Enter Barnardo and Francisco, two sentinels.

BARNARDO  FTLN 0001Who’s there?
FRANCISCO 
FTLN 0002 Nay, answer me. Stand and unfold yourself.
BARNARDO  FTLN 0003Long live the King!
FRANCISCO  FTLN 0004Barnardo.
BARNARDO  FTLN 00055He.
FRANCISCO 
FTLN 0006 You come most carefully upon your hour.
BARNARDO 
FTLN 0007 ’Tis now struck twelve. Get thee to bed, Francisco.
FRANCISCO 
FTLN 0008 For this relief much thanks. ’Tis bitter cold,
FTLN 0009 And I am sick at heart.
BARNARDO  FTLN 001010Have you had quiet guard?
FRANCISCO  FTLN 0011Not a mouse stirring.
BARNARDO  FTLN 0012Well, good night.
FTLN 0013 If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,
FTLN 0014 The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.

Enter Horatio and Marcellus.

FRANCISCO 
FTLN 001515 I think I hear them.—Stand ho! Who is there?
HORATIO  FTLN 0016Friends to this ground.

---

MARCELLUS  FTLN 0017And liegemen to the Dane.
FRANCISCO  FTLN 0018Give you good night.
MARCELLUS 
FTLN 0019 O farewell, honest soldier. Who hath relieved
FTLN 002020 you?
FRANCISCO 
FTLN 0021 Barnardo hath my place. Give you good night.
Francisco exits.
MARCELLUS  FTLN 0022Holla, Barnardo.
BARNARDO  FTLN 0023Say, what, is Horatio there?
HORATIO  FTLN 0024A piece of him.
BARNARDO 
FTLN 002525 Welcome, Horatio.—Welcome, good Marcellus.
HORATIO 
FTLN 0026 What, has this thing appeared again tonight?
BARNARDO  FTLN 0027I have seen nothing.
MARCELLUS 
FTLN 0028 Horatio says ’tis but our fantasy
FTLN 0029 And will not let belief take hold of him
FTLN 003030 Touching this dreaded sight twice seen of us.
FTLN 0031 Therefore I have entreated him along
FTLN 0032 With us to watch the minutes of this night,
FTLN 0033 That, if again this apparition come,
FTLN 0034 He may approve our eyes and speak to it.
HORATIO 
FTLN 003535 Tush, tush, ’twill not appear.
BARNARDO  FTLN 0036 Sit down awhile,
FTLN 0037 And let us once again assail your ears,
FTLN 0038 That are so fortified against our story,
FTLN 0039 What we have two nights seen.
HORATIO  FTLN 004040 Well, sit we down,
FTLN 0041 And let us hear Barnardo speak of this.
BARNARDO  FTLN 0042Last night of all,
FTLN 0043 When yond same star that’s westward from the pole
FTLN 0044 Had made his course t’ illume that part of heaven
FTLN 004545 Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself,
FTLN 0046 The bell then beating one—

---

Enter Ghost.

MARCELLUS 
FTLN 0047 Peace, break thee off! Look where it comes again.
BARNARDO 
FTLN 0048 In the same figure like the King that’s dead.
MARCELLUS , to Horatio 
FTLN 0049 Thou art a scholar. Speak to it, Horatio.
BARNARDO 
FTLN 005050 Looks he not like the King? Mark it, Horatio.
HORATIO 
FTLN 0051 Most like. It harrows me with fear and wonder.
BARNARDO 
FTLN 0052 It would be spoke to.
MARCELLUS  FTLN 0053 Speak to it, Horatio.
HORATIO 
FTLN 0054 What art thou that usurp’st this time of night,
FTLN 005555 Together with that fair and warlike form
FTLN 0056 In which the majesty of buried Denmark
FTLN 0057 Did sometimes march? By heaven, I charge thee,
FTLN 0058 speak.
MARCELLUS 
FTLN 0059 It is offended.
BARNARDO  FTLN 006060 See, it stalks away.
HORATIO 
FTLN 0061 Stay! speak! speak! I charge thee, speak!
Ghost exits.
MARCELLUS  FTLN 0062’Tis gone and will not answer.
BARNARDO 
FTLN 0063 How now, Horatio, you tremble and look pale.
FTLN 0064 Is not this something more than fantasy?
FTLN 006565 What think you on ’t?
HORATIO 
FTLN 0066 Before my God, I might not this believe
FTLN 0067 Without the sensible and true avouch
FTLN 0068 Of mine own eyes.

---

MARCELLUS  FTLN 0069 Is it not like the King?
HORATIO  FTLN 007070As thou art to thyself.
FTLN 0071 Such was the very armor he had on
FTLN 0072 When he the ambitious Norway combated.
FTLN 0073 So frowned he once when, in an angry parle,
FTLN 0074 He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice.
FTLN 007575 ’Tis strange.
MARCELLUS 
FTLN 0076 Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour,
FTLN 0077 With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch.
HORATIO 
FTLN 0078 In what particular thought to work I know not,
FTLN 0079 But in the gross and scope of mine opinion
FTLN 008080 This bodes some strange eruption to our state.
MARCELLUS 
FTLN 0081 Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that knows,
FTLN 0082 Why this same strict and most observant watch
FTLN 0083 So nightly toils the subject of the land,
FTLN 0084 And why such daily cast of brazen cannon
FTLN 008585 And foreign mart for implements of war,
FTLN 0086 Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task
FTLN 0087 Does not divide the Sunday from the week.
FTLN 0088 What might be toward that this sweaty haste
FTLN 0089 Doth make the night joint laborer with the day?
FTLN 009090 Who is ’t that can inform me?
HORATIO  FTLN 0091 That can I.
FTLN 0092 At least the whisper goes so: our last king,
FTLN 0093 Whose image even but now appeared to us,
FTLN 0094 Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,
FTLN 009595 Thereto pricked on by a most emulate pride,
FTLN 0096 Dared to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet
FTLN 0097 (For so this side of our known world esteemed him)
FTLN 0098 Did slay this Fortinbras, who by a sealed compact,
FTLN 0099 Well ratified by law and heraldry,
FTLN 0100100 Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands
FTLN 0101 Which he stood seized of, to the conqueror.

---

FTLN 0102 Against the which a moiety competent
FTLN 0103 Was gagèd by our king, which had returned
FTLN 0104 To the inheritance of Fortinbras
FTLN 0105105 Had he been vanquisher, as, by the same comart
FTLN 0106 And carriage of the article designed,
FTLN 0107 His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras,
FTLN 0108 Of unimprovèd mettle hot and full,
FTLN 0109 Hath in the skirts of Norway here and there
FTLN 0110110 Sharked up a list of lawless resolutes
FTLN 0111 For food and diet to some enterprise
FTLN 0112 That hath a stomach in ’t; which is no other
FTLN 0113 (As it doth well appear unto our state)
FTLN 0114 But to recover of us, by strong hand
FTLN 0115115 And terms compulsatory, those foresaid lands
FTLN 0116 So by his father lost. And this, I take it,
FTLN 0117 Is the main motive of our preparations,
FTLN 0118 The source of this our watch, and the chief head
FTLN 0119 Of this posthaste and rummage in the land.
BARNARDO 
FTLN 0120120 I think it be no other but e’en so.
FTLN 0121 Well may it sort that this portentous figure
FTLN 0122 Comes armèd through our watch so like the king
FTLN 0123 That was and is the question of these wars.
HORATIO 
FTLN 0124 A mote it is to trouble the mind’s eye.
FTLN 0125125 In the most high and palmy state of Rome,
FTLN 0126 A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,
FTLN 0127 The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead
FTLN 0128 Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets;
FTLN 0129 As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,
FTLN 0130130 Disasters in the sun; and the moist star,
FTLN 0131 Upon whose influence Neptune’s empire stands,
FTLN 0132 Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse.
FTLN 0133 And even the like precurse of feared events,
FTLN 0134 As harbingers preceding still the fates
FTLN 0135135 And prologue to the omen coming on,

---

FTLN 0136 Have heaven and earth together demonstrated
FTLN 0137 Unto our climatures and countrymen.

Enter Ghost.

FTLN 0138 But soft, behold! Lo, where it comes again!
FTLN 0139 I’ll cross it though it blast me.—Stay, illusion!
It spreads his arms.
FTLN 0140140 If thou hast any sound or use of voice,
FTLN 0141 Speak to me.
FTLN 0142 If there be any good thing to be done
FTLN 0143 That may to thee do ease and grace to me,
FTLN 0144 Speak to me.
FTLN 0145145 If thou art privy to thy country’s fate,
FTLN 0146 Which happily foreknowing may avoid,
FTLN 0147 O, speak!
FTLN 0148 Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life
FTLN 0149 Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,
FTLN 0150150 For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death,
FTLN 0151 Speak of it. The cock crows.
FTLN 0152 Stay and speak!—Stop it, Marcellus.
MARCELLUS 
FTLN 0153 Shall I strike it with my partisan?
HORATIO  FTLN 0154Do, if it will not stand.
BARNARDO  FTLN 0155155’Tis here.
HORATIO  FTLN 0156’Tis here.
Ghost exits.
MARCELLUS  FTLN 0157’Tis gone.
FTLN 0158 We do it wrong, being so majestical,
FTLN 0159 To offer it the show of violence,
FTLN 0160160 For it is as the air, invulnerable,
FTLN 0161 And our vain blows malicious mockery.
BARNARDO 
FTLN 0162 It was about to speak when the cock crew.
HORATIO 
FTLN 0163 And then it started like a guilty thing
FTLN 0164 Upon a fearful summons. I have heard

---

FTLN 0165165 The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,
FTLN 0166 Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat
FTLN 0167 Awake the god of day, and at his warning,
FTLN 0168 Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,
FTLN 0169 Th’ extravagant and erring spirit hies
FTLN 0170170 To his confine, and of the truth herein
FTLN 0171 This present object made probation.
MARCELLUS 
FTLN 0172 It faded on the crowing of the cock.
FTLN 0173 Some say that ever ’gainst that season comes
FTLN 0174 Wherein our Savior’s birth is celebrated,
FTLN 0175175 This bird of dawning singeth all night long;
FTLN 0176 And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad,
FTLN 0177 The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
FTLN 0178 No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
FTLN 0179 So hallowed and so gracious is that time.
HORATIO 
FTLN 0180180 So have I heard and do in part believe it.
FTLN 0181 But look, the morn in russet mantle clad
FTLN 0182 Walks o’er the dew of yon high eastward hill.
FTLN 0183 Break we our watch up, and by my advice
FTLN 0184 Let us impart what we have seen tonight
FTLN 0185185 Unto young Hamlet; for, upon my life,
FTLN 0186 This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him.
FTLN 0187 Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it
FTLN 0188 As needful in our loves, fitting our duty?
MARCELLUS 
FTLN 0189 Let’s do ’t, I pray, and I this morning know
FTLN 0190190 Where we shall find him most convenient.
They exit.

