Before mine uncle: I'll observe his looks;
I'll tent him to the quick: if he but blench,
I know my course. The spirit that I have seen
May be the devil; and the devil hath power
To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps
Out of my weakness and my melancholy,
As he is very potent with such spirits,
Abuses me to damn me.
More relative than this.

I'll have grounds The play's the thing

Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.

(Exit.)

[The scene is still the same as that on which the curtain fell at the end of Act II.—a room of state in the Castle. The KING, the QUEEN, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ, and Guildenstern are disposed about the apartment.]

KING.

AND can you, by no drift of circumstance,
Get from him why he puts on this confusion?
ROSENCRANTZ.

He does confess he feels himself distracted,
But from what cause he will by no means speak.

QUEEN.

Did you assay him

To any pastime ?

ROSENCRANTZ.

Madam, it so fell out that certain players
We o'er-raught on the way: of these we told him,
And there did seem in him a kind of joy
To hear of it: they are about the court,
And, as I think, they have already order
This night to play before him.

POLONIUS.

'Tis most true:

And he beseech'd me to entreat your majesties
To hear and see the matter.

KING.

With all my heart; and it doth much content me

To hear him so inclined.

Good gentlemen, give him a further edge,
And drive his purpose on to these delights.

ROSENCRANTZ.

We shall, my lord.

(Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.)

KING.

Sweet Gertrude, leave us too;

For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither,
That he, as 'twere by accident, may here
Affront Ophelia :

Her father and myself, lawful espials,

meaning

Will so bestow ourselves that, seeing unseen,
We may of their encounter frankly judge,
And gather by him, as he is behaved,

If't be the affliction of his love or no
That thus he suffers for.

QUEEN.

I shall obey you:

And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish

That your good beauties be the happy cause
Of Hamlet's wildness: so shall I hope your virtues
Will bring him to his wonted way again,
To both your honours.

OPHELIA.

Madam, I wish it may. (Exit QUEEN.)
POLONIUS.

Ophelia, walk you here. Gracious, so please you, We will bestow ourselves. (To OPHELIA.) Read on this book;

That show of such an exercise may colour
Your loneliness.

(To KING.) I hear him coming: let's withdraw, my lord.

(Exeunt KING and POLONIUS.)

Enter HAMLET.

HAMLET.

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,