Hamlet. Nay, I know not: is it the king? Queen. O! what a rash and bloody deed is this! Hamlet. A bloody deed! almost as bad, good mother, As kill a king, and marry with his brother. Queen. As kill a king! Hamlet. 25 20 Ay, lady, 'twas my word. [Lifts up the arras and discovers POLONIUS. [TO POLONIUS.] Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell! 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, If it be made of penetrable stuff, If damned custom have not brass'd it so That it is proof and bulwark against sense. 35 Queen. What have I done that thou dar'st wag thy tongue In noise so rude against me? Such an act Hamlet. 40 As false as dicers' oaths; O! such a deed As from the body of contraction plucks A rhapsody of words; heaven's face doth glow, Queen. Ay me! what act, That roars so loud and thunders in the index ? Where every god did seem to set his seal, This was your husband: look you now, what follows. Here is your husband ; like a mildew'd ear, Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes? 65 70 75 To serve in such a difference. What devil was't 80 O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell, Hamlet. O Hamlet! speak no more ; Nay, but to live, Stew'd in corruption, honeying and making love Queen. Hamlet. 85 90 95 A murderer, and a villain; A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe Queen. No more! Hamlet. A king of shreds and patches, 100 Enter Ghost. Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings, You heavenly guards! What would your gracious figure? Queen. Alas! he's mad! Hamlet. Do you not come your tardy son to chide, The important acting of your dread command ? Ghost. Do not forget this visitation Hamlet. How is it with you, lady? Queen. Alas! how is't with you, 105 110 115 120 Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look ? Hamlet. On him, on him! Look you, how pale he glares! His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones, 125 Would make them capable. Do not look upon me; Will want true colour; tears perchance for blood. Hamlet. Do you see nothing there? Queen. Nothing at all; yet all that is I see. Hamlet. Nor did you nothing hear? 130 Queen. No, nothing but ourselves. Hamlet. 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. 135 [Exit Ghost. Queen. This is the very coinage of your brain : This bodiless creation ecstasy Is very cunning in. Hamlet. Ecstasy! My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time, 140 145 150 To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue; Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg, Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good. 155 Queen. O Hamlet! thou hast cleft my heart in twain. Hamlet. O! throw away the worser part of it, And live the purer with the other half. Good night; Assume a virtue, if you have it not. That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat, That to the use of actions fair and good And that shall lend a kind of easiness To the next abstinence: the next more easy; 160 165 170 [Pointing to POLONIUS. I do repent but heaven hath pleas'd it so, Thus bad begins and worse remains behind. Queen. What shall I do? Hamlet. Not this, by no means, that I bid you 175 180 do: Let the bloat king tempt you again to him; Or paddling in your neck with his damn'd fingers, 185 But mad in craft. 'Twere good you let him know; Such dear concernings hide? who would do so? Unpeg the basket on the house's top, Let the birds fly, and, like the famous ape, To try conclusions, in the basket creep, 190 195 And break your own neck down. Queen. Be thou assur'd, if words be made of breath, And breath of life, I have no life to breathe What thou hast said to me. Hamlet. I must to England; you know that? Queen. I had forgot: 'tis so concluded on. Hamlet. There's letters seal'd; and my two schoolfellows, Whom I will trust as I will adders fang'd, They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way, And marshal me to knavery. Let it work; 205 For 'tis the sport to have the enginer Hoist with his own petar: and it shall go hard But I will delve one yard below their mines, And blow them at the moon. O! 'tis most sweet, When in one line two crafts, directly meet. 210 This man shall set me packing ; I'll lug the guts into the neighbour room. Is now most still, most secret, and most grave, 215 [Exeunt severally; HAMLET dragging in the body of POLONIUS. |