

Here let vs stand: and let them throw on vs,

HAM:

Whole hills of earth, till with the heighth therof,

HAM:

Make Oosell as a Wart.

DEN:

Forbeare Leartes, now is hee mad, as is the sea,

DEN:

Anone as milde and gentle as a Doue:

DEN:

Therfore a while giue his wilde humour scope.

HAM:

What is the reason sir that you wrong mee thus?

HAM:

I neuer gaue you cause: but stand away,

HAM:

A Cat will meaw, a Dog will haue a day.

GER:

Alas, it is his madnes makes him thus,

GER:

And not his heart, Leartes.

DEN:

My lord, t'is so: but wee'le no longer trifle,

DEN:

This very day shall Hamlet drinke his last,

DEN:

For presently we meane to send to him,

DEN:

Therfore Leartes b in readynes.

LAE:

My lord, till then my soule will not bee quiet.

DEN:

Come Gertred, wee'l haue Leartes, and our sonne,

DEN:

Made friends and Louers, as befittes them both,

DEN:

Euen as they tender vs, and loue their countrie.

GER:

God grant they may.exeunt omnes.

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Scene 2

HAM:

beleeue mee, it greeues mee much Horatio,

HAM:

That to Leartes I forgot my selfe:

HAM:

For by my selfe me thinkes I feele his griefe,

HAM:

Though there's a difference in each others wrong.

HAM:

Horatio, but marke yon water‐flie,

HAM:

The Court knowes him, but hee knowes not the Court.57

GE3:

Now God saue thee, sweete prince Hamlet.

HAM:

And you sir: foh, how the muske‐cod smels!

GE3:

I come with an embassage from his maiesty to you

HAM:

I shall sir giue you attention:

HAM:

By my troth me thinkes t'is very colde.

GE3:

It is indeede very rawish colde.

HAM:

T'is hot me thinkes.

GE3:

Very swoltery hote:

GE3:

The King, sweete Prince, hath layd a wager on your side,

GE3:

Six Barbary horse, against six french rapiers,

GE3:

With all their acoutrements too, a the carriages:

GE3:

In good faith they are very curiously wrought.

HAM:

The cariages sir, I do not know what you meane.

GE3:

The girdles, and hangers sir, and such like.

HAM:

The worde had beene more cosin german to the phrase, if he could haue carried the canon by his side,

HAM:

And howe's the wager? I vnderstand you now.

GE3:

Mary sir, that yong Leartes in twelue venies

GE3:

At Rapier and Dagger do not get three oddes of you,

GE3:

And on your side the King hath laide,

GE3:

And desires you to be in readinesse.

HAM:

Very well, if the King dare venture his wager,

HAM:

I dare venture my skull: when must this be?

GE3:

My Lord, presently, the king, and her maiesty,

GE3:

With the rest of the best iudgement in the Court,

GE3:

Are comming downe into the outward pallace.

HAM:

Goe tell his maiestie, I wil attend him.

GE3:

I shall deliuer your most sweet answer.exit.

HAM:

You may sir, none better, for y'are spiced,

HAM:

Else he had a bad nose could not smell a foole.

HOR:

He will disclose himselfe without inquirie.

HAM:

Beleeue me Horatio, my hart is on the sodaine

HAM:

Very sore, all here about.

HOR:

My lord, forbeare the challenge then.

HAM:

No Horatio, not I, if danger be now,

HAM:

Why then it is not to come, theres a predestinate prouidence

HAM:

in the fall of a sparrow: heere comes the King.

DEN:

Now sonne Hamlet, we haue laid vpon your head,

DEN:

And make no question but to haue the best.

HAM:

Your maiestie hath laide a the weaker side.

DEN:

We doubt it not, deliuer them the foiles.

HAM:

First Leartes, heere's my hand and loue,

HAM:

Protesting that I neuer wrongd Leartes.

HAM:

If Hamlet in his madnesse did amisse,

HAM:

That was not Hamlet, but his madnes did it,

HAM:

And all the wrong I e're did to Leartes,

HAM:

I here proclaime was madnes, therefore lets be at peace,

HAM:

And thinke I haue shot mine arrow o're the house,

HAM:

And hurt my brother.

