O, say! That I must be their scourge and minister. I will bestow him, and will answer well Ghost. Do not forget: This visitation Ham. How is it with you, lady? His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones, Queen. Nothing at all; yet all, that is, I see. Ham. Why,look you there! look, how it steals away! My father, in his habit as he liv'd: Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal! Ham. Ecstasy! My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time, That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat To the next abstinence: the next more easy: The death I gave him. So, again, good night! — I must be cruel, only to be kind : Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind. But one word more, good lady! Queen. What shall I do? Ham. Not this, by no means, that I hid you do: Or paddling in your neck with his damn'd fingers, Queen. Be thou assur'd, if words be made of breath, Ham. I must to England; you know that? I had forgot; 'tis so concluded on. Ham. There's letters seal'd: and my two schoolfellows, Whom I will trust, as I will adders fang'd,- I'll lug the guts into their neighbour room: - [Exeunt serverally; Hamlet dragging in King. There's matter in these sighs; these profound heaves You must translate; 'tis fit we understand them: Ah, my good lord, what have I seen to-night! It had been so with us, had we been there: 792 HAMLET, Alas! how shall this bloody deed be answer'd? Shows itself pure; he weeps for what is done. The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch, Come, Gertrude, we'll call up our wisest friends; Ham. Safely stow'd, - [Ros. etc. within. Hamlet! lord Hamlet! But soft, - what noise? who calls on Hamlet? O, here they come. Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. Ros. What have you done, my lord, with the dead body? Ham. Compounded it with dust, whereto 'tis kin. Ros. Tell us where 'tis; that we may take it thence, And bear it to the chapel. Ham. Do not believe it. Ham. That I can keep your counsel, and not mine own. Besides, to be demanded of a sponge!—what replication should be made by the son of a king? Ros. Take you me for a sponge, my lord? Ham. Ay, sir! that soaks up the king's countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the king best service in the end. He keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his jaw; first mouthed, to be last swallowed: when he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again. Ros. I understand you not, my lord! Ham. I am glad of it. A knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear. Ros. My lord, you must tell us where the body is, and go with us to the king. Ham. The body is with the king, but the king is not with the body. The king is a thingGuil. A thing, my lord? Ham. Of nothing: bring me to him! and all after. Hide fox, [Exeunt. SCENE III. Another room in the same. Enter King, attended. King. I have sent to seek him, and to find the body. How dangerous is it, that this man goes loose? [ACT IV. - Or not at all. - How now? what hath befallen? Ros. Without, my lord! guarded, to know your King. Bring him before us! Ros. Ho, Guildenstern! bring in my lord! King. At supper? where? Ham. Not where he eats, but where he is eaten; him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we a certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at fat all creatures else, to fat us; and we fat ourselves for maggots your fat king, and your lean beg gar, is but variable service; two dishes, but to one table; that's the end. King. Alas! Alas! that worm. King. What dost thou mean by this? Ham. In heaven; send thither to see: if your place yourself. But, indeed, if you find him not messenger find him not there, seek him i'the other within this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby. King. Go seek him there! [To some Attendants. King. Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safety, hence King. Ay, Hamlet. Ham. Good. King. So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes. Ham. I see a cherub, that sees them. But, come! for England! Farewell, dear mother! King. Thy loving father, Hamlet! Come, for England! Ham. My mother! Father and mother is man and wife, man and wife is one flesh; and so, my mother. [Exit. King. Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed Away! for every thing is seal'd and done Cap. Against some part of Poland. Commands them, sir? Cap. The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras. Cap. Truly to speak, sir, and with no addition, To five ducats, five, I would not farm it; Ham. Two thousand souls, and twenty thousand Will not debate the question of this straw; Excitements of my reason, and my blood, SCENE V.-Elsinore. A room in the castle. Queen. -I will not speak with her. Queen. What would she have? Hor. She speaks much of her father; says, she hears, There's tricks i'the world; and hems, and beats her Spurns enviously at straws; speaks things in doubt, And botch the words up fit to their own thoughts; Indeed would make one think, there might be thought, Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds: To my sick soul, as sin's true nature is, Re-enter HORATIO, with OPHelia. Oph. How should I your true love know By his cockle hat and staff, And his sandal shoon. [Singing. Queen. Alas, sweet lady, what imports this song? He is dead and gone, lady, At his head a grass-green turf, At his heels a stone. Queen. Nay, but Ophelia, Be but to sleep, and feed? a beast, no more. O, ho! Sure, he, that made us with such large discourse, To fust in us unus'd. Now, whether it be Of thinking too precisely on the event, A thought, which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom, To all that fortune, death, and danger, dare, [Sings. White his shroud as the mountain snow, [Sings. Queen. Alas, look here, my lord! With true-love showers. Oph. Pray, let us have no words of this; but when they ask you what it means, say you this: Good morrow, 'tis Saint Valentine's day, And I a maid at your window, [He answers.] So would I ha' done, by yonder sun, An thou hadst not come to my bed. King. How long hath she been thus? Oph. I hope, all will be well. We must be patient; but I cannot choose but weep, to think, they should lay him i'the cold ground. My brother shall know of it, and so I thank you for your good counsel. Come, my coach! Good night, ladies! good night, sweet ladies! good night, good night! [Exit. King. Follow her close; give her good watch, I pray you! [Exit Horatio. O! this is the poison of deep grief; it springs All from her father's death: and now behold, O Gertrude, Gertrude! When sorrows come, they come not single spies, pers, For good Polonius' death; and we have done but greenly, In hugger-mugger to inter him: poor Ophelia Queen. Alack! what noise is this? King. Attend! A noise within. me bastard; Cries, cuckold, to my father; brands the harlot Even here, between the chaste unsmirched brow Of my true mother. King. What is the cause, Laertes, That thy rebellion looks so giant-like?