Reading Help HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK
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; `
` Assume a virtue, if you have it not. `
` That monster custom, who all sense doth eat, `
` Of habits evil, is angel yet in this,-- `
` That to the use of actions fair and good `
` He likewise gives a frock or livery `
` That aptly is put on. Refrain to-night; `
` And that shall lend a kind of easiness `
` To the next abstinence: the next more easy; `
` For use almost can change the stamp of nature, `
` And either curb the devil, or throw him out `
` With wondrous potency. Once more, good-night: `
` And when you are desirous to be bles'd, `
` I'll blessing beg of you.--For this same lord `
` [Pointing to Polonius.] `
` I do repent; but heaven hath pleas'd it so, `
` To punish me with this, and this with me, `
` That I must be their scourge and minister. `
` I will bestow him, and will answer well `
` The death I gave him. So again, good-night.-- `
` I must be cruel, only to be kind: `
` Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.-- `
` One word more, good lady. `
` `
` Queen. `
` What shall I do? `
` `
` Ham. `
` Not this, by no means, that I bid you do: `
` Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed; `
` Pinch wanton on your cheek; call you his mouse; `
` And let him, for a pair of reechy kisses, `
` Or paddling in your neck with his damn'd fingers, `
` Make you to ravel all this matter out, `
` That I essentially am not in madness, `
` But mad in craft. 'Twere good you let him know; `
` For who that's but a queen, fair, sober, wise, `
` Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib, `
` Such dear concernings hide? who would do so? `
` No, in despite of sense and secrecy, `
` 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. `
` Alack, `
` I had forgot: 'tis so concluded on. `
` `
` Ham. `
` There's letters seal'd: and my two schoolfellows,-- `
` Whom I will trust as I will adders fang'd,-- `
` They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way `
` And marshal me to knavery. Let it work; `
` For 'tis the sport to have the enginer `
` Hoist with his own petard: and 't shall go hard `
` But I will delve one yard below their mines `
` And blow them at the moon: O, 'tis 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.-- `
` Mother, good-night.--Indeed, this counsellor `
` Is now most still, most secret, and most grave, `
` Who was in life a foolish peating knave. `
` Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you:-- `
` Good night, mother. `
` `
` [Exeunt severally; Hamlet, dragging out Polonius.] `
` `
` `
` `
` ACT IV. `
` `
` Scene I. A room in the Castle. `
` `
` [Enter King, Queen, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.] `
` `
` King. `
` There's matter in these sighs. These profound heaves `
` You must translate: 'tis fit we understand them. `
` Where is your son? `
` `
` Queen. `
` Bestow this place on us a little while. `
` `
` [To Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who go out.] `
` `
` Ah, my good lord, what have I seen to-night! `
` `
` King. `
` What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet? `
` `
` Queen. `
` Mad as the sea and wind, when both contend `
` Which is the mightier: in his lawless fit `
` Behind the arras hearing something stir, `
` Whips out his rapier, cries 'A rat, a rat!' `
` And in this brainish apprehension, kills `
` The unseen good old man. `
` `
` King. `
` O heavy deed! `
` 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 `
` This mad young man. But so much was our love `
` 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? `
` `
` Queen. `
` To draw apart the body he hath kill'd: `
` O'er whom his very madness, like some ore `
` Among a mineral of metals base, `
` Shows itself pure: he weeps for what is done. `
` `
` King. `
` O Gertrude, come away! `
` The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch `
` But we will ship him hence: and this vile deed `
` We must with all our majesty and skill `
` Both countenance and excuse.--Ho, Guildenstern! `
` `
` [Re-enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.] `
` `
` Friends both, go join you with some further aid: `
` Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain, `
` And from his mother's closet hath he dragg'd him: `
` Go seek him out; speak fair, and bring the body `
` Into the chapel. I pray you, haste in this. `
` `
` [Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.] `
` `
` Come, Gertrude, we'll call up our wisest friends; `
` And let them know both what we mean to do `
` And what's untimely done: so haply slander,-- `
` Whose whisper o'er the world's diameter, `
` 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. `
` `
` [Exeunt.] `
` `
` Scene II. Another room in the Castle. `
` `
` [Enter Hamlet.] `
` `
` Ham. `
` Safely stowed. `
` `
` Ros. and Guil. `
` [Within.] Hamlet! Lord Hamlet! `
` `
` Ham. `
` 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? `
` `
` Ham. `
` Compounded it with dust, whereto 'tis kin. `
` `
` Ros. `
` Tell us where 'tis, that we may take it thence, `
` 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? `
` `
` Ros. `