Flourish. Enter Claudius, King of Denmark, Gertrude the
Queen, the Council, as Polonius, and his son Laertes,
Hamlet, with others, among them Voltemand and
Cornelius.

KING 
FTLN 0191 Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother’s death
FTLN 0192 The memory be green, and that it us befitted
FTLN 0193 To bear our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdom
FTLN 0194 To be contracted in one brow of woe,
FTLN 01955 Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature
FTLN 0196 That we with wisest sorrow think on him
FTLN 0197 Together with remembrance of ourselves.
FTLN 0198 Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,
FTLN 0199 Th’ imperial jointress to this warlike state,
FTLN 020010 Have we (as ’twere with a defeated joy,
FTLN 0201 With an auspicious and a dropping eye,
FTLN 0202 With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage,
FTLN 0203 In equal scale weighing delight and dole)
FTLN 0204 Taken to wife. Nor have we herein barred
FTLN 020515 Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone
FTLN 0206 With this affair along. For all, our thanks.
FTLN 0207 Now follows that you know. Young Fortinbras,
FTLN 0208 Holding a weak supposal of our worth
FTLN 0209 Or thinking by our late dear brother’s death
FTLN 021020 Our state to be disjoint and out of frame,
FTLN 0211 Colleaguèd with this dream of his advantage,
FTLN 0212 He hath not failed to pester us with message
FTLN 0213 Importing the surrender of those lands
FTLN 0214 Lost by his father, with all bonds of law,
FTLN 021525 To our most valiant brother—so much for him.
FTLN 0216 Now for ourself and for this time of meeting.
FTLN 0217 Thus much the business is: we have here writ
FTLN 0218 To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,
FTLN 0219 Who, impotent and bedrid, scarcely hears

---

FTLN 022030 Of this his nephew’s purpose, to suppress
FTLN 0221 His further gait herein, in that the levies,
FTLN 0222 The lists, and full proportions are all made
FTLN 0223 Out of his subject; and we here dispatch
FTLN 0224 You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltemand,
FTLN 022535 For bearers of this greeting to old Norway,
FTLN 0226 Giving to you no further personal power
FTLN 0227 To business with the King more than the scope
FTLN 0228 Of these dilated articles allow.
Giving them a paper.
FTLN 0229 Farewell, and let your haste commend your duty.
CORNELIUS / VOLTEMAND 
FTLN 023040 In that and all things will we show our duty.
KING 
FTLN 0231 We doubt it nothing. Heartily farewell.
Voltemand and Cornelius exit.
FTLN 0232 And now, Laertes, what’s the news with you?
FTLN 0233 You told us of some suit. What is ’t, Laertes?
FTLN 0234 You cannot speak of reason to the Dane
FTLN 023545 And lose your voice. What wouldst thou beg,
FTLN 0236 Laertes,
FTLN 0237 That shall not be my offer, not thy asking?
FTLN 0238 The head is not more native to the heart,
FTLN 0239 The hand more instrumental to the mouth,
FTLN 024050 Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father.
FTLN 0241 What wouldst thou have, Laertes?
LAERTES  FTLN 0242 My dread lord,
FTLN 0243 Your leave and favor to return to France,
FTLN 0244 From whence though willingly I came to Denmark
FTLN 024555 To show my duty in your coronation,
FTLN 0246 Yet now I must confess, that duty done,
FTLN 0247 My thoughts and wishes bend again toward France
FTLN 0248 And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon.
KING 
FTLN 0249 Have you your father’s leave? What says Polonius?

---

POLONIUS 
FTLN 025060 Hath, my lord, wrung from me my slow leave
FTLN 0251 By laborsome petition, and at last
FTLN 0252 Upon his will I sealed my hard consent.
FTLN 0253 I do beseech you give him leave to go.
KING 
FTLN 0254 Take thy fair hour, Laertes. Time be thine,
FTLN 025565 And thy best graces spend it at thy will.—
FTLN 0256 But now, my cousin Hamlet and my son—
HAMLET , aside 
FTLN 0257 A little more than kin and less than kind.
KING 
FTLN 0258 How is it that the clouds still hang on you?
HAMLET 
FTLN 0259 Not so, my lord; I am too much in the sun.
QUEEN 
FTLN 026070 Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted color off,
FTLN 0261 And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark.
FTLN 0262 Do not forever with thy vailèd lids
FTLN 0263 Seek for thy noble father in the dust.
FTLN 0264 Thou know’st ’tis common; all that lives must die,
FTLN 026575 Passing through nature to eternity.
HAMLET 
FTLN 0266 Ay, madam, it is common.
QUEEN  FTLN 0267 If it be,
FTLN 0268 Why seems it so particular with thee?
HAMLET 
FTLN 0269 “Seems,” madam? Nay, it is. I know not “seems.”
FTLN 027080 ’Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
FTLN 0271 Nor customary suits of solemn black,
FTLN 0272 Nor windy suspiration of forced breath,
FTLN 0273 No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,
FTLN 0274 Nor the dejected havior of the visage,
FTLN 027585 Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief,
FTLN 0276 That can denote me truly. These indeed “seem,”
FTLN 0277 For they are actions that a man might play;

---

FTLN 0278 But I have that within which passes show,
FTLN 0279 These but the trappings and the suits of woe.
KING 
FTLN 028090 ’Tis sweet and commendable in your nature,
FTLN 0281 Hamlet,
FTLN 0282 To give these mourning duties to your father.
FTLN 0283 But you must know your father lost a father,
FTLN 0284 That father lost, lost his, and the survivor bound
FTLN 028595 In filial obligation for some term
FTLN 0286 To do obsequious sorrow. But to persever
FTLN 0287 In obstinate condolement is a course
FTLN 0288 Of impious stubbornness. ’Tis unmanly grief.
FTLN 0289 It shows a will most incorrect to heaven,
FTLN 0290100 A heart unfortified, a mind impatient,
FTLN 0291 An understanding simple and unschooled.
FTLN 0292 For what we know must be and is as common
FTLN 0293 As any the most vulgar thing to sense,
FTLN 0294 Why should we in our peevish opposition
FTLN 0295105 Take it to heart? Fie, ’tis a fault to heaven,
FTLN 0296 A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,
FTLN 0297 To reason most absurd, whose common theme
FTLN 0298 Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried,
FTLN 0299 From the first corse till he that died today,
FTLN 0300110 “This must be so.” We pray you, throw to earth
FTLN 0301 This unprevailing woe and think of us
FTLN 0302 As of a father; for let the world take note,
FTLN 0303 You are the most immediate to our throne,
FTLN 0304 And with no less nobility of love
FTLN 0305115 Than that which dearest father bears his son
FTLN 0306 Do I impart toward you. For your intent
FTLN 0307 In going back to school in Wittenberg,
FTLN 0308 It is most retrograde to our desire,
FTLN 0309 And we beseech you, bend you to remain
FTLN 0310120 Here in the cheer and comfort of our eye,
FTLN 0311 Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.

---

QUEEN 
FTLN 0312 Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet.
FTLN 0313 I pray thee, stay with us. Go not to Wittenberg.
HAMLET 
FTLN 0314 I shall in all my best obey you, madam.
KING 
FTLN 0315125 Why, ’tis a loving and a fair reply.
FTLN 0316 Be as ourself in Denmark.—Madam, come.
FTLN 0317 This gentle and unforced accord of Hamlet
FTLN 0318 Sits smiling to my heart, in grace whereof
FTLN 0319 No jocund health that Denmark drinks today
FTLN 0320130 But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell,
FTLN 0321 And the King’s rouse the heaven shall bruit again,
FTLN 0322 Respeaking earthly thunder. Come away.
Flourish. All but Hamlet exit.
HAMLET 
FTLN 0323 O, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt,
FTLN 0324 Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,
FTLN 0325135 Or that the Everlasting had not fixed
FTLN 0326 His canon ’gainst self-slaughter! O God, God,
FTLN 0327 How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
FTLN 0328 Seem to me all the uses of this world!
FTLN 0329 Fie on ’t, ah fie! ’Tis an unweeded garden
FTLN 0330140 That grows to seed. Things rank and gross in nature
FTLN 0331 Possess it merely. That it should come to this:
FTLN 0332 But two months dead—nay, not so much, not two.
FTLN 0333 So excellent a king, that was to this
FTLN 0334 Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother
FTLN 0335145 That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
FTLN 0336 Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth,
FTLN 0337 Must I remember? Why, she would hang on him
FTLN 0338 As if increase of appetite had grown
FTLN 0339 By what it fed on. And yet, within a month
FTLN 0340150 (Let me not think on ’t; frailty, thy name is woman!),
FTLN 0341 A little month, or ere those shoes were old
FTLN 0342 With which she followed my poor father’s body,

---

FTLN 0343 Like Niobe, all tears—why she, even she
FTLN 0344 (O God, a beast that wants discourse of reason
FTLN 0345155 Would have mourned longer!), married with my
FTLN 0346 uncle,
FTLN 0347 My father’s brother, but no more like my father
FTLN 0348 Than I to Hercules. Within a month,
FTLN 0349 Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
FTLN 0350160 Had left the flushing in her gallèd eyes,
FTLN 0351 She married. O, most wicked speed, to post
FTLN 0352 With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
FTLN 0353 It is not, nor it cannot come to good.
FTLN 0354 But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue.

Enter Horatio, Marcellus, and Barnardo.

