Reading Help HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK
`
` Queen. `
` As kill a king! `
` `
` Ham. `
` Ay, lady, 'twas my word.-- `
` Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell! `
` [To Polonius.] `
` I took thee for thy better: take thy fortune; `
` Thou find'st to be too busy is some danger.-- `
` Leave wringing of your hands: peace! sit you down, `
` And let me wring your heart: for so I shall, `
` If it be made of penetrable stuff; `
` If damned custom have not braz'd it so `
` That it is proof and bulwark against sense. `
` `
` Queen. `
` What have I done, that thou dar'st wag thy tongue `
` In noise so rude against me? `
` `
` Ham. `
` Such an act `
` That blurs the grace and blush of modesty; `
` Calls virtue hypocrite; takes off the rose `
` From the fair forehead of an innocent love, `
` And sets a blister there; makes marriage-vows `
` As false as dicers' oaths: O, such a deed `
` As from the body of contraction plucks `
` The very soul, and sweet religion makes `
` A rhapsody of words: heaven's face doth glow; `
` Yea, this solidity and compound mass, `
` With tristful visage, as against the doom, `
` Is thought-sick at the act. `
` `
` Queen. `
` Ah me, what act, `
` That roars so loud, and thunders in the index? `
` `
` Ham. `
` Look here upon this picture, and on this,-- `
` The counterfeit presentment of two brothers. `
` See what a grace was seated on this brow; `
` Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself; `
` An eye like Mars, to threaten and command; `
` A station like the herald Mercury `
` New lighted on a heaven-kissing hill: `
` A combination and a form, indeed, `
` Where every god did seem to set his seal, `
` To give the world assurance of a man; `
` This was your husband.--Look you now what follows: `
` Here is your husband, like a milldew'd ear `
` Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes? `
` Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed, `
` And batten on this moor? Ha! have you eyes? `
` You cannot call it love; for at your age `
` The hey-day in the blood is tame, it's humble, `
` And waits upon the judgment: and what judgment `
` Would step from this to this? Sense, sure, you have, `
` Else could you not have motion: but sure that sense `
` Is apoplex'd; for madness would not err; `
` Nor sense to ecstacy was ne'er so thrall'd `
` But it reserv'd some quantity of choice `
` To serve in such a difference. What devil was't `
` That thus hath cozen'd you at hoodman-blind? `
` Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight, `
` Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all, `
` Or but a sickly part of one true sense `
` Could not so mope. `
` O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell, `
` If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones, `
` To flaming youth let virtue be as wax, `
` And melt in her own fire: proclaim no shame `
` When the compulsive ardour gives the charge, `
` Since frost itself as actively doth burn, `
` And reason panders will. `
` `
` Queen. `
` O Hamlet, speak no more: `
` Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul; `
` And there I see such black and grained spots `
` As will not leave their tinct. `
` `
` Ham. `
` Nay, but to live `
` In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed, `
` Stew'd in corruption, honeying and making love `
` Over the nasty sty,-- `
` `
` Queen. `
` O, speak to me no more; `
` These words like daggers enter in mine ears; `
` No more, sweet Hamlet. `
` `
` Ham. `
` A murderer and a villain; `
` A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe `
` Of your precedent lord; a vice of kings; `
` A cutpurse of the empire and the rule, `
` That from a shelf the precious diadem stole `
` And put it in his pocket! `
` `
` Queen. `
` No more. `
` `
` Ham. `
` A king of shreds and patches!-- `
` `
` [Enter Ghost.] `
` `
` Save me and hover o'er me with your wings, `
` You heavenly guards!--What would your gracious figure? `
` `
` Queen. `
` Alas, he's mad! `
` `
` Ham. `
` Do you not come your tardy son to chide, `
` That, laps'd in time and passion, lets go by `
` The important acting of your dread command? `
` O, say! `
` `
` Ghost. `
` Do not forget. This visitation `
` Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose. `
` But, look, amazement on thy mother sits: `
` O, step between her and her fighting soul,-- `
` Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works,-- `
` Speak to her, Hamlet. `
` `
` Ham. `
` How is it with you, lady? `
` `
` Queen. `
` Alas, how is't with you, `
` That you do bend your eye on vacancy, `
` And with the incorporal air do hold discourse? `
` Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep; `
` And, as the sleeping soldiers in the alarm, `
` Your bedded hairs, like life in excrements, `
` Start up and stand an end. O gentle son, `
` Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper `
` Sprinkle cool patience! Whereon do you look? `
` `
` Ham. `
` On him, on him! Look you how pale he glares! `
` His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones, `
` Would make them capable.--Do not look upon me; `
` Lest with this piteous action you convert `
` My stern effects: then what I have to do `
` Will want true colour; tears perchance for blood. `
` `
` Queen. `
` To whom do you speak this? `
` `
` Ham. `
` Do you see nothing there? `
` `
` Queen. `
` Nothing at all; yet all that is I see. `
` `
` Ham. `
` Nor did you nothing hear? `
` `
` Queen. `
` No, nothing but ourselves. `
` `
` Ham. `
` Why, look you there! look how it steals away! `
` My father, in his habit as he liv'd! `
` Look, where he goes, even now out at the portal! `
` `
` [Exit Ghost.] `
` `
` Queen. `
` This is the very coinage of your brain: `
` This bodiless creation ecstasy `
` Is very cunning in. `
` `
` Ham. `
` Ecstasy! `
` My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time, `
` And makes as healthful music: it is not madness `
` That I have utter'd: bring me to the test, `
` And I the matter will re-word; which madness `
` Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace, `
` Lay not that flattering unction to your soul `
` That not your trespass, but my madness speaks: `
` It will but skin and film the ulcerous place, `
` Whilst rank corruption, mining all within, `
` Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven; `
` Repent what's past; avoid what is to come; `
` And do not spread the compost on the weeds, `
` To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue; `
` For in the fatness of these pursy times `
` 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. `
`
` Queen. `
` As kill a king! `
` `
` Ham. `
` Ay, lady, 'twas my word.-- `
` Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell! `
` [To Polonius.] `
` I took thee for thy better: take thy fortune; `
` Thou find'st to be too busy is some danger.-- `
` Leave wringing of your hands: peace! sit you down, `
` And let me wring your heart: for so I shall, `
` If it be made of penetrable stuff; `
` If damned custom have not braz'd it so `
` That it is proof and bulwark against sense. `
` `
` Queen. `
` What have I done, that thou dar'st wag thy tongue `
` In noise so rude against me? `
` `
` Ham. `
` Such an act `
` That blurs the grace and blush of modesty; `
` Calls virtue hypocrite; takes off the rose `
` From the fair forehead of an innocent love, `
` And sets a blister there; makes marriage-vows `
` As false as dicers' oaths: O, such a deed `
` As from the body of contraction plucks `
` The very soul, and sweet religion makes `
` A rhapsody of words: heaven's face doth glow; `
` Yea, this solidity and compound mass, `
` With tristful visage, as against the doom, `
` Is thought-sick at the act. `
` `
` Queen. `
` Ah me, what act, `
` That roars so loud, and thunders in the index? `
` `
` Ham. `
` Look here upon this picture, and on this,-- `
` The counterfeit presentment of two brothers. `
` See what a grace was seated on this brow; `
` Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself; `
` An eye like Mars, to threaten and command; `
` A station like the herald Mercury `
` New lighted on a heaven-kissing hill: `
` A combination and a form, indeed, `
` Where every god did seem to set his seal, `
` To give the world assurance of a man; `
` This was your husband.--Look you now what follows: `
` Here is your husband, like a milldew'd ear `
` Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes? `
` Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed, `
` And batten on this moor? Ha! have you eyes? `
` You cannot call it love; for at your age `
` The hey-day in the blood is tame, it's humble, `
` And waits upon the judgment: and what judgment `
` Would step from this to this? Sense, sure, you have, `
