*

King. What dost thou mean by this?

Hamlet. Nothing but to show you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar.

King. Where is Polonius?

31

Hamlet. In heaven; send thither to see: if your messenger find him not there, seek him i' the other place yourself. But indeed, if you find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby.

King. Go seek him there.

[To some Attendants.

Hamlet. He will stay till you come. [Exeunt Attendants.

King. Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safety,

Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve

For that which thou hast done, must send thee hence
With fiery quickness: therefore prepare thyself;

The bark is ready and the wind at help,

The associates tend, and every thing is bent

For England.

40

King. So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes.

Hamlet. I see a cherub that sees them. But, come; for England! Farewell, dear mother.

King. Thy loving father, Hamlet.

49

Hamlet. My mother: father and mother is man and wife; man and wife is one flesh; and so, my mother. Come, for England!

[Exit.

King. Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed aboard; Delay it not; I'll have him hence to-night:

Away! for every thing is seal'd and done

That else leans on the affair: pray you, make haste.

[Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

And, England, if my love thou hold'st at aught—
As my great power thereof may give thee sense,
Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red
After the Danish sword, and thy free awe

60

Pays homage to us-thou mayst not coldly set
Our sovereign process; which imports at full,
By letters congruing to that effect,

The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England;
For like the hectic in my blood he rages,

And thou must cure me: till I know 'tis done,
Howe'er my haps, my joys were ne'er begun.

[Exit.

SCENE IV. A plain in Denmark.

Enter FORTINBRAS, a Captain, and Soldiers, marching.

Fortinbras. Go, captain, from me greet the Danish king; Tell him that by his license Fortinbras

Craves the conveyance of a promised march

Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous.
If that his majesty would aught with us,
We shall express our duty in his eye;
And let him know so.

Captain.

I will do 't, my lord.

Fortinbras. Go softly on. [Exeunt Fortinbras and Soldiers.

Enter HAMLET, Rosencrantz, GUILDENSTERN, and others.

Hamlet. Good sir, whose powers are these?

Captain. They are of Norway, sir.

Hamlet. How purposed, sir, I pray you?

Captain. Against some part of Poland.

Hamlet. Who commands them, sir?

Captain. The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras.
Hamlet. Goes it against the main of Poland, sir,
Or for some frontier?

Captain. Truly to speak, and with no addition,
We go to gain a little patch of ground
That hath in it no profit but the name.
To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it;
Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole
A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee.

G

ΙΟ

20

Hamlet. Why, then the Polack never will defend it.

Captain. Yes, it is already garrison'd.

Hamlet. Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats Will not debate the question of this straw:

This is the imposthume of much wealth and peace,
That inward breaks, and shows no cause without
Why the man dies. I humbly thank you, sir.

Captain. God be wi' you, sir.

Rosencrantz.

29

[Exit.

Will't please you go, my lord? Hamlet. I'll be with you straight. Go a little before.

[Exeunt all but Hamlet.

How all occasions do inform against me,
And spur my dull revenge! What is a man,
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more.
Sure, he that made us with such large discourse,
Looking before and after, gave us not

That capability and god-like reason

To fust in us unused. Now, whether it be
Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple

Of thinking too precisely on the event,

A thought which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom

And ever three parts coward, I do not know

Why yet I live to say 'This thing's to do;'

Sith I have cause and will and strength and means
To do't. Examples gross as earth exhort me:
Witness this army of such mass and charge
Led by a delicate and tender prince,
Whose spirit with divine ambition puff'd
Makes mouths at the invisible event,
Exposing what is mortal and unsure

To all that fortune, death and danger dare,
Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be great
Is not to stir without great argument,
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw

When honour's at the stake. How stand I then,
That have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd,

40

50

Excitements of my reason and my blood,
And let all sleep? while to my shame I see
The imminent death of twenty thousand men,
That, for a fantasy and trick of fame,

Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot
Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
Which is not tomb enough and continent
To hide the slain? O, from this time forth,
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!

60

[Exit.

SCENE V. Elsinore. A room in the castle.

Enter QUEEN, HORATIO, and a Gentleman.

Queen. I will not speak with her.

Gentleman. She is importunate, indeed distract: Her mood will needs be pițied.

Queen.

What would she have?

Gentleman. She speaks much of her father; says she hears There's tricks i' the world, and hems and beats her heart, Spurns enviously at straws; speaks things in doubt,

That carry but half sense: her speech is nothing,

Yet the unshaped use of it doth move

The hearers to collection; they aim at it,

And botch the words up fit to their own thoughts;
Which, as her winks and nods and gestures yield them,
Indeed would make one think there might be thought,
Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily.

ΙΟ

Horatio. 'Twere good she were spoken with; for she may strew

Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds.

Queen. Let her come in.

[Exit Gentleman.

[Aside] To my sick soul, as sin's true nature is, Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss: So full of artless jealousy is guilt,

It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.

20

Re-enter Gentleman, with OPHELIA.

Ophelia. Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark? Queen. How now, Ophelia!

Ophelia. [Sings]

How should I your true love know

From another one?

By his cockle hat and staff,

And his sandal shoon.

Queen. Alas, sweet lady, what imports this song?
Ophelia. Say you? nay, pray you, mark.

[Sings]

Oh, oh!

He is dead and gone, lady,

He is dead and gone;

At his head a grass-green turf,

At his heels a stone.

Queen. Nay, but, Ophelia,

Ophelia.

Pray you, mark.

[Sings] White his shroud as the mountain snow,—

Enter KING.

Queen. Alas, look here, my lord.

30

Ophelia. [Sings]

Larded with sweet flowers;

Which bewept to the grave did go

With true-love showers.

King. How do you, pretty lady?

39

Ophelia. Well, God 'ild you! They say the owl was a

baker's daughter.

Lord, we know what we are, but know not

what we may be.

God be at your table!

King. Conceit upon her father.

Ophelia. Pray you, let's have no words of this; but when

they ask you what it means, say you this:

[Sings] To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day,

All in the morning betime,

And I a maid at your window,

To be your Valentine.