HORATIO  FTLN 0355165Hail to your Lordship.
HAMLET  FTLN 0356I am glad to see you well.
FTLN 0357 Horatio—or I do forget myself!
HORATIO 
FTLN 0358 The same, my lord, and your poor servant ever.
HAMLET 
FTLN 0359 Sir, my good friend. I’ll change that name with you.
FTLN 0360170 And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio?—
FTLN 0361 Marcellus?
MARCELLUS  FTLN 0362My good lord.
HAMLET 
FTLN 0363 I am very glad to see you.  To Barnardo. Good
FTLN 0364 even, sir.—
FTLN 0365175 But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg?
HORATIO 
FTLN 0366 A truant disposition, good my lord.
HAMLET 
FTLN 0367 I would not hear your enemy say so,
FTLN 0368 Nor shall you do my ear that violence
FTLN 0369 To make it truster of your own report
FTLN 0370180 Against yourself. I know you are no truant.
FTLN 0371 But what is your affair in Elsinore?
FTLN 0372 We’ll teach you to drink deep ere you depart.

---

HORATIO 
FTLN 0373 My lord, I came to see your father’s funeral.
HAMLET 
FTLN 0374 I prithee, do not mock me, fellow student.
FTLN 0375185 I think it was to see my mother’s wedding.
HORATIO 
FTLN 0376 Indeed, my lord, it followed hard upon.
HAMLET 
FTLN 0377 Thrift, thrift, Horatio. The funeral baked meats
FTLN 0378 Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.
FTLN 0379 Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven
FTLN 0380190 Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio!
FTLN 0381 My father—methinks I see my father.
HORATIO 
FTLN 0382 Where, my lord?
HAMLET  FTLN 0383 In my mind’s eye, Horatio.
HORATIO 
FTLN 0384 I saw him once. He was a goodly king.
HAMLET 
FTLN 0385195 He was a man. Take him for all in all,
FTLN 0386 I shall not look upon his like again.
HORATIO 
FTLN 0387 My lord, I think I saw him yesternight.
HAMLET  FTLN 0388Saw who?
HORATIO 
FTLN 0389 My lord, the King your father.
HAMLET  FTLN 0390200 The King my father?
HORATIO 
FTLN 0391 Season your admiration for a while
FTLN 0392 With an attent ear, till I may deliver
FTLN 0393 Upon the witness of these gentlemen
FTLN 0394 This marvel to you.
HAMLET  FTLN 0395205 For God’s love, let me hear!
HORATIO 
FTLN 0396 Two nights together had these gentlemen,
FTLN 0397 Marcellus and Barnardo, on their watch,

---

FTLN 0398 In the dead waste and middle of the night,
FTLN 0399 Been thus encountered: a figure like your father,
FTLN 0400210 Armèd at point exactly, cap-à-pie,
FTLN 0401 Appears before them and with solemn march
FTLN 0402 Goes slow and stately by them. Thrice he walked
FTLN 0403 By their oppressed and fear-surprisèd eyes
FTLN 0404 Within his truncheon’s length, whilst they, distilled
FTLN 0405215 Almost to jelly with the act of fear,
FTLN 0406 Stand dumb and speak not to him. This to me
FTLN 0407 In dreadful secrecy impart they did,
FTLN 0408 And I with them the third night kept the watch,
FTLN 0409 Where, as they had delivered, both in time,
FTLN 0410220 Form of the thing (each word made true and good),
FTLN 0411 The apparition comes. I knew your father;
FTLN 0412 These hands are not more like.
HAMLET  FTLN 0413 But where was this?
MARCELLUS 
FTLN 0414 My lord, upon the platform where we watch.
HAMLET 
FTLN 0415225 Did you not speak to it?
HORATIO  FTLN 0416 My lord, I did,
FTLN 0417 But answer made it none. Yet once methought
FTLN 0418 It lifted up its head and did address
FTLN 0419 Itself to motion, like as it would speak;
FTLN 0420230 But even then the morning cock crew loud,
FTLN 0421 And at the sound it shrunk in haste away
FTLN 0422 And vanished from our sight.
HAMLET  FTLN 0423 ’Tis very strange.
HORATIO 
FTLN 0424 As I do live, my honored lord, ’tis true.
FTLN 0425235 And we did think it writ down in our duty
FTLN 0426 To let you know of it.
HAMLET  FTLN 0427Indeed, sirs, but this troubles me.
FTLN 0428 Hold you the watch tonight?
ALL  FTLN 0429 We do, my lord.
HAMLET 
FTLN 0430240 Armed, say you?

---

ALL  FTLN 0431 Armed, my lord.
HAMLET  FTLN 0432 From top to toe?
ALL  FTLN 0433My lord, from head to foot.
HAMLET  FTLN 0434Then saw you not his face?
HORATIO 
FTLN 0435245 O, yes, my lord, he wore his beaver up.
HAMLET  FTLN 0436What, looked he frowningly?
HORATIO 
FTLN 0437 A countenance more in sorrow than in anger.
HAMLET  FTLN 0438Pale or red?
HORATIO 
FTLN 0439 Nay, very pale.
HAMLET  FTLN 0440250 And fixed his eyes upon you?
HORATIO 
FTLN 0441 Most constantly.
HAMLET  FTLN 0442 I would I had been there.
HORATIO  FTLN 0443It would have much amazed you.
HAMLET  FTLN 0444Very like. Stayed it long?
HORATIO 
FTLN 0445255 While one with moderate haste might tell a
FTLN 0446 hundred.
BARNARDO/MARCELLUS  FTLN 0447Longer, longer.
HORATIO 
FTLN 0448 Not when I saw ’t.
HAMLET  FTLN 0449 His beard was grizzled, no?
HORATIO 
FTLN 0450260 It was as I have seen it in his life,
FTLN 0451 A sable silvered.
HAMLET  FTLN 0452 I will watch tonight.
FTLN 0453 Perchance ’twill walk again.
HORATIO  FTLN 0454 I warrant it will.
HAMLET 
FTLN 0455265 If it assume my noble father’s person,
FTLN 0456 I’ll speak to it, though hell itself should gape
FTLN 0457 And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all,
FTLN 0458 If you have hitherto concealed this sight,

---

FTLN 0459 Let it be tenable in your silence still;
FTLN 0460270 And whatsomever else shall hap tonight,
FTLN 0461 Give it an understanding but no tongue.
FTLN 0462 I will requite your loves. So fare you well.
FTLN 0463 Upon the platform, ’twixt eleven and twelve,
FTLN 0464 I’ll visit you.
ALL  FTLN 0465275 Our duty to your Honor.
HAMLET 
FTLN 0466 Your loves, as mine to you. Farewell.
All but Hamlet exit.
FTLN 0467 My father’s spirit—in arms! All is not well.
FTLN 0468 I doubt some foul play. Would the night were come!
FTLN 0469 Till then, sit still, my soul. Foul deeds will rise,
FTLN 0470280 Though all the earth o’erwhelm them, to men’s
FTLN 0471 eyes.
He exits.

Enter Laertes and Ophelia, his sister.

LAERTES 
FTLN 0472 My necessaries are embarked. Farewell.
FTLN 0473 And, sister, as the winds give benefit
FTLN 0474 And convey is assistant, do not sleep,
FTLN 0475 But let me hear from you.
OPHELIA  FTLN 04765 Do you doubt that?
LAERTES 
FTLN 0477 For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favor,
FTLN 0478 Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood,
FTLN 0479 A violet in the youth of primy nature,
FTLN 0480 Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting,
FTLN 048110 The perfume and suppliance of a minute,
FTLN 0482 No more.
OPHELIA  FTLN 0483 No more but so?
LAERTES  FTLN 0484 Think it no more.

---

FTLN 0485 For nature, crescent, does not grow alone
FTLN 048615 In thews and bulk, but, as this temple waxes,
FTLN 0487 The inward service of the mind and soul
FTLN 0488 Grows wide withal. Perhaps he loves you now,
FTLN 0489 And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch
FTLN 0490 The virtue of his will; but you must fear,
FTLN 049120 His greatness weighed, his will is not his own,
FTLN 0492 For he himself is subject to his birth.
FTLN 0493 He may not, as unvalued persons do,
FTLN 0494 Carve for himself, for on his choice depends
FTLN 0495 The safety and the health of this whole state.
FTLN 049625 And therefore must his choice be circumscribed
FTLN 0497 Unto the voice and yielding of that body
FTLN 0498 Whereof he is the head. Then, if he says he loves
FTLN 0499 you,
FTLN 0500 It fits your wisdom so far to believe it
FTLN 050130 As he in his particular act and place
FTLN 0502 May give his saying deed, which is no further
FTLN 0503 Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal.
FTLN 0504 Then weigh what loss your honor may sustain
FTLN 0505 If with too credent ear you list his songs
FTLN 050635 Or lose your heart or your chaste treasure open
FTLN 0507 To his unmastered importunity.
FTLN 0508 Fear it, Ophelia; fear it, my dear sister,
FTLN 0509 And keep you in the rear of your affection,
FTLN 0510 Out of the shot and danger of desire.
FTLN 051140 The chariest maid is prodigal enough
FTLN 0512 If she unmask her beauty to the moon.
FTLN 0513 Virtue itself ’scapes not calumnious strokes.
FTLN 0514 The canker galls the infants of the spring
FTLN 0515 Too oft before their buttons be disclosed,
FTLN 051645 And, in the morn and liquid dew of youth,
FTLN 0517 Contagious blastments are most imminent.
FTLN 0518 Be wary, then; best safety lies in fear.
FTLN 0519 Youth to itself rebels, though none else near.
OPHELIA 
FTLN 0520 I shall the effect of this good lesson keep

---

FTLN 052150 As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother,
FTLN 0522 Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
FTLN 0523 Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,
FTLN 0524 Whiles, like a puffed and reckless libertine,
FTLN 0525 Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads
FTLN 052655 And recks not his own rede.
LAERTES  FTLN 0527 O, fear me not.

Enter Polonius.

