Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace, Confess yourself to heaven; Repent what's past; avoid what is to come, 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. Queen. O Hamlet! thou hast cleft my heart in twain. Ham. O throw away the worser part of it, And live the purer with the other half. Good night; but go not to mine uncle's bed: That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat To the next abstinence: the next more easy; For use almost can change the stamp of nature, With wondrous potency. Once more, good night: I'll blessing beg of you. For this same lord, [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? Ham. Not this, by no means, that I bid you Or paddling in your neck with his damn'd fingers, That I essentially am not in madness, do: But mad in craft. 'T were good, you let him know; Unpeg the basket on the house's top, Let the birds fly, and, like the famous ape, To try conclusions in the basket creep, 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. Ham. I must to England; you know that. Queen. I had forgot: 't is so concluded on. Alack! Ham. There's letters seal'd, and my two school-fellows, Whom I will trust, as I will adders fang'd, They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way, For 't is the sport, to have the enginer Hoist with his own petar, and it shall go hard, And blow them at the moon. O! 't is most sweet, When in one line two crafts directly meet. This man shall set me packing: I'll lug the guts into the neighbour room. Is now most still, most secret, and most grave, Come, Sir, to draw toward an end with you. Good night, mother. [Exeunt severally; HAMLET dragging in POLONIUS. ACT IV. SCENE I. The Same. Enter King, Queen, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILdenstern. King. There's matter in these sighs: these profound heaves You must translate; 't is fit we understand them. Where is your son? Queen. Bestow this place on us a little while. [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. Ah, my good lord, what have I seen to-night! Queen. Mad as the sea, and wind, when both contend Behind the arras hearing something stir, He whips his rapier out, and cries, "A rat! a rat!" The unseen good old man. It had been so with us, had we been there. His liberty is full of threats to all; To you yourself, to us, to every one. Alas! how shall this bloody deed be answer'd? It will be laid to us, whose providence Should have kept short, restrain'd, and out of haunt, We would not understand what was most fit, But, like the owner of a foul disease, To keep it from divulging, let it feed Even on the pith of life. Where is he gone? O'er whom his very madness, like some ore Shows itself pure: he weeps for what is done. The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch, Both countenance and excuse. Ho! Guildenstern! Enter ROSENCRANTZ and Guildenstern. And from his mother's closet hath he dragg'd him: [Exeunt Ros. and GUIL. Come, Gertrude, we'll call up our wisest friends; As level as the cannon to his blank, Transports his poison'd shot, may miss our name, And hit the woundless air. O, come away! My soul is full of discord, and dismay. SCENE II. Another Room in the Same. Enter HAMLet. [Exeunt. Ham. Safely stowed. [Ros. &c. within. Hamlet! lord Hamlet!] But soft! - what noise? who calls on Hamlet? O! here they come. Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUIldenstern. Ros. What have you done, my lord, with the dead body? And bear it to the chapel. Ham. Do not believe it. Ros. Believe what? Ham. That I can keep your counsel, and not mine own. Besides, to be demanded of a sponge, what replication should be made by the son of a king? Pos. Take you me for a sponge, my lord? Ham. Ay, Sir; that soaks up the king's countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the king best service in the end: he keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his jaw, first mouthed, to be last swallowed: when he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again. ear. Ros. I understand you not, my lord. Ham. I am glad of it: a knavish speech sleeps in a foolish Ros. My lord, you must tell us where the body is, and go with us to the king. Ham. The body is with the king, but the king is not with the body. The king is a thing — Guil. A thing, my lord! Ham. Of nothing: bring me to him. Hide fox, and all after. SCENE III. Another Room in the Same. Enter King, attended. King. I have sent to seek him, and to find the body. How dangerous is it, that this man goes loose! Yet must not we put the strong law on him: He's lov'd of the distracted multitude, Who like not in their judgment, but their eyes; Deliberate pause: diseases, desperate grown, [Exeunt. |