Hamlet (14 page)
Authors: William Shakespeare
Exeunt
running scene 8
Enter Hamlet and two or three of the Players
HAMLET
Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to
you,
trippingly
on the tongue: but if you
mouth
2
it, as many
of your players do, I had
as lief
3
the town-crier had spoke my
lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus,
but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I
may say, the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and
beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it offends
me to the soul to see a
robustious
periwig-pated
8
fellow tear a
passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the
groundlings
, who for the most part
are capable of
10
nothing
but inexplicable
dumb shows
11
and noise: I could have such a
fellow whipped for o’erdoing
Termagant
12
: it out-Herods
Herod
13
. Pray you avoid it.
A PLAYER
I
warrant
14
your honour.
HAMLET
Be not too tame neither, but let your own
discretion
15
be your tutor: suit the action to the word, the word to the
action, with this special observance: that you o’erstep not
the
modesty
of nature; for anything so overdone is
from
18
the
purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now,
was and is to hold as ’twere the mirror up to nature, to show
virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very
age and body of the time his form and
pressure
22
. Now this
overdone or
come tardy off
, though it make the
unskilful
23
laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the
censure
24
of
the which one
must in your
allowance
25
o’erweigh a whole
theatre of others. O, there be players that I have seen play,
and heard others praise, and that highly — not to speak it
profanely — that, neither having the accent of Christians
nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor no man, have so
strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of nature’s
journeymen
31
had made men and not made them well, they
imitated humanity so
abominably
32
.
A PLAYER
I hope we have reformed that
indifferently
33
with us,
sir.
HAMLET
O, reform it altogether. And let those that play your
clowns speak no more than is set down for them, for there be
of
37
them that will themselves laugh, to set on some quantity
of
barren
38
spectators to laugh too, though in the meantime
some
necessary question
39
of the play be then to be
considered: that’s villainous, and shows a most pitiful
ambition in the fool that
uses
41
it. Go, make you ready.—
Exeunt Players
Enter Polonius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
How now, my lord, will the king hear this piece of work?
POLONIUS
And the queen too, and that
presently
43
.
HAMLET
Bid the players make haste.—
Exit Polonius
Will you two help to hasten them?
BOTH
We will, my lord.
Exeunt
[
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
]
Enter Horatio
HAMLET
What ho, Horatio!
HORATIO
Here, sweet lord, at your service.
HAMLET
Horatio, thou art e’en as just a man
As e’er my conversation coped withal
50
.
HORATIO
O, my dear lord—
HAMLET
Nay, do not think I flatter,
For what advancement may I hope from thee
That no revenue hast but thy good spirits
To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be flattered?
No, let the
candied
56
tongue lick absurd pomp,
And
crook
the
pregnant
57
hinges of the knee
Where
thrift
58
may follow fawning. Dost thou hear?
Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice
And could of men distinguish, her
election
60
Hath
sealed
61
thee for herself, for thou hast been
As one, in
suffering
62
all, that suffers nothing,
A man that fortune’s
buffets
63
and rewards
Hath ta’en with equal thanks: and blest are those
Whose
blood
65
and judgement are so well commingled
That they are not a pipe for fortune’s finger
To sound what
stop
67
she please. Give me that man
That is not passion’s slave, and I will wear him
In my heart’s
core
69
, ay, in my heart of heart,
As I do thee. Something too much of this.
There is a play tonight before the king:
One scene of it comes near the circumstance
Which I have told thee of my father’s death:
I prithee, when thou see’st that act afoot,
Even with
the very comment of thy soul
75
Observe mine uncle: if his
occulted
76
guilt
Do not itself
unkennel
77
in one speech,
It is a
damnèd
78
ghost that we have seen,
And my imaginations are as
foul
79
As
Vulcan’s stithy.
Give him
heedful note
80
,
For I mine eyes will rivet to his face,
And after we will both our judgements join
HORATIO
Well, my lord.
If he
steal aught
85
the whilst this play is playing
And scape detecting, I will pay the theft.
Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and
other Lords Attendant with his Guard carrying torches. Danish
march
.
Sound a flourish
HAMLET
They are coming to the play: I must be
idle
87
.
Get you a place.
KING
How
fares
89
our cousin Hamlet?
HAMLET
Excellent, i’faith, of the
chameleon’s dish
90
: I eat the
air, promise-crammed: you cannot feed
capons
91
so.
KING
I
have nothing with
92
this answer, Hamlet: these
words are
not mine
93
.
To Polonius
HAMLET
No, nor mine now.— My lord, you
played once i’th’university, you say?