FTLN 0528 I stay too long. But here my father comes.
FTLN 0529 A double blessing is a double grace.
FTLN 0530 Occasion smiles upon a second leave.
POLONIUS 
FTLN 053160 Yet here, Laertes? Aboard, aboard, for shame!
FTLN 0532 The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,
FTLN 0533 And you are stayed for. There, my blessing with
FTLN 0534 thee.
FTLN 0535 And these few precepts in thy memory
FTLN 053665 Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
FTLN 0537 Nor any unproportioned thought his act.
FTLN 0538 Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
FTLN 0539 Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
FTLN 0540 Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel,
FTLN 054170 But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
FTLN 0542 Of each new-hatched, unfledged courage. Beware
FTLN 0543 Of entrance to a quarrel, but, being in,
FTLN 0544 Bear ’t that th’ opposèd may beware of thee.
FTLN 0545 Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.
FTLN 054675 Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment.
FTLN 0547 Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
FTLN 0548 But not expressed in fancy (rich, not gaudy),
FTLN 0549 For the apparel oft proclaims the man,
FTLN 0550 And they in France of the best rank and station
FTLN 055180 Are of a most select and generous chief in that.
FTLN 0552 Neither a borrower nor a lender be,
FTLN 0553 For loan oft loses both itself and friend,

---

FTLN 0554 And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
FTLN 0555 This above all: to thine own self be true,
FTLN 055685 And it must follow, as the night the day,
FTLN 0557 Thou canst not then be false to any man.
FTLN 0558 Farewell. My blessing season this in thee.
LAERTES 
FTLN 0559 Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord.
POLONIUS 
FTLN 0560 The time invests you. Go, your servants tend.
LAERTES 
FTLN 056190 Farewell, Ophelia, and remember well
FTLN 0562 What I have said to you.
OPHELIA  FTLN 0563’Tis in my memory locked,
FTLN 0564 And you yourself shall keep the key of it.
LAERTES  FTLN 0565Farewell. Laertes exits.
POLONIUS 
FTLN 056695 What is ’t, Ophelia, he hath said to you?
OPHELIA 
FTLN 0567 So please you, something touching the Lord
FTLN 0568 Hamlet.
POLONIUS  FTLN 0569Marry, well bethought.
FTLN 0570 ’Tis told me he hath very oft of late
FTLN 0571100 Given private time to you, and you yourself
FTLN 0572 Have of your audience been most free and
FTLN 0573 bounteous.
FTLN 0574 If it be so (as so ’tis put on me,
FTLN 0575 And that in way of caution), I must tell you
FTLN 0576105 You do not understand yourself so clearly
FTLN 0577 As it behooves my daughter and your honor.
FTLN 0578 What is between you? Give me up the truth.
OPHELIA 
FTLN 0579 He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders
FTLN 0580 Of his affection to me.
POLONIUS 
FTLN 0581110 Affection, puh! You speak like a green girl
FTLN 0582 Unsifted in such perilous circumstance.
FTLN 0583 Do you believe his “tenders,” as you call them?

---

OPHELIA 
FTLN 0584 I do not know, my lord, what I should think.
POLONIUS 
FTLN 0585 Marry, I will teach you. Think yourself a baby
FTLN 0586115 That you have ta’en these tenders for true pay,
FTLN 0587 Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly,
FTLN 0588 Or (not to crack the wind of the poor phrase,
FTLN 0589 Running it thus) you’ll tender me a fool.
OPHELIA 
FTLN 0590 My lord, he hath importuned me with love
FTLN 0591120 In honorable fashion—
POLONIUS 
FTLN 0592 Ay, “fashion” you may call it. Go to, go to!
OPHELIA 
FTLN 0593 And hath given countenance to his speech, my lord,
FTLN 0594 With almost all the holy vows of heaven.
POLONIUS 
FTLN 0595 Ay, springes to catch woodcocks. I do know,
FTLN 0596125 When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul
FTLN 0597 Lends the tongue vows. These blazes, daughter,
FTLN 0598 Giving more light than heat, extinct in both
FTLN 0599 Even in their promise as it is a-making,
FTLN 0600 You must not take for fire. From this time
FTLN 0601130 Be something scanter of your maiden presence.
FTLN 0602 Set your entreatments at a higher rate
FTLN 0603 Than a command to parle. For Lord Hamlet,
FTLN 0604 Believe so much in him that he is young,
FTLN 0605 And with a larger tether may he walk
FTLN 0606135 Than may be given you. In few, Ophelia,
FTLN 0607 Do not believe his vows, for they are brokers,
FTLN 0608 Not of that dye which their investments show,
FTLN 0609 But mere implorators of unholy suits,
FTLN 0610 Breathing like sanctified and pious bawds
FTLN 0611140 The better to beguile. This is for all:
FTLN 0612 I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth
FTLN 0613 Have you so slander any moment leisure

---

FTLN 0614 As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet.
FTLN 0615 Look to ’t, I charge you. Come your ways.
OPHELIA  FTLN 0616145I shall obey, my lord.
They exit.

Enter Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus.

HAMLET 
FTLN 0617 The air bites shrewdly; it is very cold.
HORATIO 
FTLN 0618 It is a nipping and an eager air.
HAMLET  FTLN 0619What hour now?
HORATIO  FTLN 0620I think it lacks of twelve.
MARCELLUS  FTLN 06215No, it is struck.
HORATIO 
FTLN 0622 Indeed, I heard it not. It then draws near the season
FTLN 0623 Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk.
A flourish of trumpets and two pieces goes off.
FTLN 0624 What does this mean, my lord?
HAMLET 
FTLN 0625 The King doth wake tonight and takes his rouse,
FTLN 062610 Keeps wassail, and the swagg’ring upspring reels;
FTLN 0627 And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down,
FTLN 0628 The kettledrum and trumpet thus bray out
FTLN 0629 The triumph of his pledge.
HORATIO  FTLN 0630Is it a custom?
HAMLET  FTLN 063115Ay, marry, is ’t,
FTLN 0632 But, to my mind, though I am native here
FTLN 0633 And to the manner born, it is a custom
FTLN 0634 More honored in the breach than the observance.
FTLN 0635 This heavy-headed revel east and west
FTLN 063620 Makes us traduced and taxed of other nations.
FTLN 0637 They clepe us drunkards and with swinish phrase
FTLN 0638 Soil our addition. And, indeed, it takes

---

FTLN 0639 From our achievements, though performed at
FTLN 0640 height,
FTLN 064125 The pith and marrow of our attribute.
FTLN 0642 So oft it chances in particular men
FTLN 0643 That for some vicious mole of nature in them,
FTLN 0644 As in their birth (wherein they are not guilty,
FTLN 0645 Since nature cannot choose his origin),
FTLN 064630 By the o’ergrowth of some complexion
FTLN 0647 (Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason),
FTLN 0648 Or by some habit that too much o’erleavens
FTLN 0649 The form of plausive manners—that these men,
FTLN 0650 Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect,
FTLN 065135 Being nature’s livery or fortune’s star,
FTLN 0652 His virtues else, be they as pure as grace,
FTLN 0653 As infinite as man may undergo,
FTLN 0654 Shall in the general censure take corruption
FTLN 0655 From that particular fault. The dram of evil
FTLN 065640 Doth all the noble substance of a doubt
FTLN 0657 To his own scandal.

Enter Ghost.

HORATIO  FTLN 0658 Look, my lord, it comes.
HAMLET 
FTLN 0659 Angels and ministers of grace, defend us!
FTLN 0660 Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned,
FTLN 066145 Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from
FTLN 0662 hell,
FTLN 0663 Be thy intents wicked or charitable,
FTLN 0664 Thou com’st in such a questionable shape
FTLN 0665 That I will speak to thee. I’ll call thee “Hamlet,”
FTLN 066650 “King,” “Father,” “Royal Dane.” O, answer me!
FTLN 0667 Let me not burst in ignorance, but tell
FTLN 0668 Why thy canonized bones, hearsèd in death,
FTLN 0669 Have burst their cerements; why the sepulcher,
FTLN 0670 Wherein we saw thee quietly interred,
FTLN 067155 Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws

---

FTLN 0672 To cast thee up again. What may this mean
FTLN 0673 That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel,
FTLN 0674 Revisits thus the glimpses of the moon,
FTLN 0675 Making night hideous, and we fools of nature
FTLN 067660 So horridly to shake our disposition
FTLN 0677 With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls?
FTLN 0678 Say, why is this? Wherefore? What should we do?
Ghost beckons.
HORATIO 
FTLN 0679 It beckons you to go away with it
FTLN 0680 As if it some impartment did desire
FTLN 068165 To you alone.
MARCELLUS  FTLN 0682 Look with what courteous action
FTLN 0683 It waves you to a more removèd ground.
FTLN 0684 But do not go with it.
HORATIO  FTLN 0685 No, by no means.
HAMLET 
FTLN 068670 It will not speak. Then I will follow it.
HORATIO 
FTLN 0687 Do not, my lord.
HAMLET  FTLN 0688 Why, what should be the fear?
FTLN 0689 I do not set my life at a pin’s fee.
FTLN 0690 And for my soul, what can it do to that,
FTLN 069175 Being a thing immortal as itself?
FTLN 0692 It waves me forth again. I’ll follow it.
HORATIO 
FTLN 0693 What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord?
FTLN 0694 Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff
FTLN 0695 That beetles o’er his base into the sea,
FTLN 069680 And there assume some other horrible form
FTLN 0697 Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason
FTLN 0698 And draw you into madness? Think of it.
FTLN 0699 The very place puts toys of desperation,
FTLN 0700 Without more motive, into every brain
FTLN 070185 That looks so many fathoms to the sea
FTLN 0702 And hears it roar beneath.

---

HAMLET 
FTLN 0703 It waves me still.—Go on, I’ll follow thee.
MARCELLUS 
FTLN 0704 You shall not go, my lord. They hold back Hamlet.
HAMLET  FTLN 0705 Hold off your hands.
HORATIO 
FTLN 070690 Be ruled. You shall not go.
HAMLET  FTLN 0707 My fate cries out
FTLN 0708 And makes each petty arture in this body
FTLN 0709 As hardy as the Nemean lion’s nerve.
FTLN 0710 Still am I called. Unhand me, gentlemen.
FTLN 071195 By heaven, I’ll make a ghost of him that lets me!
FTLN 0712 I say, away!—Go on. I’ll follow thee.
Ghost and Hamlet exit.
HORATIO 
FTLN 0713 He waxes desperate with imagination.
MARCELLUS 
FTLN 0714 Let’s follow. ’Tis not fit thus to obey him.
HORATIO 
FTLN 0715 Have after. To what issue will this come?
MARCELLUS 
FTLN 0716100 Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
HORATIO 
FTLN 0717 Heaven will direct it.
MARCELLUS  FTLN 0718 Nay, let’s follow him.
They exit.

Enter Ghost and Hamlet.

HAMLET 
FTLN 0719 Whither wilt thou lead me? Speak. I’ll go no
FTLN 0720 further.
GHOST 
FTLN 0721 Mark me.

