1

Or pardon'd, being down? Then I'll look up;
My fault is past. But, O, what form of prayer
Can serve my turn? Forgive me my foul murder!-
That cannot be; since I am still possess'd
Of those effects for which I did the murder,
My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.
May one be pardon'd, and retain the offence?
In the corrupted currents of this world,
Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice;
And oft 'tis seen, the wicked prize itself
Buys out the law: But 'tis not so above :
There is no shuffling, there the action lies
In his true nature; and we ourselves compell'd,
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,
To give in evidence. What then? what rests?
Try what repentance can: What can it not?
Yet what can it, when one can not repent?
O wretched state! O bosom, black as death!
O limed1 soul; that struggling to be free,
Art more engag'd! Help, angels, make assay!
Bow, stubborn knees! and, heart with strings of

steel,
Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe;
All may be well.

[Retires and kneels.

Enter Hamlet.

Ham. Now might I do it, pat, now he is praying;
And now I'll do't; and so he goes to heaven:
And so am I reveng'd? That would be scann'd:2
A villain kills my father; and, for that,
I, his soles son, do this same villain send
To heaven.

Why, this is hire and salary, not revenge.
He took my father grossly, full of bread;
With all his crimes broad-blown, as flush as May;
And, how his audit stands, who knows, save heaven!

(1) Caught as with bird-lime.

(2) Should be considered. (4) Reward.

(3) Only.

But, in our circumstance and course of thought,
'Tis heavy with him: And am I then reveng'd,
To take him in the purging of his soul,
When he is fit and season'd for his passage?
No.

Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent :1
When he is drunk, asleep, or in his rage;
Or in the incestuous pleasures of his bed;
At gaming, swearing; or about some act
That has no relish of salvation in't:

Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven;
And that his soul may be as damn'd, and black,
As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays:
This physic but prolongs thy sickly days. [Exit.
The King rises and advances.

King. My words fly up, my thoughts remain be-
low:

Words, without thoughts, never to heaven go.

[Exit.

SCENE IV. - Another room in the same. Enter Queen and Polonius.

Pol. He will come straight. Look, you lay home

to him:

Tell him, his pranks have been too broad to bear

with;

And that your grace hath screen'd and stood be

tween

Much heat and him. I'll silence me e'en here.

Pray you, be round with him.

Queen.

I'll warrant you;

Fear me not:-withdraw, I hear him coming.

[Polonius hides himself.

Enter Hamlet,

Ham. Now, mother; what's the matter?

Queen. Hamlet, thou hast thy father much of

fended.

(1) Seize him at a more horrid time.

Ham. Mother, you have my father much of

fended.

Queen. Come, come, you answer with an idle

tongue.

Ham. Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.

Queen. Why, how now, Hamlet?

Ham.

What's the matter now?

Queen. Have you forgot me?

Ham.

No, by the rood, not so: You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife; And,-'would it were not so!-you are my mother.

Queen. Nay, then I'll set those to you that can

speak.

Ham. Come, come, and sit you down; you shall

not budge;

You go not, till I set you up a glass

Where you may see the inmost part of you.

Queen. What wilt thou do? thou wilt not mur

der me?

Help, help, ho!

Pol. [Behind.] What, ho! help!

Ham.

How now! a rat? [Draws.

Dead, for a ducat, dead.

[Hamlet makes a pass through the arras.

Pol. [Behind.]

O, I am slain.

[Falls, and dies.

Nay, I know not:

Queen. O me, what hast thou done?

Ham.

Is it the king?

[Lifts up the arras, and draws forth Polonius.

Queen. O, what a rash and bloody deed is this!

Ham. A bloody deed;-almost as bad, good

mother,

As kill a king, and marry with his brother.

Queen. As kill a king!

Ham.

Ay, lady, 'twas my word.

Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell! [To Polonius.

(1) Cross.

I took thee for thy better; take thy fortune:
Thou find'st, to be too busy, is some danger.-
Leave wringing of your hands: Peace; sit you

down,

And let me wring your heart: for so I shall,

If it be made of penetrable stuff';

If damned custom have not braz'd it so,

That it be proof and bulwark against sense.

Queen. What have I done, that thou dar'st wag

thy tongue

In noise so rude against me?

Ham. Such an act, That blurs the grace and blush of modesty; Calls virtue, hypocrite; takes off the rose From the fair forehead of an innocent love, And sets a blister there; makes marriage-vows As false as dicers' oaths: O, such a deed As from the body of contractiont plucks The very soul; and sweet religion makes A rhapsody of words: Heaven's face doth glow: Yea, this solidity and compound mass, With tristful2-visage, as against the doom, Is thought-sick at the act.

Queen. Ah me, what act, That roars so loud, and thunders in the index ?3 Ham. Look here, upon this picture, and on this; The counterfeit presentment of two brothers. See, what a grace was seated on this brow: Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself; An eye like Mars, to threaten and command; A stations like the herald Mercury, New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill; A combination, and a form, indeed, Where every god did seem to set his seal, To give the world assurance of a man:

This was your husband.--Look you now, what fol

lows:

(1) Marriage-contract. (2) Sorrowful.
(3) Index of contents prefixed to a book.
(4) Apollo's. (5) The act of standing.

Here is your husband; like a mildew'd ear,
Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes?
Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed,
And batten on this moor? Ha! have you eyes?
You cannot call it, love: for, at your age,
The hey-day in the blood is tame, it's humble,
And waits upon the judgment; and what judg-

ment

Would step from this to this? Sense, 2 sure, you have, Else, could you not have motion: But, sure, that

sense

Is apoplex'd: for madness would not err;
Nor sense to ecstasy was ne'er so thrall'd,
But it reserv'd some quantity of choice,
To serve in such a difference. What devil was't,
That thus hath cozen'd you at hoodman-blind ?4
Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight,
Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sanss all,
Or but a sickly part of one true sense
Could not so mope. 6

O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell,
If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones,
To flaming youth let virtue be as wax,
And melt in her own fire: proclaim no shame,
When the compulsive ardour gives the charge;
Since frost itself as actively doth burn,

And reason panders will.

Queen.

O, Hamlet, speak no more:

Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul;
And there I see such black and grained spots,

As will not leave their tinct.7

Ham.

Nay, but to live

In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed;

Stew'd in corruption; honeying and making love

Over the nasty sty;

Queen.

O, speak to me no more;

(2) Sensation. (3) Frenzy.

(5) Without.

(7) Colour. (8) Greasy.