Reading Help HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK
And drive his purpose on to these delights. `
` `
` Ros. `
` We shall, my lord. `
` `
` [Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.] `
` `
` King. `
` Sweet Gertrude, leave us too; `
` For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither, `
` That he, as 'twere by accident, may here `
` Affront Ophelia: `
` Her father and myself,--lawful espials,-- `
` Will so bestow ourselves that, seeing, unseen, `
` We may of their encounter frankly judge; `
` And gather by him, as he is behav'd, `
` If't be the affliction of his love or no `
` That thus he suffers for. `
` `
` Queen. `
` I shall obey you:-- `
` And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish `
` That your good beauties be the happy cause `
` Of Hamlet's wildness: so shall I hope your virtues `
` Will bring him to his wonted way again, `
` To both your honours. `
` `
` Oph. `
` Madam, I wish it may. `
` `
` [Exit Queen.] `
` `
` Pol. `
` Ophelia, walk you here.--Gracious, so please you, `
` We will bestow ourselves.--[To Ophelia.] Read on this book; `
` That show of such an exercise may colour `
` Your loneliness.--We are oft to blame in this,-- `
` 'Tis too much prov'd,--that with devotion's visage `
` And pious action we do sugar o'er `
` The Devil himself. `
` `
` King. `
` [Aside.] O, 'tis too true! `
` How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience! `
` The harlot's cheek, beautied with plastering art, `
` Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it `
` Than is my deed to my most painted word: `
` O heavy burden! `
` `
` Pol. `
` I hear him coming: let's withdraw, my lord. `
` `
` [Exeunt King and Polonius.] `
` `
` [Enter Hamlet.] `
` `
` Ham. `
` To be, or not to be,--that is the question:-- `
` Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer `
` The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune `
` Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, `
` And by opposing end them?--To die,--to sleep,-- `
` No more; and by a sleep to say we end `
` The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks `
` That flesh is heir to,--'tis a consummation `
` Devoutly to be wish'd. To die,--to sleep;-- `
` To sleep! perchance to dream:--ay, there's the rub; `
` For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, `
` When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, `
` Must give us pause: there's the respect `
` That makes calamity of so long life; `
` For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, `
` The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, `
` The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay, `
` The insolence of office, and the spurns `
` That patient merit of the unworthy takes, `
` When he himself might his quietus make `
` With a bare bodkin? who would these fardels bear, `
` To grunt and sweat under a weary life, `
` But that the dread of something after death,-- `
` The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn `
` No traveller returns,--puzzles the will, `
` And makes us rather bear those ills we have `
` Than fly to others that we know not of? `
` Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; `
` And thus the native hue of resolution `
` Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought; `
` And enterprises of great pith and moment, `
` With this regard, their currents turn awry, `
` And lose the name of action.--Soft you now! `
` The fair Ophelia!--Nymph, in thy orisons `
` Be all my sins remember'd. `
` `
` Oph. `
` Good my lord, `
` How does your honour for this many a day? `
` `
` Ham. `
` I humbly thank you; well, well, well. `
` `
` Oph. `
` My lord, I have remembrances of yours `
` That I have longed long to re-deliver. `
` I pray you, now receive them. `
` `
` Ham. `
` No, not I; `
` I never gave you aught. `
` `
` Oph. `
` My honour'd lord, you know right well you did; `
` And with them words of so sweet breath compos'd `
` As made the things more rich; their perfume lost, `
` Take these again; for to the noble mind `
` Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind. `
` There, my lord. `
` `
` Ham. `
` Ha, ha! are you honest? `
` `
` Oph. `
` My lord? `
` `
` Ham. `
` Are you fair? `
` `
` Oph. `
` What means your lordship? `
` `
` Ham. `
` That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should admit no `
` discourse to your beauty. `
` `
` Oph. `
` Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty? `
` `
` Ham. `
` Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will sooner transform `
` honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of honesty can `
` translate beauty into his likeness: this was sometime a paradox, `
` but now the time gives it proof. I did love you once. `
` `
` Oph. `
` Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so. `
` `
` Ham. `
` You should not have believ'd me; for virtue cannot so `
` inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it: I loved you `
` not. `
` `
` Oph. `
` I was the more deceived. `
` `
` Ham. `
` Get thee to a nunnery: why wouldst thou be a breeder of `
` sinners? I am myself indifferent honest; but yet I could accuse `
` me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me: `
` I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious; with more offences at my `
` beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give `
` them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I `
` do crawling between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves, all; `
` believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery. Where's your `
` father? `
` `
` Oph. `
` At home, my lord. `
` `
` Ham. `
` Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the fool `
` nowhere but in's own house. Farewell. `
` `
` Oph. `
` O, help him, you sweet heavens! `
` `
` Ham. `
` If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry,-- `
` be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape `
` calumny. Get thee to a nunnery, go: farewell. Or, if thou wilt `
` needs marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough what `
` monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go; and quickly too. `
` Farewell. `
` `
` Oph. `
` O heavenly powers, restore him! `
` `
` Ham. `
` I have heard of your paintings too, well enough; God hath `
` given you one face, and you make yourselves another: you jig, you `
` amble, and you lisp, and nickname God's creatures, and make your `
` wantonness your ignorance. Go to, I'll no more on't; it hath made `
` me mad. I say, we will have no moe marriages: those that are `
` married already, all but one, shall live; the rest shall keep as `
` they are. To a nunnery, go. `
` `
` [Exit.] `
` `
` Oph. `
` O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown! `
` The courtier's, scholar's, soldier's, eye, tongue, sword, `
` The expectancy and rose of the fair state, `