---

HAMLET  FTLN 0722 I will.
GHOST  FTLN 07235 My hour is almost come
FTLN 0724 When I to sulf’rous and tormenting flames
FTLN 0725 Must render up myself.
HAMLET  FTLN 0726 Alas, poor ghost!
GHOST 
FTLN 0727 Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing
FTLN 072810 To what I shall unfold.
HAMLET  FTLN 0729Speak. I am bound to hear.
GHOST 
FTLN 0730 So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear.
HAMLET  FTLN 0731What?
GHOST  FTLN 0732I am thy father’s spirit,
FTLN 073315 Doomed for a certain term to walk the night
FTLN 0734 And for the day confined to fast in fires
FTLN 0735 Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
FTLN 0736 Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid
FTLN 0737 To tell the secrets of my prison house,
FTLN 073820 I could a tale unfold whose lightest word
FTLN 0739 Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
FTLN 0740 Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their
FTLN 0741 spheres,
FTLN 0742 Thy knotted and combinèd locks to part,
FTLN 074325 And each particular hair to stand an end,
FTLN 0744 Like quills upon the fearful porpentine.
FTLN 0745 But this eternal blazon must not be
FTLN 0746 To ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O list!
FTLN 0747 If thou didst ever thy dear father love—
HAMLET  FTLN 074830O God!
GHOST 
FTLN 0749 Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.
HAMLET  FTLN 0750Murder?
GHOST 
FTLN 0751 Murder most foul, as in the best it is,
FTLN 0752 But this most foul, strange, and unnatural.
HAMLET 
FTLN 075335 Haste me to know ’t, that I, with wings as swift

---

FTLN 0754 As meditation or the thoughts of love,
FTLN 0755 May sweep to my revenge.
GHOST  FTLN 0756 I find thee apt;
FTLN 0757 And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed
FTLN 075840 That roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf,
FTLN 0759 Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear.
FTLN 0760 ’Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard,
FTLN 0761 A serpent stung me. So the whole ear of Denmark
FTLN 0762 Is by a forgèd process of my death
FTLN 076345 Rankly abused. But know, thou noble youth,
FTLN 0764 The serpent that did sting thy father’s life
FTLN 0765 Now wears his crown.
HAMLET  FTLN 0766O, my prophetic soul! My uncle!
GHOST 
FTLN 0767 Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,
FTLN 076850 With witchcraft of his wits, with traitorous gifts—
FTLN 0769 O wicked wit and gifts, that have the power
FTLN 0770 So to seduce!—won to his shameful lust
FTLN 0771 The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen.
FTLN 0772 O Hamlet, what a falling off was there!
FTLN 077355 From me, whose love was of that dignity
FTLN 0774 That it went hand in hand even with the vow
FTLN 0775 I made to her in marriage, and to decline
FTLN 0776 Upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor
FTLN 0777 To those of mine.
FTLN 077860 But virtue, as it never will be moved,
FTLN 0779 Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven,
FTLN 0780 So, lust, though to a radiant angel linked,
FTLN 0781 Will sate itself in a celestial bed
FTLN 0782 And prey on garbage.
FTLN 078365 But soft, methinks I scent the morning air.
FTLN 0784 Brief let me be. Sleeping within my orchard,
FTLN 0785 My custom always of the afternoon,
FTLN 0786 Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole,
FTLN 0787 With juice of cursèd hebona in a vial,
FTLN 078870 And in the porches of my ears did pour

---

FTLN 0789 The leprous distilment, whose effect
FTLN 0790 Holds such an enmity with blood of man
FTLN 0791 That swift as quicksilver it courses through
FTLN 0792 The natural gates and alleys of the body,
FTLN 079375 And with a sudden vigor it doth posset
FTLN 0794 And curd, like eager droppings into milk,
FTLN 0795 The thin and wholesome blood. So did it mine,
FTLN 0796 And a most instant tetter barked about,
FTLN 0797 Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust
FTLN 079880 All my smooth body.
FTLN 0799 Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother’s hand
FTLN 0800 Of life, of crown, of queen at once dispatched,
FTLN 0801 Cut off, even in the blossoms of my sin,
FTLN 0802 Unhouseled, disappointed, unaneled,
FTLN 080385 No reck’ning made, but sent to my account
FTLN 0804 With all my imperfections on my head.
FTLN 0805 O horrible, O horrible, most horrible!
FTLN 0806 If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not.
FTLN 0807 Let not the royal bed of Denmark be
FTLN 080890 A couch for luxury and damnèd incest.
FTLN 0809 But, howsomever thou pursues this act,
FTLN 0810 Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive
FTLN 0811 Against thy mother aught. Leave her to heaven
FTLN 0812 And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge
FTLN 081395 To prick and sting her. Fare thee well at once.
FTLN 0814 The glowworm shows the matin to be near
FTLN 0815 And ’gins to pale his uneffectual fire.
FTLN 0816 Adieu, adieu, adieu. Remember me. He exits.
HAMLET 
FTLN 0817 O all you host of heaven! O Earth! What else?
FTLN 0818100 And shall I couple hell? O fie! Hold, hold, my heart,
FTLN 0819 And you, my sinews, grow not instant old,
FTLN 0820 But bear me stiffly up. Remember thee?
FTLN 0821 Ay, thou poor ghost, whiles memory holds a seat
FTLN 0822 In this distracted globe. Remember thee?
FTLN 0823105 Yea, from the table of my memory

---

FTLN 0824 I’ll wipe away all trivial, fond records,
FTLN 0825 All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,
FTLN 0826 That youth and observation copied there,
FTLN 0827 And thy commandment all alone shall live
FTLN 0828110 Within the book and volume of my brain,
FTLN 0829 Unmixed with baser matter. Yes, by heaven!
FTLN 0830 O most pernicious woman!
FTLN 0831 O villain, villain, smiling, damnèd villain!
FTLN 0832 My tables—meet it is I set it down
FTLN 0833115 That one may smile and smile and be a villain.
FTLN 0834 At least I am sure it may be so in Denmark.
He writes.
FTLN 0835 So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word.
FTLN 0836 It is “adieu, adieu, remember me.”
FTLN 0837 I have sworn ’t.

Enter Horatio and Marcellus.

HORATIO  FTLN 0838120My lord, my lord!
MARCELLUS  FTLN 0839Lord Hamlet.
HORATIO  FTLN 0840Heavens secure him!
HAMLET  FTLN 0841So be it.
MARCELLUS  FTLN 0842Illo, ho, ho, my lord!
HAMLET  FTLN 0843125Hillo, ho, ho, boy! Come, bird, come!
MARCELLUS 
FTLN 0844 How is ’t, my noble lord?
HORATIO  FTLN 0845 What news, my lord?
HAMLET  FTLN 0846O, wonderful!
HORATIO 
FTLN 0847 Good my lord, tell it.
HAMLET  FTLN 0848130 No, you will reveal it.
HORATIO 
FTLN 0849 Not I, my lord, by heaven.
MARCELLUS  FTLN 0850 Nor I, my lord.
HAMLET 
FTLN 0851 How say you, then? Would heart of man once think
FTLN 0852 it?
FTLN 0853135 But you’ll be secret?

---

HORATIO/MARCELLUS  FTLN 0854  Ay, by heaven, my lord.
HAMLET 
FTLN 0855 There’s never a villain dwelling in all Denmark
FTLN 0856 But he’s an arrant knave.
HORATIO 
FTLN 0857 There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave
FTLN 0858140 To tell us this.
HAMLET  FTLN 0859 Why, right, you are in the right.
FTLN 0860 And so, without more circumstance at all,
FTLN 0861 I hold it fit that we shake hands and part,
FTLN 0862 You, as your business and desire shall point you
FTLN 0863145 (For every man hath business and desire,
FTLN 0864 Such as it is), and for my own poor part,
FTLN 0865 I will go pray.
HORATIO 
FTLN 0866 These are but wild and whirling words, my lord.
HAMLET 
FTLN 0867 I am sorry they offend you, heartily;
FTLN 0868150 Yes, faith, heartily.
HORATIO  FTLN 0869 There’s no offense, my lord.
HAMLET 
FTLN 0870 Yes, by Saint Patrick, but there is, Horatio,
FTLN 0871 And much offense, too. Touching this vision here,
FTLN 0872 It is an honest ghost—that let me tell you.
FTLN 0873155 For your desire to know what is between us,
FTLN 0874 O’ermaster ’t as you may. And now, good friends,
FTLN 0875 As you are friends, scholars, and soldiers,
FTLN 0876 Give me one poor request.
HORATIO  FTLN 0877What is ’t, my lord? We will.
HAMLET 
FTLN 0878160 Never make known what you have seen tonight.
HORATIO/MARCELLUS  FTLN 0879 My lord, we will not.
HAMLET  FTLN 0880Nay, but swear ’t.
HORATIO  FTLN 0881In faith, my lord, not I.
MARCELLUS  FTLN 0882Nor I, my lord, in faith.
HAMLET 
FTLN 0883165 Upon my sword.

---

MARCELLUS  FTLN 0884 We have sworn, my lord, already.
HAMLET  FTLN 0885Indeed, upon my sword, indeed.
GHOST  cries under the stage  FTLN 0886Swear.
HAMLET 
FTLN 0887 Ha, ha, boy, sayst thou so? Art thou there,
FTLN 0888170 truepenny?
FTLN 0889 Come on, you hear this fellow in the cellarage.
FTLN 0890 Consent to swear.
HORATIO  FTLN 0891 Propose the oath, my lord.
HAMLET 
FTLN 0892 Never to speak of this that you have seen,
FTLN 0893175 Swear by my sword.
GHOST , beneath  FTLN 0894Swear.
HAMLET 
FTLN 0895 Hic et ubique? Then we’ll shift our ground.
FTLN 0896 Come hither, gentlemen,
FTLN 0897 And lay your hands again upon my sword.
FTLN 0898180 Swear by my sword
FTLN 0899 Never to speak of this that you have heard.
GHOST , beneath  FTLN 0900Swear by his sword.
HAMLET 
FTLN 0901 Well said, old mole. Canst work i’ th’ earth so fast?
FTLN 0902 A worthy pioner! Once more remove, good friends.
HORATIO 
FTLN 0903185 O day and night, but this is wondrous strange.
HAMLET 
FTLN 0904 And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.
FTLN 0905 There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
FTLN 0906 Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. But come.
FTLN 0907 Here, as before, never, so help you mercy,
FTLN 0908190 How strange or odd some’er I bear myself
FTLN 0909 (As I perchance hereafter shall think meet
FTLN 0910 To put an antic disposition on)
FTLN 0911 That you, at such times seeing me, never shall,
FTLN 0912 With arms encumbered thus, or this headshake,
FTLN 0913195 Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase,

---

FTLN 0914 As “Well, well, we know,” or “We could an if we
FTLN 0915 would,”
FTLN 0916 Or “If we list to speak,” or “There be an if they
FTLN 0917 might,”
FTLN 0918200 Or such ambiguous giving-out, to note
FTLN 0919 That you know aught of me—this do swear,
FTLN 0920 So grace and mercy at your most need help you.
GHOST , beneath  FTLN 0921Swear.
HAMLET 
FTLN 0922 Rest, rest, perturbèd spirit.—So, gentlemen,
FTLN 0923205 With all my love I do commend me to you,
FTLN 0924 And what so poor a man as Hamlet is
FTLN 0925 May do t’ express his love and friending to you,
FTLN 0926 God willing, shall not lack. Let us go in together,
FTLN 0927 And still your fingers on your lips, I pray.
FTLN 0928210 The time is out of joint. O cursèd spite
FTLN 0929 That ever I was born to set it right!
FTLN 0930 Nay, come, let’s go together.
They exit.