POLONIUS
That I did, my lord, and was accounted a good actor.
HAMLET
And what did you enact?
POLONIUS
I did enact Julius Caesar: I was killed
i’th’Capitol
98
:
Brutus killed me.
HAMLET
It was a
brute
part
of him to kill so capital a
calf
100
there.— Be the players ready?
ROSENCRANTZ
Ay, my lord: they
stay upon your patience
102
.
GERTRUDE
Come hither, my good Hamlet, sit by me.
HAMLET
No, good mother, here’s
metal more attractive
104
.
To King
POLONIUS
O, ho! Do you mark that?
HAMLET
Lady, shall I
lie in your lap
106
?
OPHELIA
No, my lord.
HAMLET
I mean, my head upon your lap?
OPHELIA
Ay, my lord.
HAMLET
Do you think I meant
country matters
110
?
OPHELIA
I think nothing, my lord.
HAMLET
That’s a fair thought to lie between maids’ legs.
OPHELIA
What is, my lord?
HAMLET
Nothing
114
.
OPHELIA
You are merry, my lord.
HAMLET
Who, I?
OPHELIA
Ay, my lord.
HAMLET
O, God,
your only jig-maker
118
. What should a man do
but be merry? For look you how cheerfully my mother looks,
and my father died within’s two hours.
OPHELIA
Nay, ’tis twice two months, my lord.
HAMLET
So long? Nay then, let the devil wear black, for I’ll
have a
suit of sables
123
. O heavens! Die two months ago, and not
forgotten yet? Then there’s hope a great man’s memory may
outlive his life half a year: but, by’r lady, he must build
churches, then, or else shall he
suffer not thinking on
126
, with
the
hobby-horse
127
, whose epitaph is ‘For, O, for, O, the hobby-
horse is forgot.’
Hautboys
play. The dumb show enters
Enter a King and Queen very lovingly, the Queen embracing him. She kneels, and makes show of
protestation
unto him. He takes her up, and declines his head upon her neck: lays him down upon a bank of flowers: she, seeing him asleep, leaves him. Anon comes in a fellow, takes off his crown, kisses it, and pours poison in the King’s ears, and exits. The Queen returns, finds the King dead, and makes
passionate action
. The Poisoner, with some two or three
Mutes
, comes in again, seeming to lament with her. The dead body is carried away. The Poisoner woos the Queen with gifts: she seems loath and unwilling awhile, but in the end accepts his love
.
Exeunt
OPHELIA
What means this, my lord?
HAMLET
Marry, this is
miching malicho
130
: that means mischief.
OPHELIA
Belike
this show imports the
argument
131
of the play.
HAMLET
We shall know by these fellows: the players cannot
keep
counsel
133
, they’ll tell all.
OPHELIA
Will they tell us what this show meant?
HAMLET
Ay, or any
show
that you’ll show him:
be not you
135
ashamed to show, he’ll not shame to tell you what it means.
OPHELIA
You are
naught
137
, you are naught: I’ll mark the play.
Enter Prologue
PROLOGUE
For us, and for our tragedy,
Here stooping to your clemency,
We beg your hearing patiently.
[
Exit
]
HAMLET
Is this a prologue, or the
posy of a ring
141
?
OPHELIA
’Tis brief, my lord.
HAMLET
As woman’s love.
Enter
[
two Players as
]
King and his Queen
[
Baptista
]
PLAYER KING
Full thirty times hath
Phoebus’ cart
144
gone round
Neptune’s salt wash
and
Tellus’ orbèd ground
145
,
And thirty dozen moons with
borrowed sheen
146
About the world have times twelve thirties been,
Since love our hearts and
Hymen
148
did our hands
Unite commutual in most sacred
bands
149
.
BAPTISTA
So many journeys may the sun and moon
Make us again count o’er ere love be done!
But, woe is me, you are so sick of late,
So far from cheer and from your former state,
That I
distrust
154
you: yet, though I distrust,
Discomfort
155
you, my lord, it nothing must,
For women’s fear and love
holds quantity
156
,
In neither aught, or in extremity
157
.
Now, what my love is,
proof
158
hath made you know,
And
as my love is sized, my fear is so
159
.
PLAYER KING
Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly too:
My
operant
powers my functions
leave to do
161
.
And thou shalt live in this fair world behind,
Honoured, beloved: and haply one as kind
For husband shalt thou—
BAPTISTA
O,
confound
165
the rest!
Such love must needs be treason in my breast:
In second husband let me be accurst!
None
168
wed the second but who killed the first.