— Let him go, Gertrude! do not fear our person; There's such divinity doth hedge a king, That treason can but peep to what it would, Acts little of his will.-Tell me, Laertes, Why thou art thus incens'd? - Let him go, Gertrude! Speak, man. Laer. Where is my father? Queen. But not by him. Laer. My will, not all the world's: And, for my means, I'll husband them so well, They shall go far with little. And, like the kind life-rend'ring pelican, Where are my Switzers? Let them guard the door! As day does to your eye. Gent. Save yourself, my lord! The ocean, overpeering of his list, Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste, O'erbears your officers! The rabble call him, lord; [Noise within. Enter LAERTES, armed; Danes following. Laer. Where is this king-?- Sirs, stand you all without! Dan. No, let's come in! Laer. I pray you, give me leave! Dan. We will, we will. Danes. [Within.]Let her come in! O heat, dry up my brains! tears seven times salt, Oph. They bore him barefac'd on the bier Hey no nonney, nonney hey nonny: And in his grave rain'd many a tear ; Fare you well, my dove! Laer. Hadst thou thy wits, and didst persuade re venge, It could not move thus. [They retire without the door. Oph. You must sing, Down a-down, an you call him a-down-a. O, how the wheel becomes it! It is the false steward, that stole his master's daughter. Laer. This nothing's more than matter. Oph. There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray you, love, remember! and there is pansies, that's for thoughts. Laer. A document in madness; thoughts and remembrance fitted. Oph. There's fennel for you, and columbines : — there's rue for you; and here's some for me:-we may call it, herb of grace o'Sundays: - you may wear your rue with a difference.-There's a daisy -I would give you some violets; but they withered all, when my father died; they say, he made a good end, For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy,- [Sings. Laer. Thought and affliction, passion, hell itself, She turns to favour, and to prettiness. And of all christian souls! I pray God. God be wi' you! [Exit Ophelia. Laer. Do you see this, O God! King. Laertes, I must commune with your grief, Or you deny me right. Go but apart, Make choice of whom your wisest friends you will, And they shall hear and judge 'twixt you and me: If by direct or by collateral hand They find us touch'd, we will our kingdom give, Be you content to lend your patience to us, Laer. Let this be so; His means of death, his obscure funeral, No trophy, sword, nor hatchment, o'er his bones, No noble rite, nor formal ostentation, — Cry to be heard, as 'twere from heaven to earth, That I must call't in question. King. So you shall; And, where the offence is, let the great axe fall. I pray you, go with me! [Exeunt. ment gave us chase: finding ourselves too slow of sail, we put on a compelled valour; and in the grapple I boarded them: on the instant, they got clear of our ship; so I alone became their prisoner. They have dealt with me like thieves of mercy: but they knew what they did; I am to do a good turn for them. Let the king have the letters I have sent: and repair thou to me with as much haste as thou would'st fly death. I have words to speak in thine ear, will make thee dumb; yet are they much too light for the bore of the matter. These good fellos will bring thee where I am. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern hold their course for England; of them I have much to tell thee. Farewell! He that thou knowest thine, Hamlet. Come, I will give you way for these your letters; And do't the speedier, that you may direct me To him, from whom you brought them. [Exeunt. SCENE VII. Another room in the same. Enter King and LAERTES. King. Now must your conscience my acquittance seal, And you must put me in your heart for friend; Laer. It well appears: - but tell me, As by your safety, greatness, wisdom, all things else, King. O, for two special reasons; Which may to you, perhaps, seem much unsinew'd, But yet to me they are strong. The queen, his mother, Lives almost by his looks; and for myself, (My virtue, or my plague, be it either which,) She is so conjunctive to my life and soul, That, as the star moves not but in his sphere, I could not but by her. The other motive, Why to a public count I might not go, Is, the great love the general gender bear him: Who, dipping all his faults in their affection, Work like the spring that turneth wood to stone, Convert his gyves to graces; so that my arrows, Too slightly timber'd for so loud a wind, Would have reverted to my bow again, And not where I had aim'd them. Laer. And so have I a noble father lost; A sister driven into desperate terms; Whose worth, if praises may go back again, Stood challenger on mount of all the age For her perfections. But my revenge will come. King. Break not your sleeps for that: you must not think, That we are made of stuff so flat and dull, Hor. What are they, that would speak with me? That we can let our beard be shook with danger, Serv. Sailors, sir! I do not know from what part of the world 1 Sail. God bless you, sir! 1 Sail. He shall, sir, an't please him! There's a letter for you, sir! it comes from the ambassador that was bound for England; if your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is. And think it pastime. You shortly shall hear more: Enter a Messenger. King-Laertes, you shall hear them: Hor. [Reads.] Horatio, when thou shalt have [Exit Messenger. overlooked this, give these fellows some means to [Reads.] High and mighty, you shall know, I the king; they have letters for him. Ere we were two am set naked on your kingdom. To-morrow shall days old at sea, a pirate of very warlike appoint- I beg leave to see your kingly eyes: when I sha!l, |