LAE:

Sir I am satisfied in nature,

LAE:

But in termes of honor I'le stand aloofe,

LAE:

And will no reconcilement,

LAE:

Till by some elder maisters of our time

LAE:

I may be satisfied.

DEN:

Giue them the foyles.

HAM:

I'le be your foyle Leartes, these foyles,

HAM:

Haue all a laught, come on sir:a hit.

LAE:

No none.Heere they play

HAM:

Iudgement.

GE3:

A hit, a most palpable hit.

LAE:

Well, come againe.They play againe.

HAM:

Another. Iudgement.

LAE:

I, I grant, a tuch, a tuch.

DEN:

Here Hamlet, the king doth drinke a health to the

GER:

Here Hamlet, take my napkin, wipe thy face.

DEN:

Giue him the wine.

HAM:

Set it by, I'le haue another bowt first,

HAM:

I'le drinke anone.

GER:

Here Hamlet, thy mother drinkes to thee.

DEN:

Do not drinke Gertred: O t'is the poysned cup!58

HAM:

Leartes come, you dally with me,

HAM:

I pray you passe with your most cunningst play.

LAE:

I! say you so? haue at you,

LAE:

Ile hit you now my Lord:

LAE:

And yet it goes almost against my conscience.

HAM:

Come on sir.

DEN:

Looke to the Queene.

GER:

O the drinke, the drinke, Hamlet, the drinke.

HAM:

Treason, ho, keepe the gates.

LDS:

How ist my Lord Leartes?

LAE:

Euen as a coxcombe should,

LAE:

Foolishly slaine with my owne weapon:

LAE:

Hamlet, thou hast not in thee halfe an houre of life,

LAE:

The fatall Instrument is in thy hand.

LAE:

Vnbated and invenomed: thy mother's poysned

LAE:

That drinke was made for thee.

HAM:

The poysned Instrument within my hand?

HAM:

Then venome to thy venome, die damn'd villaine:

HAM:

Come drinke, here lies thy vnion here.The king dies.

LAE:

O he is iustly serued:

LAE:

Hamlet, before I die, here take my hand,

LAE:

And withall, my loue: I doe forgiue thee.Leartes dies.

HAM:

And I thee, O I am dead Horatio, fare thee well.

HOR:

No, I am more an antike Roman,

HOR:

Then a Dane, here is some poison left.

HAM:

Vpon my loue I charge thee let it goe,

HAM:

O fie Horatio, and if thou shouldst die,

HAM:

What a scandale wouldst thou leaue behinde?

HAM:

What tongue should tell the story of our deaths,

HAM:

If not from thee? O my heart sinckes Horatio,

HAM:

Mine eyes haue lost their sight, my tongue his vse:

HAM:

Farewel Horatio, heauen receiue my soule.Ham. dies.

FOR:

Where is this bloudy sight?

HOR:

If aught of woe or wonder you'ld behold,

HOR:

Then looke vpon this tragicke spectacle.

FOR:

O imperious death! how many Princes

FOR:

Hast thou at one draft bloudily shot to death?

AMB:

Our ambassie that we haue brought from Eng­ (land,

AMB:

Where be these Princes that should heare vs speake?

AMB:

O most moft vnlooked for time! vnhappy country.

HOR:

Content your selues, Ile shew to all, the ground,

HOR:

The first beginning of this Tragedy:

HOR:

Let there a scaffold be rearde vp in the market place,

HOR:

And let the State of the world be there:

HOR:

Where you shall heare such a sad story tolde,

HOR:

That neuer mortall man could more vnfolde.

FOR:

I haue some rights of memory to this kingdome,

FOR:

Which now to claime my leisure doth inuite mee:

FOR:

Let foure of our chiefest Captaines

FOR:

Beare Hamlet like a souldier to his graue:

FOR:

For he was likely, had he liued,

FOR:

To a prou'd most royall.

FOR:

Take vp the bodie, such a fight as this

FOR:

Becomes the fieldes, but here doth much amisse.

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