Enter old Polonius with his man Reynaldo.

POLONIUS 
FTLN 0931 Give him this money and these notes, Reynaldo.
REYNALDO  FTLN 0932I will, my lord.
POLONIUS 
FTLN 0933 You shall do marvelous wisely, good Reynaldo,
FTLN 0934 Before you visit him, to make inquire
FTLN 09355 Of his behavior.
REYNALDO  FTLN 0936 My lord, I did intend it.
POLONIUS 
FTLN 0937 Marry, well said, very well said. Look you, sir,
FTLN 0938 Inquire me first what Danskers are in Paris;
FTLN 0939 And how, and who, what means, and where they
FTLN 094010 keep,
FTLN 0941 What company, at what expense; and finding
FTLN 0942 By this encompassment and drift of question
FTLN 0943 That they do know my son, come you more nearer
FTLN 0944 Than your particular demands will touch it.
FTLN 094515 Take you, as ’twere, some distant knowledge of him,
FTLN 0946 As thus: “I know his father and his friends
FTLN 0947 And, in part, him.” Do you mark this, Reynaldo?
REYNALDO  FTLN 0948Ay, very well, my lord.
POLONIUS 
FTLN 0949 “And, in part, him, but,” you may say, “not well.

---

FTLN 095020 But if ’t be he I mean, he’s very wild,
FTLN 0951 Addicted so and so.” And there put on him
FTLN 0952 What forgeries you please—marry, none so rank
FTLN 0953 As may dishonor him, take heed of that,
FTLN 0954 But, sir, such wanton, wild, and usual slips
FTLN 095525 As are companions noted and most known
FTLN 0956 To youth and liberty.
REYNALDO  FTLN 0957 As gaming, my lord.
POLONIUS  FTLN 0958Ay, or drinking, fencing, swearing,
FTLN 0959 Quarreling, drabbing—you may go so far.
REYNALDO  FTLN 096030My lord, that would dishonor him.
POLONIUS 
FTLN 0961 Faith, no, as you may season it in the charge.
FTLN 0962 You must not put another scandal on him
FTLN 0963 That he is open to incontinency;
FTLN 0964 That’s not my meaning. But breathe his faults so
FTLN 096535 quaintly
FTLN 0966 That they may seem the taints of liberty,
FTLN 0967 The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind,
FTLN 0968 A savageness in unreclaimèd blood,
FTLN 0969 Of general assault.
REYNALDO  FTLN 097040But, my good lord—
POLONIUS  FTLN 0971Wherefore should you do this?
REYNALDO  FTLN 0972Ay, my lord, I would know that.
POLONIUS  FTLN 0973Marry, sir, here’s my drift,
FTLN 0974 And I believe it is a fetch of wit.
FTLN 097545 You, laying these slight sullies on my son,
FTLN 0976 As ’twere a thing a little soiled i’ th’ working,
FTLN 0977 Mark you, your party in converse, him you would
FTLN 0978 sound,
FTLN 0979 Having ever seen in the prenominate crimes
FTLN 098050 The youth you breathe of guilty, be assured
FTLN 0981 He closes with you in this consequence:
FTLN 0982 “Good sir,” or so, or “friend,” or “gentleman,”
FTLN 0983 According to the phrase or the addition
FTLN 0984 Of man and country—

---

REYNALDO  FTLN 098555 Very good, my lord.
POLONIUS  FTLN 0986And then, sir, does he this, he does—what
FTLN 0987 was I about to say? By the Mass, I was about to say
FTLN 0988 something. Where did I leave?
REYNALDO  FTLN 0989At “closes in the consequence,” at “friend,
FTLN 099060 or so,” and “gentleman.”
POLONIUS 
FTLN 0991 At “closes in the consequence”—ay, marry—
FTLN 0992 He closes thus: “I know the gentleman.
FTLN 0993 I saw him yesterday,” or “th’ other day”
FTLN 0994 (Or then, or then, with such or such), “and as you
FTLN 099565 say,
FTLN 0996 There was he gaming, there o’ertook in ’s rouse,
FTLN 0997 There falling out at tennis”; or perchance
FTLN 0998 “I saw him enter such a house of sale”—
FTLN 0999 Videlicet, a brothel—or so forth. See you now
FTLN 100070 Your bait of falsehood take this carp of truth;
FTLN 1001 And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,
FTLN 1002 With windlasses and with assays of bias,
FTLN 1003 By indirections find directions out.
FTLN 1004 So by my former lecture and advice
FTLN 100575 Shall you my son. You have me, have you not?
REYNALDO 
FTLN 1006 My lord, I have.
POLONIUS  FTLN 1007 God be wi’ you. Fare you well.
REYNALDO  FTLN 1008Good my lord.
POLONIUS 
FTLN 1009 Observe his inclination in yourself.
REYNALDO  FTLN 101080I shall, my lord.
POLONIUS  FTLN 1011And let him ply his music.
REYNALDO  FTLN 1012Well, my lord.
POLONIUS 
FTLN 1013 Farewell. Reynaldo exits.

Enter Ophelia.

FTLN 1014 How now, Ophelia, what’s the matter?

---

OPHELIA 
FTLN 101585 O, my lord, my lord, I have been so affrighted!
POLONIUS  FTLN 1016With what, i’ th’ name of God?
OPHELIA 
FTLN 1017 My lord, as I was sewing in my closet,
FTLN 1018 Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced,
FTLN 1019 No hat upon his head, his stockings fouled,
FTLN 102090 Ungartered, and down-gyvèd to his ankle,
FTLN 1021 Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other,
FTLN 1022 And with a look so piteous in purport
FTLN 1023 As if he had been loosèd out of hell
FTLN 1024 To speak of horrors—he comes before me.
POLONIUS 
FTLN 102595 Mad for thy love?
OPHELIA  FTLN 1026 My lord, I do not know,
FTLN 1027 But truly I do fear it.
POLONIUS  FTLN 1028 What said he?
OPHELIA 
FTLN 1029 He took me by the wrist and held me hard.
FTLN 1030100 Then goes he to the length of all his arm,
FTLN 1031 And, with his other hand thus o’er his brow,
FTLN 1032 He falls to such perusal of my face
FTLN 1033 As he would draw it. Long stayed he so.
FTLN 1034 At last, a little shaking of mine arm,
FTLN 1035105 And thrice his head thus waving up and down,
FTLN 1036 He raised a sigh so piteous and profound
FTLN 1037 As it did seem to shatter all his bulk
FTLN 1038 And end his being. That done, he lets me go,
FTLN 1039 And, with his head over his shoulder turned,
FTLN 1040110 He seemed to find his way without his eyes,
FTLN 1041 For out o’ doors he went without their helps
FTLN 1042 And to the last bended their light on me.
POLONIUS 
FTLN 1043 Come, go with me. I will go seek the King.
FTLN 1044 This is the very ecstasy of love,
FTLN 1045115 Whose violent property fordoes itself

---

FTLN 1046 And leads the will to desperate undertakings
FTLN 1047 As oft as any passions under heaven
FTLN 1048 That does afflict our natures. I am sorry.
FTLN 1049 What, have you given him any hard words of late?
OPHELIA 
FTLN 1050120 No, my good lord, but as you did command
FTLN 1051 I did repel his letters and denied
FTLN 1052 His access to me.
POLONIUS  FTLN 1053 That hath made him mad.
FTLN 1054 I am sorry that with better heed and judgment
FTLN 1055125 I had not coted him. I feared he did but trifle
FTLN 1056 And meant to wrack thee. But beshrew my jealousy!
FTLN 1057 By heaven, it is as proper to our age
FTLN 1058 To cast beyond ourselves in our opinions
FTLN 1059 As it is common for the younger sort
FTLN 1060130 To lack discretion. Come, go we to the King.
FTLN 1061 This must be known, which, being kept close, might
FTLN 1062 move
FTLN 1063 More grief to hide than hate to utter love.
FTLN 1064 Come.
They exit.

Flourish. Enter King and Queen, Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern and Attendants.

KING 
FTLN 1065 Welcome, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
FTLN 1066 Moreover that we much did long to see you,
FTLN 1067 The need we have to use you did provoke
FTLN 1068 Our hasty sending. Something have you heard
FTLN 10695 Of Hamlet’s transformation, so call it,
FTLN 1070 Sith nor th’ exterior nor the inward man
FTLN 1071 Resembles that it was. What it should be,
FTLN 1072 More than his father’s death, that thus hath put him

---

FTLN 1073 So much from th’ understanding of himself
FTLN 107410 I cannot dream of. I entreat you both
FTLN 1075 That, being of so young days brought up with him
FTLN 1076 And sith so neighbored to his youth and havior,
FTLN 1077 That you vouchsafe your rest here in our court
FTLN 1078 Some little time, so by your companies
FTLN 107915 To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather
FTLN 1080 So much as from occasion you may glean,
FTLN 1081 Whether aught to us unknown afflicts him thus
FTLN 1082 That, opened, lies within our remedy.
QUEEN 
FTLN 1083 Good gentlemen, he hath much talked of you,
FTLN 108420 And sure I am two men there is not living
FTLN 1085 To whom he more adheres. If it will please you
FTLN 1086 To show us so much gentry and goodwill
FTLN 1087 As to expend your time with us awhile
FTLN 1088 For the supply and profit of our hope,
FTLN 108925 Your visitation shall receive such thanks
FTLN 1090 As fits a king’s remembrance.
ROSENCRANTZ  FTLN 1091 Both your Majesties
FTLN 1092 Might, by the sovereign power you have of us,
FTLN 1093 Put your dread pleasures more into command
FTLN 109430 Than to entreaty.
GUILDENSTERN  FTLN 1095 But we both obey,
FTLN 1096 And here give up ourselves in the full bent
FTLN 1097 To lay our service freely at your feet,
FTLN 1098 To be commanded.
KING 
FTLN 109935 Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern.
QUEEN 
FTLN 1100 Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz.
FTLN 1101 And I beseech you instantly to visit
FTLN 1102 My too much changèd son.—Go, some of you,
FTLN 1103 And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is.
GUILDENSTERN 
FTLN 110440 Heavens make our presence and our practices
FTLN 1105 Pleasant and helpful to him!