` The glass of fashion and the mould of form, `
`
` `
` Ros. `
` We shall, my lord. `
` `
` [Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.] `
` `
` King. `
` Sweet Gertrude, leave us too; `
` For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither, `
` That he, as 'twere by accident, may here `
` Affront Ophelia: `
` Her father and myself,--lawful espials,-- `
` Will so bestow ourselves that, seeing, unseen, `
` We may of their encounter frankly judge; `
` And gather by him, as he is behav'd, `
` If't be the affliction of his love or no `
` That thus he suffers for. `
` `
` Queen. `
` I shall obey you:-- `
` And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish `
` That your good beauties be the happy cause `
` Of Hamlet's wildness: so shall I hope your virtues `
` Will bring him to his wonted way again, `
` To both your honours. `
` `
` Oph. `
` Madam, I wish it may. `
` `
` [Exit Queen.] `
` `
` Pol. `
` Ophelia, walk you here.--Gracious, so please you, `
` We will bestow ourselves.--[To Ophelia.] Read on this book; `
` That show of such an exercise may colour `
` Your loneliness.--We are oft to blame in this,-- `
` 'Tis too much prov'd,--that with devotion's visage `
` And pious action we do sugar o'er `
` The Devil himself. `
` `
` King. `
` [Aside.] O, 'tis too true! `
` How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience! `
` The harlot's cheek, beautied with plastering art, `
` Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it `
` Than is my deed to my most painted word: `
` O heavy burden! `
` `
` Pol. `
` I hear him coming: let's withdraw, my lord. `
` `
` [Exeunt King and Polonius.] `
` `
` [Enter Hamlet.] `
` `
` Ham. `
` To be, or not to be,--that is the question:-- `
` Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer `
` The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune `
` Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, `
` And by opposing end them?--To die,--to sleep,-- `
` No more; and by a sleep to say we end `
` The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks `
` That flesh is heir to,--'tis a consummation `
` Devoutly to be wish'd. To die,--to sleep;-- `
` To sleep! perchance to dream:--ay, there's the rub; `
` For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, `
` When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, `
` Must give us pause: there's the respect `
` That makes calamity of so long life; `
` For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, `
` The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, `
` The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay, `
` The insolence of office, and the spurns `
` That patient merit of the unworthy takes, `
` When he himself might his quietus make `
` With a bare bodkin? who would these fardels bear, `
` To grunt and sweat under a weary life, `
` But that the dread of something after death,-- `
` The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn `
` No traveller returns,--puzzles the will, `
` And makes us rather bear those ills we have `
` Than fly to others that we know not of? `
` Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; `
` And thus the native hue of resolution `
` Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought; `
` And enterprises of great pith and moment, `
` With this regard, their currents turn awry, `
` And lose the name of action.--Soft you now! `
` The fair Ophelia!--Nymph, in thy orisons `
` Be all my sins remember'd. `
` `
` Oph. `
` Good my lord, `
` How does your honour for this many a day? `
` `
` Ham. `
` I humbly thank you; well, well, well. `
` `
` Oph. `
` My lord, I have remembrances of yours `
` That I have longed long to re-deliver. `
` I pray you, now receive them. `
` `
` Ham. `
` No, not I; `
` I never gave you aught. `
` `
` Oph. `
` My honour'd lord, you know right well you did; `
` And with them words of so sweet breath compos'd `
` As made the things more rich; their perfume lost, `
` Take these again; for to the noble mind `
` Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind. `
` There, my lord. `
` `
` Ham. `
` Ha, ha! are you honest? `
` `
` Oph. `
` My lord? `
` `
` Ham. `
` Are you fair? `
` `
` Oph. `
` What means your lordship? `
` `
` Ham. `
` That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should admit no `
` discourse to your beauty. `
` `
` Oph. `
` Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty? `
` `
` Ham. `
` Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will sooner transform `
` honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of honesty can `
` translate beauty into his likeness: this was sometime a paradox, `
` but now the time gives it proof. I did love you once. `
` `
` Oph. `
` Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so. `
` `
` Ham. `
` You should not have believ'd me; for virtue cannot so `
` inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it: I loved you `
` not. `
` `
` Oph. `
` I was the more deceived. `
` `
` Ham. `
` Get thee to a nunnery: why wouldst thou be a breeder of `
` sinners? I am myself indifferent honest; but yet I could accuse `
` me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me: `
` I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious; with more offences at my `
` beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give `
` them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I `
` do crawling between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves, all; `
` believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery. Where's your `
` father? `
` `
` Oph. `
` At home, my lord. `
` `
` Ham. `
` Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the fool `
` nowhere but in's own house. Farewell. `
` `
` Oph. `
` O, help him, you sweet heavens! `
` `
` Ham. `
` If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry,-- `
` be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape `
` calumny. Get thee to a nunnery, go: farewell. Or, if thou wilt `
` needs marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough what `
` monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go; and quickly too. `
` Farewell. `
` `
` Oph. `
` O heavenly powers, restore him! `
` `
` Ham. `
` I have heard of your paintings too, well enough; God hath `
` given you one face, and you make yourselves another: you jig, you `
` amble, and you lisp, and nickname God's creatures, and make your `
` wantonness your ignorance. Go to, I'll no more on't; it hath made `
` me mad. I say, we will have no moe marriages: those that are `
` married already, all but one, shall live; the rest shall keep as `
` they are. To a nunnery, go. `
` `
` [Exit.] `
` `
` Oph. `
` O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown! `
` The courtier's, scholar's, soldier's, eye, tongue, sword, `
` The expectancy and rose of the fair state, `
` The glass of fashion and the mould of form, `
`