Reading Help HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK
'The mobled queen'? `
` `
` Pol. `
` That's good! 'Mobled queen' is good. `
` `
` I Play. `
` Run barefoot up and down, threatening the flames `
` With bisson rheum; a clout upon that head `
` Where late the diadem stood, and for a robe, `
` About her lank and all o'erteemed loins, `
` A blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up;-- `
` Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steep'd, `
` 'Gainst Fortune's state would treason have pronounc'd: `
` But if the gods themselves did see her then, `
` When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport `
` In mincing with his sword her husband's limbs, `
` The instant burst of clamour that she made,-- `
` Unless things mortal move them not at all,-- `
` Would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven, `
` And passion in the gods. `
` `
` Pol. `
` Look, whether he has not turn'd his colour, and has tears in's `
` eyes.--Pray you, no more! `
` `
` Ham. `
` 'Tis well. I'll have thee speak out the rest of this soon.-- `
` Good my lord, will you see the players well bestowed? Do you `
` hear? Let them be well used; for they are the abstracts and brief `
` chronicles of the time; after your death you were better have a `
` bad epitaph than their ill report while you live. `
` `
` Pol. `
` My lord, I will use them according to their desert. `
` `
` Ham. `
` Odd's bodikin, man, better: use every man after his `
` desert, and who should scape whipping? Use them after your own `
` honour and dignity: the less they deserve, the more merit is in `
` your bounty. Take them in. `
` `
` Pol. `
` Come, sirs. `
` `
` Ham. `
` Follow him, friends. we'll hear a play to-morrow. `
` `
` [Exeunt Polonius with all the Players but the First.] `
` `
` Dost thou hear me, old friend? Can you play 'The Murder of `
` Gonzago'? `
` `
` I Play. `
` Ay, my lord. `
` `
` Ham. `
` We'll ha't to-morrow night. You could, for a need, study a `
` speech of some dozen or sixteen lines which I would set down and `
` insert in't? could you not? `
` `
` I Play. `
` Ay, my lord. `
` `
` Ham. `
` Very well.--Follow that lord; and look you mock him not. `
` `
` [Exit First Player.] `
` `
` --My good friends [to Ros. and Guild.], I'll leave you till `
` night: you are welcome to Elsinore. `
` `
` Ros. `
` Good my lord! `
` `
` [Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.] `
` `
` Ham. `
` Ay, so, God b' wi' ye! `
` Now I am alone. `
` O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I! `
` Is it not monstrous that this player here, `
` But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, `
` Could force his soul so to his own conceit `
` That from her working all his visage wan'd; `
` Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect, `
` A broken voice, and his whole function suiting `
` With forms to his conceit? And all for nothing! `
` For Hecuba? `
` What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, `
` That he should weep for her? What would he do, `
` Had he the motive and the cue for passion `
` That I have? He would drown the stage with tears `
` And cleave the general ear with horrid speech; `
` Make mad the guilty, and appal the free; `
` Confound the ignorant, and amaze, indeed, `
` The very faculties of eyes and ears. `
` Yet I, `
` A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak, `
` Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause, `
` And can say nothing; no, not for a king `
` Upon whose property and most dear life `
` A damn'd defeat was made. Am I a coward? `
` Who calls me villain? breaks my pate across? `
` Plucks off my beard and blows it in my face? `
` Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i' the throat `
` As deep as to the lungs? who does me this, ha? `
` 'Swounds, I should take it: for it cannot be `
` But I am pigeon-liver'd, and lack gall `
` To make oppression bitter; or ere this `
` I should have fatted all the region kites `
` With this slave's offal: bloody, bawdy villain! `
` Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain! `
` O, vengeance! `
` Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave, `
` That I, the son of a dear father murder'd, `
` Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, `
` Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words `
` And fall a-cursing like a very drab, `
` A scullion! `
` Fie upon't! foh!--About, my brain! I have heard `
` That guilty creatures, sitting at a play, `
` Have by the very cunning of the scene `
` Been struck so to the soul that presently `
` They have proclaim'd their malefactions; `
` For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak `
` With most miraculous organ, I'll have these players `
` Play something like the murder of my father `
` 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: I'll have grounds `
` More relative than this.--the play's the thing `
` Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king. `
` `
` [Exit.] `
` `
` `
` `
` `
` ACT III. `
` `
` Scene I. A room in the Castle. `
` `
` [Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, and `
` Guildenstern.] `
` `
` King. `
` And can you, by no drift of circumstance, `
` Get from him why he puts on this confusion, `
` Grating so harshly all his days of quiet `
` With turbulent and dangerous lunacy? `
` `
` Ros. `
` He does confess he feels himself distracted, `
` But from what cause he will by no means speak. `
` `
` Guil. `
` Nor do we find him forward to be sounded, `
` But, with a crafty madness, keeps aloof `
` When we would bring him on to some confession `
` Of his true state. `
` `
` Queen. `
` Did he receive you well? `
` `
` Ros. `
` Most like a gentleman. `
` `
` Guil. `
` But with much forcing of his disposition. `
` `
` Ros. `
` Niggard of question; but, of our demands, `
` Most free in his reply. `
` `
` Queen. `
` Did you assay him `
` To any pastime? `
` `
` Ros. `
` 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. `
` `
` Pol. `
` '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 inclin'd.-- `
` Good gentlemen, give him a further edge, `