---

QUEEN  FTLN 1106 Ay, amen!
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern exit
with some Attendants.

Enter Polonius.

POLONIUS 
FTLN 1107 Th’ ambassadors from Norway, my good lord,
FTLN 1108 Are joyfully returned.
KING 
FTLN 110945 Thou still hast been the father of good news.
POLONIUS 
FTLN 1110 Have I, my lord? I assure my good liege
FTLN 1111 I hold my duty as I hold my soul,
FTLN 1112 Both to my God and to my gracious king,
FTLN 1113 And I do think, or else this brain of mine
FTLN 111450 Hunts not the trail of policy so sure
FTLN 1115 As it hath used to do, that I have found
FTLN 1116 The very cause of Hamlet’s lunacy.
KING 
FTLN 1117 O, speak of that! That do I long to hear.
POLONIUS 
FTLN 1118 Give first admittance to th’ ambassadors.
FTLN 111955 My news shall be the fruit to that great feast.
KING 
FTLN 1120 Thyself do grace to them and bring them in.
Polonius exits.
FTLN 1121 He tells me, my dear Gertrude, he hath found
FTLN 1122 The head and source of all your son’s distemper.
QUEEN 
FTLN 1123 I doubt it is no other but the main—
FTLN 112460 His father’s death and our o’erhasty marriage.
KING 
FTLN 1125 Well, we shall sift him.

Enter Ambassadors Voltemand and Cornelius with
Polonius.

---

FTLN 1126 Welcome, my good friends.
FTLN 1127 Say, Voltemand, what from our brother Norway?
VOLTEMAND 
FTLN 1128 Most fair return of greetings and desires.
FTLN 112965 Upon our first, he sent out to suppress
FTLN 1130 His nephew’s levies, which to him appeared
FTLN 1131 To be a preparation ’gainst the Polack,
FTLN 1132 But, better looked into, he truly found
FTLN 1133 It was against your Highness. Whereat, grieved
FTLN 113470 That so his sickness, age, and impotence
FTLN 1135 Was falsely borne in hand, sends out arrests
FTLN 1136 On Fortinbras, which he, in brief, obeys,
FTLN 1137 Receives rebuke from Norway, and, in fine,
FTLN 1138 Makes vow before his uncle never more
FTLN 113975 To give th’ assay of arms against your Majesty.
FTLN 1140 Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy,
FTLN 1141 Gives him three-score thousand crowns in annual
FTLN 1142 fee
FTLN 1143 And his commission to employ those soldiers,
FTLN 114480 So levied as before, against the Polack,
FTLN 1145 With an entreaty, herein further shown,
He gives a paper.
FTLN 1146 That it might please you to give quiet pass
FTLN 1147 Through your dominions for this enterprise,
FTLN 1148 On such regards of safety and allowance
FTLN 114985 As therein are set down.
KING  FTLN 1150 It likes us well,
FTLN 1151 And, at our more considered time, we’ll read,
FTLN 1152 Answer, and think upon this business.
FTLN 1153 Meantime, we thank you for your well-took labor.
FTLN 115490 Go to your rest. At night we’ll feast together.
FTLN 1155 Most welcome home!
Voltemand and Cornelius exit.
POLONIUS  FTLN 1156 This business is well ended.
FTLN 1157 My liege, and madam, to expostulate
FTLN 1158 What majesty should be, what duty is,

---

FTLN 115995 Why day is day, night night, and time is time
FTLN 1160 Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time.
FTLN 1161 Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
FTLN 1162 And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
FTLN 1163 I will be brief. Your noble son is mad.
FTLN 1164100 “Mad” call I it, for, to define true madness,
FTLN 1165 What is ’t but to be nothing else but mad?
FTLN 1166 But let that go.
QUEEN  FTLN 1167 More matter with less art.
POLONIUS 
FTLN 1168 Madam, I swear I use no art at all.
FTLN 1169105 That he’s mad, ’tis true; ’tis true ’tis pity,
FTLN 1170 And pity ’tis ’tis true—a foolish figure,
FTLN 1171 But farewell it, for I will use no art.
FTLN 1172 Mad let us grant him then, and now remains
FTLN 1173 That we find out the cause of this effect,
FTLN 1174110 Or, rather say, the cause of this defect,
FTLN 1175 For this effect defective comes by cause.
FTLN 1176 Thus it remains, and the remainder thus.
FTLN 1177 Perpend.
FTLN 1178 I have a daughter (have while she is mine)
FTLN 1179115 Who, in her duty and obedience, mark,
FTLN 1180 Hath given me this. Now gather and surmise.
FTLN 1181  He reads. To the celestial, and my soul’s idol, the
FTLN 1182 most beautified Ophelia—
FTLN 1183 That’s an ill phrase, a vile phrase; “beautified” is a
FTLN 1184120 vile phrase. But you shall hear. Thus:  He reads.
FTLN 1185 In her excellent white bosom, these, etc.—
QUEEN  FTLN 1186Came this from Hamlet to her?
POLONIUS 
FTLN 1187 Good madam, stay awhile. I will be faithful.
He reads the letter.
FTLN 1188 Doubt thou the stars are fire,
FTLN 1189125  Doubt that the sun doth move,
FTLN 1190 Doubt truth to be a liar,
FTLN 1191  But never doubt I love.

---

91

Hamlet

ACT 2. SC. 2

FTLN 1192 O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers. I have not
FTLN 1193 art to reckon my groans, but that I love thee best, O
FTLN 1194130 most best, believe it. Adieu.
FTLN 1195 Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst
FTLN 1196 this machine is to him, Hamlet.
FTLN 1197 This, in obedience, hath my daughter shown me,
FTLN 1198 And more above, hath his solicitings,
FTLN 1199135 As they fell out by time, by means, and place,
FTLN 1200 All given to mine ear.
KING  FTLN 1201But how hath she received his love?
POLONIUS  FTLN 1202What do you think of me?
KING 
FTLN 1203 As of a man faithful and honorable.
POLONIUS 
FTLN 1204140 I would fain prove so. But what might you think,
FTLN 1205 When I had seen this hot love on the wing
FTLN 1206 (As I perceived it, I must tell you that,
FTLN 1207 Before my daughter told me), what might you,
FTLN 1208 Or my dear Majesty your queen here, think,
FTLN 1209145 If I had played the desk or table-book
FTLN 1210 Or given my heart a winking, mute and dumb,
FTLN 1211 Or looked upon this love with idle sight?
FTLN 1212 What might you think? No, I went round to work,
FTLN 1213 And my young mistress thus I did bespeak:
FTLN 1214150 “Lord Hamlet is a prince, out of thy star.
FTLN 1215 This must not be.” And then I prescripts gave her,
FTLN 1216 That she should lock herself from his resort,
FTLN 1217 Admit no messengers, receive no tokens;
FTLN 1218 Which done, she took the fruits of my advice,
FTLN 1219155 And he, repelled (a short tale to make),
FTLN 1220 Fell into a sadness, then into a fast,
FTLN 1221 Thence to a watch, thence into a weakness,
FTLN 1222 Thence to a lightness, and, by this declension,
FTLN 1223 Into the madness wherein now he raves
FTLN 1224160 And all we mourn for.
KING , to Queen  FTLN 1225 Do you think ’tis this?

---

QUEEN  FTLN 1226It may be, very like.
POLONIUS 
FTLN 1227 Hath there been such a time (I would fain know
FTLN 1228 that)
FTLN 1229165 That I have positively said “’Tis so,”
FTLN 1230 When it proved otherwise?
KING  FTLN 1231 Not that I know.
POLONIUS 
FTLN 1232 Take this from this, if this be otherwise.
FTLN 1233 If circumstances lead me, I will find
FTLN 1234170 Where truth is hid, though it were hid, indeed,
FTLN 1235 Within the center.
KING  FTLN 1236 How may we try it further?
POLONIUS 
FTLN 1237 You know sometimes he walks four hours together
FTLN 1238 Here in the lobby.
QUEEN  FTLN 1239175 So he does indeed.
POLONIUS 
FTLN 1240 At such a time I’ll loose my daughter to him.
FTLN 1241  To the King. Be you and I behind an arras then.
FTLN 1242 Mark the encounter. If he love her not,
FTLN 1243 And be not from his reason fall’n thereon,
FTLN 1244180 Let me be no assistant for a state,
FTLN 1245 But keep a farm and carters.
KING  FTLN 1246 We will try it.

Enter Hamlet reading on a book.

QUEEN 
FTLN 1247 But look where sadly the poor wretch comes
FTLN 1248 reading.
POLONIUS 
FTLN 1249185 Away, I do beseech you both, away.
FTLN 1250 I’ll board him presently. O, give me leave.
King and Queen exit with Attendants.
FTLN 1251 How does my good Lord Hamlet?
HAMLET  FTLN 1252Well, God-a-mercy.

