Hamlet (9 page)

HAMLET
    Ah ha, boy, say’st thou so? Art thou there,

truepenny
¹⁶⁸
?—

Come on, you hear this fellow in the
cellarage
¹⁶⁹
:

Consent to swear.

HORATIO
    Propose the oath, my lord.

HAMLET
    Never to speak of this that you have seen,

Swear by my sword.

GHOST
    Swear.

They swear

HAMLET
    
Hic et ubique?
¹⁷⁵
Then we’ll shift our ground.

Moves

Come hither, gentlemen,

And lay your hands again upon my sword:

Never to speak of this that you have heard,

Swear by my sword.

GHOST
    Swear.

They swear

HAMLET
    Well said, old mole. Canst work i’th’ground so fast?

A worthy
pioneer
! Once more
remove
¹⁸²
, good friends.

HORATIO
    O, day and night, but this is wondrous strange!

HAMLET
    And therefore as a
stranger
¹⁸⁴
give it welcome.

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,

Than are dreamt of in our philosophy.— But come,

Here, as before,
never, so help you mercy
¹⁸⁷
,

How strange or odd soe’er
¹⁸⁸
I bear myself —

As I perchance hereafter shall think meet

To put an
antic
¹⁹⁰
disposition on —

That you, at such time seeing me, never shall,

With arms
encumbered
thus, or thus
headshake
¹⁹²
,

Or by pronouncing of some
doubtful
¹⁹³
phrase,

As ‘Well, we know’ or ‘We could,
an if
¹⁹⁴
we would’

Or ‘If we list to speak’ or
‘There be, an if they might’
¹⁹⁵

Or such ambiguous
giving out
, to
note
¹⁹⁶

That you know aught of me: this not to do,

So grace and mercy at your most need help you. Swear.

GHOST
    Swear.

They swear

HAMLET
    Rest, rest, perturbèd spirit!— So, gentlemen,

With all my love I do
commend me
²⁰¹
to you:

And
what
²⁰²
so poor a man as Hamlet is

May do t’express his love and
friending
²⁰³
to you,

God willing, shall not lack. Let us go in together:

And
still
²⁰⁵
your fingers on your lips, I pray.

The time
is
out of joint
²⁰⁶
: O, cursèd spite

That ever I was born to set it right!

Nay, come, let’s go together.

POLONIUS
    Give him this money and these notes, Reynaldo.

Gives money and papers

REYNALDO
    I will, my lord.

POLONIUS
    You shall do
marvellous
³
wisely, good Reynaldo,

Before
you
⁴
visit him, you make inquiry

Of his behaviour.

REYNALDO
    My lord, I did intend it.

POLONIUS
    Marry, well said; very well said. Look you, sir,

Inquire me
first what
Danskers
⁸
are in Paris,

And how, and who, what means and where they
keep
⁹
,

What company, at what expense, and finding

By this
encompassment
and
drift
¹¹
of question

That they do know my son,
come you more nearer
¹²

Than your particular demands will touch it:

Take you
¹⁴
, as ’twere, some distant knowledge of him,

As thus, ‘I know his father and his friends

And in part him.’ Do you mark this, Reynaldo?

REYNALDO
    Ay, very well, my lord.

POLONIUS ‘
And in part him, but’, you may say, ‘not well,

But if’t be he I mean, he’s very wild;

Addicted
²⁰
so and so’, and there put on him

What
forgeries
you please: marry, none so
rank
²¹

As may dishonour him — take heed of that —

But, sir, such
wanton
, wild and usual
slips
²³

As are companions noted and most known

To youth and liberty.

REYNALDO
    As
gaming
²⁶
, my lord.

POLONIUS
    Ay, or drinking, fencing, swearing, quarrelling,

Drabbing
²⁸
: you may go so far.

REYNALDO
    My lord, that would dishonour him.

POLONIUS
    Faith, no, as you may
season it in the charge
³⁰
.

You must not put another scandal on him,

That he is open to
incontinency
³²
;

That’s not my meaning: but breathe his faults so
quaintly
³³

That they may seem the
taints of liberty
³⁴
,

The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind,

A
savageness
in
unreclaimèd
³⁶
blood,

Of general assault
³⁷
.

REYNALDO
    But, my good lord—

POLONIUS
    Wherefore should you do this?

REYNALDO
    Ay, my lord, I would know that.

POLONIUS
    Marry, sir, here’s my
drift
⁴¹
,

And I believe, it is a
fetch of warrant
⁴²
:

You laying these slight sullies on my son,

As ’twere
a thing a little soiled
i’th’working
⁴⁴
,

Mark you, your
party in converse
, him you would
sound
⁴⁵
,

Having ever
seen in the
prenominate
⁴⁶
crimes

The youth you
breathe of
⁴⁷
guilty, be assured

He
closes with you in this consequence
⁴⁸
:

‘Good sir’ or so, or ‘friend’ or ‘gentleman’,

According to the phrase and the
addition
⁵⁰

Of man and country.

REYNALDO
    Very good, my lord.

POLONIUS
    And then, sir, does he this — he does — what

was I about to say? I was about to say something:

where did I leave?

REYNALDO
    At ‘closes in the consequence’ at ‘friend or so’

and ‘gentleman’.