` 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 `
`
` 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; `
` Assume a virtue, if you have it not. `
` That monster custom, who all sense doth eat, `
` Of habits evil, is angel yet in this,-- `
` That to the use of actions fair and good `
` He likewise gives a frock or livery `
` That aptly is put on. Refrain to-night; `
` And that shall lend a kind of easiness `
` To the next abstinence: the next more easy; `
` For use almost can change the stamp of nature, `
` And either curb the devil, or throw him out `
` With wondrous potency. Once more, good-night: `
` And when you are desirous to be bles'd, `
` I'll blessing beg of you.--For this same lord `
` [Pointing to Polonius.] `
` I do repent; but heaven hath pleas'd it so, `
` To punish me with this, and this with me, `
` That I must be their scourge and minister. `
` I will bestow him, and will answer well `
` The death I gave him. So again, good-night.-- `
` I must be cruel, only to be kind: `
` Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.-- `
` One word more, good lady. `
` `
` Queen. `
` What shall I do? `
` `
` Ham. `
` Not this, by no means, that I bid you do: `
` Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed; `
` Pinch wanton on your cheek; call you his mouse; `
` And let him, for a pair of reechy kisses, `
` Or paddling in your neck with his damn'd fingers, `
` Make you to ravel all this matter out, `
` That I essentially am not in madness, `
` But mad in craft. 'Twere good you let him know; `
` For who that's but a queen, fair, sober, wise, `
` Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib, `
` Such dear concernings hide? who would do so? `
` No, in despite of sense and secrecy, `
` 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. `
` Alack, `
` I had forgot: 'tis so concluded on. `
` `
` Ham. `
` There's letters seal'd: and my two schoolfellows,-- `
` Whom I will trust as I will adders fang'd,-- `
` They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way `
` And marshal me to knavery. Let it work; `
` For 'tis the sport to have the enginer `
` Hoist with his own petard: and 't shall go hard `
` But I will delve one yard below their mines `
` And blow them at the moon: O, 'tis 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.-- `
` Mother, good-night.--Indeed, this counsellor `
` Is now most still, most secret, and most grave, `
` Who was in life a foolish peating knave. `
` Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you:-- `
` Good night, mother. `
` `
` [Exeunt severally; Hamlet, dragging out Polonius.] `
` `
` `
` `
` ACT IV. `
` `
` Scene I. A room in the Castle. `
` `
` [Enter King, Queen, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.] `
` `
` King. `
` There's matter in these sighs. These profound heaves `
` You must translate: 'tis fit we understand them. `
` Where is your son? `
` `
` Queen. `
` Bestow this place on us a little while. `
` `
` [To Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who go out.] `
` `
` Ah, my good lord, what have I seen to-night! `
` `
` King. `
` What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet? `
` `
` Queen. `
` Mad as the sea and wind, when both contend `
` Which is the mightier: in his lawless fit `
` Behind the arras hearing something stir, `
` Whips out his rapier, cries 'A rat, a rat!' `
` And in this brainish apprehension, kills `
` The unseen good old man. `
` `
` King. `
` O heavy deed! `
` 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 `
` This mad young man. But so much was our love `
` 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? `
` `
` Queen. `
` To draw apart the body he hath kill'd: `
` O'er whom his very madness, like some ore `
` Among a mineral of metals base, `
` Shows itself pure: he weeps for what is done. `
` `
` King. `
` O Gertrude, come away! `
` The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch `
` But we will ship him hence: and this vile deed `
` We must with all our majesty and skill `
` Both countenance and excuse.--Ho, Guildenstern! `
` `
` [Re-enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.] `
` `
` Friends both, go join you with some further aid: `
` Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain, `
` And from his mother's closet hath he dragg'd him: `
` Go seek him out; speak fair, and bring the body `
` Into the chapel. I pray you, haste in this. `
` `
` [Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.] `
` `
` Come, Gertrude, we'll call up our wisest friends; `
` And let them know both what we mean to do `
` And what's untimely done: so haply slander,-- `
` Whose whisper o'er the world's diameter, `
` 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. `
` `
` [Exeunt.] `
` `
` Scene II. Another room in the Castle. `
` `
` [Enter Hamlet.] `
` `
` Ham. `
` Safely stowed. `
` `
` Ros. and Guil. `
` [Within.] Hamlet! Lord Hamlet! `
` `
` Ham. `
` 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? `
` `
` Ham. `
` Compounded it with dust, whereto 'tis kin. `
` `
` Ros. `
` Tell us where 'tis, that we may take it thence, `
` 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? `
` `
` Ros. `
` 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 `
`