` And drive his purpose on to these delights. `
`
` `
` Pol. `
` That's good! 'Mobled queen' is good. `
` `
` I Play. `
` Run barefoot up and down, threatening the flames `
` With bisson rheum; a clout upon that head `
` Where late the diadem stood, and for a robe, `
` About her lank and all o'erteemed loins, `
` A blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up;-- `
` Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steep'd, `
` 'Gainst Fortune's state would treason have pronounc'd: `
` But if the gods themselves did see her then, `
` When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport `
` In mincing with his sword her husband's limbs, `
` The instant burst of clamour that she made,-- `
` Unless things mortal move them not at all,-- `
` Would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven, `
` And passion in the gods. `
` `
` Pol. `
` Look, whether he has not turn'd his colour, and has tears in's `
` eyes.--Pray you, no more! `
` `
` Ham. `
` 'Tis well. I'll have thee speak out the rest of this soon.-- `
` Good my lord, will you see the players well bestowed? Do you `
` hear? Let them be well used; for they are the abstracts and brief `
` chronicles of the time; after your death you were better have a `
` bad epitaph than their ill report while you live. `
` `
` Pol. `
` My lord, I will use them according to their desert. `
` `
` Ham. `
` Odd's bodikin, man, better: use every man after his `
` desert, and who should scape whipping? Use them after your own `
` honour and dignity: the less they deserve, the more merit is in `
` your bounty. Take them in. `
` `
` Pol. `
` Come, sirs. `
` `
` Ham. `
` Follow him, friends. we'll hear a play to-morrow. `
` `
` [Exeunt Polonius with all the Players but the First.] `
` `
` Dost thou hear me, old friend? Can you play 'The Murder of `
` Gonzago'? `
` `
` I Play. `
` Ay, my lord. `
` `
` Ham. `
` We'll ha't to-morrow night. You could, for a need, study a `
` speech of some dozen or sixteen lines which I would set down and `
` insert in't? could you not? `
` `
` I Play. `
` Ay, my lord. `
` `
` Ham. `
` Very well.--Follow that lord; and look you mock him not. `
` `
` [Exit First Player.] `
` `
` --My good friends [to Ros. and Guild.], I'll leave you till `
` night: you are welcome to Elsinore. `
` `
` Ros. `
` Good my lord! `
` `
` [Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.] `
` `
` Ham. `
` Ay, so, God b' wi' ye! `
` Now I am alone. `
` O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I! `
` Is it not monstrous that this player here, `
` But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, `
` Could force his soul so to his own conceit `
` That from her working all his visage wan'd; `
` Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect, `
` A broken voice, and his whole function suiting `
` With forms to his conceit? And all for nothing! `
` For Hecuba? `
` What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, `
` That he should weep for her? What would he do, `
` Had he the motive and the cue for passion `
` That I have? He would drown the stage with tears `
` And cleave the general ear with horrid speech; `
` Make mad the guilty, and appal the free; `
` Confound the ignorant, and amaze, indeed, `
` The very faculties of eyes and ears. `
` Yet I, `
` A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak, `
` Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause, `
` And can say nothing; no, not for a king `
` Upon whose property and most dear life `
` A damn'd defeat was made. Am I a coward? `
` Who calls me villain? breaks my pate across? `
` Plucks off my beard and blows it in my face? `
` Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i' the throat `
` As deep as to the lungs? who does me this, ha? `
` 'Swounds, I should take it: for it cannot be `
` But I am pigeon-liver'd, and lack gall `
` To make oppression bitter; or ere this `
` I should have fatted all the region kites `
` With this slave's offal: bloody, bawdy villain! `
` Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain! `
` O, vengeance! `
` Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave, `
` That I, the son of a dear father murder'd, `
` Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, `
` Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words `
` And fall a-cursing like a very drab, `
` A scullion! `
` Fie upon't! foh!--About, my brain! I have heard `
` That guilty creatures, sitting at a play, `
` Have by the very cunning of the scene `
` Been struck so to the soul that presently `
` They have proclaim'd their malefactions; `
` For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak `
` With most miraculous organ, I'll have these players `
` Play something like the murder of my father `
` 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: I'll have grounds `
` More relative than this.--the play's the thing `
` Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king. `
` `
` [Exit.] `
` `
` `
` `
` `
` ACT III. `
` `
` Scene I. A room in the Castle. `
` `
` [Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, and `
` Guildenstern.] `
` `
` King. `
` And can you, by no drift of circumstance, `
` Get from him why he puts on this confusion, `
` Grating so harshly all his days of quiet `
` With turbulent and dangerous lunacy? `
` `
` Ros. `
` He does confess he feels himself distracted, `
` But from what cause he will by no means speak. `
` `
` Guil. `
` Nor do we find him forward to be sounded, `
` But, with a crafty madness, keeps aloof `
` When we would bring him on to some confession `
` Of his true state. `
` `
` Queen. `
` Did he receive you well? `
` `
` Ros. `
` Most like a gentleman. `
` `
` Guil. `
` But with much forcing of his disposition. `
` `
` Ros. `
` Niggard of question; but, of our demands, `
` Most free in his reply. `
` `
` Queen. `
` Did you assay him `
` To any pastime? `
` `
` Ros. `
` 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. `
` `
` Pol. `
` '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 inclin'd.-- `
` Good gentlemen, give him a further edge, `
` And drive his purpose on to these delights. `
`