POLONIUS
    At ‘closes in the consequence’,
ay, marry
⁵⁸
.

He closes with you thus: ‘I know the gentleman,

I saw him yesterday, or t’other day’,

Or then, or then, with such and such; and, as you say,

There was he gaming, there
o’ertook in’s rouse
⁶²
,

There falling out at tennis, or perchance,

‘I saw him enter such a house of sale’,

Videlicet
⁶⁵
, a brothel, or so forth.

See you now;

Your bait of falsehood takes this
carp
⁶⁷
of truth:

And thus do
we of wisdom and of reach
⁶⁸
,

With
windlasses
and with
assays of bias
⁶⁹
,

By indirections find
directions
⁷⁰
out:

So by my former
lecture
⁷¹
and advice,

Shall you my son. You
have
⁷²
me, have you not?

REYNALDO
    My lord, I have.

POLONIUS
    God
buy
⁷⁴
you; fare you well.

REYNALDO
    Good my lord.

POLONIUS
    
Observe his inclination in yourself
⁷⁶
.

REYNALDO
    I shall, my lord.

POLONIUS
    And let him
ply his music
⁷⁸
.

REYNALDO
    
Well
⁷⁹
, my lord.

POLONIUS
    Farewell.— How now, Ophelia, what’s the

matter?

OPHELIA
    Alas, my lord, I have been so affrighted!

POLONIUS
    With what, in the name of heaven?

OPHELIA
    My lord, as I was sewing in my chamber,

Lord Hamlet, with his
doublet
all
unbraced
⁸⁵
,

No hat
⁸⁶
upon his head, his stockings fouled,

Ungartered
, and
down-gyvèd
⁸⁷
to his ankle,

Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other,

And with a look so piteous in
purport
⁸⁹

As if he had been loosèd out of hell

To speak of horrors — he comes before me.

POLONIUS
    Mad for thy love?

OPHELIA
    My lord, I do not know, but truly I do fear it.

POLONIUS
    What said he?

OPHELIA
    He took me by the wrist and held me hard;

Then
goes he to the length of all his arm
⁹⁶
,

And with his other hand thus o’er his brow

He falls to such perusal of my face

As
⁹⁹
he would draw it. Long stayed he so.

At last, a little shaking of mine arm

And thrice his head thus waving up and down,

He raised a sigh so piteous and profound

That it did seem to shatter all his bulk

And end his being: that done, he lets me go,

And, with his head over his shoulders turned,

He seemed to find his way without his eyes,

For out o’doors he went without their help,

And to the last,
bended their light
¹⁰⁸
on me.

POLONIUS
    Go with me: I will go seek the king.

This is the very
ecstasy
¹¹⁰
of love,

Whose violent property fordoes itself
¹¹¹

And leads the will to desperate undertakings

As oft as any passion under heaven

That does afflict our natures. I am sorry.

What, have you given him any hard words of late?

OPHELIA
    No, my good lord, but as you did command,

I did repel his letters and denied

His access to me.

POLONIUS
    That hath made him mad.

I am sorry that with better
speed
¹²⁰
and judgement

I had not
quoted
¹²¹
him: I feared he did but trifle,

And meant to
wreck
thee. But
beshrew my jealousy
¹²²
!

It seems it is as
proper to our age
¹²³

To
cast beyond ourselves
¹²⁴
in our opinions

As it is common for the younger sort

To lack discretion. Come, go we to the king:

This must be known, which, being kept
close
, might
move
¹²⁷

More grief to hide than hate to utter love.

KING
    Welcome, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Moreover that
²
we much did long to see you,

The need we have to use you did provoke

Our hasty sending. Something have you heard

Of Hamlet’s transformation, so I call it,

Since not th’exterior nor the inward man

Resembles that it was. What it should be,

More than his father’s death, that thus hath put him

So much from th’understanding of himself,

I cannot
deem
¹⁰
of. I entreat you both,

That, being of so young days brought up with him,

And since so
neighboured to
his youth and
humour
¹²
,

That you
vouchsafe your rest
¹³
here in our court

Some little time, so by your companies

To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather

So much as from
occasions
¹⁶
you may glean,

Whether aught, to us unknown, afflicts him thus,

That,
opened
¹⁸
, lies within our remedy.

GERTRUDE
    Good gentlemen, he hath much talked of you,

And sure I am two men there are not living

To whom he
more adheres
²¹
. If it will please you

To show us so much
gentry
²²
and good will

As to expend your time with us awhile,

For the
supply and profit
²⁴
of our hope,

Your visitation shall receive such thanks

As fits a king’s remembrance.

ROSENCRANTZ
    Both your majesties

Might, by the sovereign power you have
of
²⁸
us,

Put your
dread pleasures
²⁹
more into command

Than to entreaty.

GUILDENSTERN
    We both obey,

And here give up ourselves
in the full bent
³²

To lay our services freely at your feet,

To be commanded.

KING
    Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern.

GERTRUDE
    Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz.

And I beseech you instantly to visit

My too much changèd son.— Go, some of ye,

And bring the gentlemen where Hamlet is.

GUILDENSTERN
    Heavens make our presence and our
practices
⁴⁰

Pleasant and helpful to him.