` Else could you not have motion: but sure that sense `
` Is apoplex'd; for madness would not err; `
` Nor sense to ecstacy was ne'er so thrall'd `
` But it reserv'd some quantity of choice `
` To serve in such a difference. What devil was't `
` That thus hath cozen'd you at hoodman-blind? `
` Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight, `
` Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all, `
` Or but a sickly part of one true sense `
` Could not so mope. `
` O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell, `
` If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones, `
` To flaming youth let virtue be as wax, `
` And melt in her own fire: proclaim no shame `
` When the compulsive ardour gives the charge, `
` Since frost itself as actively doth burn, `
` And reason panders will. `
` `
` Queen. `
` O Hamlet, speak no more: `
` Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul; `
` And there I see such black and grained spots `
` As will not leave their tinct. `
` `
` Ham. `
` Nay, but to live `
` In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed, `
` Stew'd in corruption, honeying and making love `
` Over the nasty sty,-- `
` `
` Queen. `
` O, speak to me no more; `
` These words like daggers enter in mine ears; `
` No more, sweet Hamlet. `
` `
` Ham. `
` A murderer and a villain; `
` A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe `
` Of your precedent lord; a vice of kings; `
` A cutpurse of the empire and the rule, `
` That from a shelf the precious diadem stole `
` And put it in his pocket! `
` `
` Queen. `
` No more. `
` `
` Ham. `
` A king of shreds and patches!-- `
` `
` [Enter Ghost.] `
` `
` Save me and hover o'er me with your wings, `
` You heavenly guards!--What would your gracious figure? `
` `
` Queen. `
` Alas, he's mad! `
` `
` Ham. `
` Do you not come your tardy son to chide, `
` That, laps'd in time and passion, lets go by `
` The important acting of your dread command? `
` O, say! `
` `
` Ghost. `
` Do not forget. This visitation `
` Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose. `
` But, look, amazement on thy mother sits: `
` O, step between her and her fighting soul,-- `
` Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works,-- `
` Speak to her, Hamlet. `
` `
` Ham. `
` How is it with you, lady? `
` `
` Queen. `
` Alas, how is't with you, `
` That you do bend your eye on vacancy, `
` And with the incorporal air do hold discourse? `
` Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep; `
` And, as the sleeping soldiers in the alarm, `
` Your bedded hairs, like life in excrements, `
` Start up and stand an end. O gentle son, `
` Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper `
` Sprinkle cool patience! Whereon do you look? `
` `
` Ham. `
` On him, on him! Look you how pale he glares! `
` His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones, `
` Would make them capable.--Do not look upon me; `
` Lest with this piteous action you convert `
` My stern effects: then what I have to do `
` Will want true colour; tears perchance for blood. `
` `
` Queen. `
` To whom do you speak this? `
` `
` Ham. `
` Do you see nothing there? `
` `
` Queen. `
` Nothing at all; yet all that is I see. `
` `
` Ham. `
` Nor did you nothing hear? `
` `
` Queen. `
` No, nothing but ourselves. `
` `
` Ham. `
` Why, look you there! look how it steals away! `
` My father, in his habit as he liv'd! `
` Look, where he goes, even now out at the portal! `
` `
` [Exit Ghost.] `
` `
` Queen. `
` This is the very coinage of your brain: `
` This bodiless creation ecstasy `
` Is very cunning in. `
` `
` Ham. `
` Ecstasy! `
` My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time, `
` And makes as healthful music: it is not madness `
` That I have utter'd: bring me to the test, `
` And I the matter will re-word; which madness `
` Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace, `
` Lay not that flattering unction to your soul `
` That not your trespass, but my madness speaks: `
` It will but skin and film the ulcerous place, `
` Whilst rank corruption, mining all within, `
` Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven; `
` Repent what's past; avoid what is to come; `
` And do not spread the compost on the weeds, `
` To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue; `
` For in the fatness of these pursy times `
` 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. `
`