---

POLONIUS  FTLN 1253Do you know me, my lord?
HAMLET  FTLN 1254190Excellent well. You are a fishmonger.
POLONIUS  FTLN 1255Not I, my lord.
HAMLET  FTLN 1256Then I would you were so honest a man.
POLONIUS  FTLN 1257Honest, my lord?
HAMLET  FTLN 1258Ay, sir. To be honest, as this world goes, is to
FTLN 1259195 be one man picked out of ten thousand.
POLONIUS  FTLN 1260That’s very true, my lord.
HAMLET  FTLN 1261For if the sun breed maggots in a dead
FTLN 1262 dog, being a good kissing carrion—Have you a
FTLN 1263 daughter?
POLONIUS  FTLN 1264200I have, my lord.
HAMLET  FTLN 1265Let her not walk i’ th’ sun. Conception is a
FTLN 1266 blessing, but, as your daughter may conceive,
FTLN 1267 friend, look to ’t.
POLONIUS , aside  FTLN 1268How say you by that? Still harping on
FTLN 1269205 my daughter. Yet he knew me not at first; he said I
FTLN 1270 was a fishmonger. He is far gone. And truly, in my
FTLN 1271 youth, I suffered much extremity for love, very near
FTLN 1272 this. I’ll speak to him again.—What do you read, my
FTLN 1273 lord?
HAMLET  FTLN 1274210Words, words, words.
POLONIUS  FTLN 1275What is the matter, my lord?
HAMLET  FTLN 1276Between who?
POLONIUS  FTLN 1277I mean the matter that you read, my lord.
HAMLET  FTLN 1278Slanders, sir; for the satirical rogue says here
FTLN 1279215 that old men have gray beards, that their faces are
FTLN 1280 wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and
FTLN 1281 plum-tree gum, and that they have a plentiful lack of
FTLN 1282 wit, together with most weak hams; all which, sir,
FTLN 1283 though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I
FTLN 1284220 hold it not honesty to have it thus set down; for
FTLN 1285 yourself, sir, shall grow old as I am, if, like a crab,
FTLN 1286 you could go backward.
POLONIUS , aside  FTLN 1287Though this be madness, yet there is
FTLN 1288 method in ’t.—Will you walk out of the air, my lord?

---

HAMLET  FTLN 1289225Into my grave?
POLONIUS  FTLN 1290Indeed, that’s out of the air.  Aside. How
FTLN 1291 pregnant sometimes his replies are! A happiness
FTLN 1292 that often madness hits on, which reason and
FTLN 1293 sanity could not so prosperously be delivered of. I
FTLN 1294230 will leave him and suddenly contrive the means of
FTLN 1295 meeting between him and my daughter.—My lord,
FTLN 1296 I will take my leave of you.
HAMLET  FTLN 1297You cannot, sir, take from me anything that I
FTLN 1298 will more willingly part withal—except my life,
FTLN 1299235 except my life, except my life.
POLONIUS  FTLN 1300Fare you well, my lord.
HAMLET , aside  FTLN 1301These tedious old fools.

Enter Guildenstern and Rosencrantz.

POLONIUS  FTLN 1302You go to seek the Lord Hamlet. There he is.
ROSENCRANTZ , to Polonius  FTLN 1303God save you, sir.
Polonius exits.
GUILDENSTERN  FTLN 1304240My honored lord.
ROSENCRANTZ  FTLN 1305My most dear lord.
HAMLET  FTLN 1306My excellent good friends! How dost thou,
FTLN 1307 Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do
FTLN 1308 you both?
ROSENCRANTZ 
FTLN 1309245 As the indifferent children of the earth.
GUILDENSTERN 
FTLN 1310 Happy in that we are not overhappy.
FTLN 1311 On Fortune’s cap, we are not the very button.
HAMLET  FTLN 1312Nor the soles of her shoe?
ROSENCRANTZ  FTLN 1313Neither, my lord.
HAMLET  FTLN 1314250Then you live about her waist, or in the
FTLN 1315 middle of her favors?
GUILDENSTERN  FTLN 1316Faith, her privates we.
HAMLET  FTLN 1317In the secret parts of Fortune? O, most true!
FTLN 1318 She is a strumpet. What news?
ROSENCRANTZ  FTLN 1319255None, my lord, but that the world’s
FTLN 1320 grown honest.

---

HAMLET  FTLN 1321Then is doomsday near. But your news is not
FTLN 1322 true. Let me question more in particular. What
FTLN 1323 have you, my good friends, deserved at the hands of
FTLN 1324260 Fortune that she sends you to prison hither?
GUILDENSTERN  FTLN 1325Prison, my lord?
HAMLET  FTLN 1326Denmark’s a prison.
ROSENCRANTZ  FTLN 1327Then is the world one.
HAMLET  FTLN 1328A goodly one, in which there are many confines,
FTLN 1329265 wards, and dungeons, Denmark being one o’
FTLN 1330 th’ worst.
ROSENCRANTZ  FTLN 1331We think not so, my lord.
HAMLET  FTLN 1332Why, then, ’tis none to you, for there is
FTLN 1333 nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it
FTLN 1334270 so. To me, it is a prison.
ROSENCRANTZ  FTLN 1335Why, then, your ambition makes it one.
FTLN 1336 ’Tis too narrow for your mind.
HAMLET  FTLN 1337O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and
FTLN 1338 count myself a king of infinite space, were it not
FTLN 1339275 that I have bad dreams.
GUILDENSTERN  FTLN 1340Which dreams, indeed, are ambition,
FTLN 1341 for the very substance of the ambitious is merely
FTLN 1342 the shadow of a dream.
HAMLET  FTLN 1343A dream itself is but a shadow.
ROSENCRANTZ  FTLN 1344280Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy
FTLN 1345 and light a quality that it is but a shadow’s shadow.
HAMLET  FTLN 1346Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs
FTLN 1347 and outstretched heroes the beggars’ shadows.
FTLN 1348 Shall we to th’ court? For, by my fay, I cannot
FTLN 1349285 reason.
ROSENCRANTZ/GUILDENSTERN  FTLN 1350We’ll wait upon you.
HAMLET  FTLN 1351No such matter. I will not sort you with the
FTLN 1352 rest of my servants, for, to speak to you like an
FTLN 1353 honest man, I am most dreadfully attended. But
FTLN 1354290 in the beaten way of friendship, what make you at
FTLN 1355 Elsinore?
ROSENCRANTZ  FTLN 1356To visit you, my lord, no other occasion.

---

HAMLET  FTLN 1357Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks;
FTLN 1358 but I thank you, and sure, dear friends, my thanks
FTLN 1359295 are too dear a halfpenny. Were you not sent for?
FTLN 1360 Is it your own inclining? Is it a free visitation?
FTLN 1361 Come, come, deal justly with me. Come, come; nay,
FTLN 1362 speak.
GUILDENSTERN  FTLN 1363What should we say, my lord?
HAMLET  FTLN 1364300Anything but to th’ purpose. You were sent
FTLN 1365 for, and there is a kind of confession in your looks
FTLN 1366 which your modesties have not craft enough to
FTLN 1367 color. I know the good king and queen have sent for
FTLN 1368 you.
ROSENCRANTZ  FTLN 1369305To what end, my lord?
HAMLET  FTLN 1370That you must teach me. But let me conjure
FTLN 1371 you by the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy
FTLN 1372 of our youth, by the obligation of our ever-preserved
FTLN 1373 love, and by what more dear a better
FTLN 1374310 proposer can charge you withal: be even and direct
FTLN 1375 with me whether you were sent for or no.
ROSENCRANTZ , to Guildenstern  FTLN 1376What say you?
HAMLET , aside  FTLN 1377Nay, then, I have an eye of you.—If
FTLN 1378 you love me, hold not off.
GUILDENSTERN  FTLN 1379315My lord, we were sent for.
HAMLET  FTLN 1380I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation
FTLN 1381 prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the
FTLN 1382 King and Queen molt no feather. I have of late, but
FTLN 1383 wherefore I know not, lost all my mirth, forgone all
FTLN 1384320 custom of exercises, and, indeed, it goes so heavily
FTLN 1385 with my disposition that this goodly frame, the
FTLN 1386 Earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this most
FTLN 1387 excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o’erhanging
FTLN 1388 firmament, this majestical roof, fretted
FTLN 1389325 with golden fire—why, it appeareth nothing to me
FTLN 1390 but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapors.
FTLN 1391 What a piece of work is a man, how noble in
FTLN 1392 reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving

---

FTLN 1393 how express and admirable; in action how like
FTLN 1394330 an angel, in apprehension how like a god: the
FTLN 1395 beauty of the world, the paragon of animals—and
FTLN 1396 yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man
FTLN 1397 delights not me, no, nor women neither, though by
FTLN 1398 your smiling you seem to say so.
ROSENCRANTZ  FTLN 1399335My lord, there was no such stuff in my
FTLN 1400 thoughts.
HAMLET  FTLN 1401Why did you laugh, then, when I said “man
FTLN 1402 delights not me”?
ROSENCRANTZ  FTLN 1403To think, my lord, if you delight not in
FTLN 1404340 man, what Lenten entertainment the players shall
FTLN 1405 receive from you. We coted them on the way, and
FTLN 1406 hither are they coming to offer you service.
HAMLET  FTLN 1407He that plays the king shall be welcome—his
FTLN 1408 Majesty shall have tribute on me. The adventurous
FTLN 1409345 knight shall use his foil and target, the lover shall
FTLN 1410 not sigh gratis, the humorous man shall end his
FTLN 1411 part in peace, the clown shall make those laugh
FTLN 1412 whose lungs are tickle o’ th’ sear, and the lady
FTLN 1413 shall say her mind freely, or the blank verse shall
FTLN 1414350 halt for ’t. What players are they?
ROSENCRANTZ  FTLN 1415Even those you were wont to take such
FTLN 1416 delight in, the tragedians of the city.
HAMLET  FTLN 1417How chances it they travel? Their residence,
FTLN 1418 both in reputation and profit, was better both ways.
ROSENCRANTZ  FTLN 1419355I think their inhibition comes by the
FTLN 1420 means of the late innovation.
HAMLET  FTLN 1421Do they hold the same estimation they did
FTLN 1422 when I was in the city? Are they so followed?
ROSENCRANTZ  FTLN 1423No, indeed are they not.
HAMLET  FTLN 1424360How comes it? Do they grow rusty?
ROSENCRANTZ  FTLN 1425Nay, their endeavor keeps in the wonted
FTLN 1426 pace. But there is, sir, an aerie of children, little
FTLN 1427 eyases, that cry out on the top of question and are
FTLN 1428 most tyrannically clapped for ’t. These are now the

---

FTLN 1429365 fashion and so berattle the common stages (so
FTLN 1430 they call them) that many wearing rapiers are afraid
FTLN 1431 of goose quills and dare scarce come thither.
HAMLET  FTLN 1432What, are they children? Who maintains ’em?
FTLN 1433 How are they escoted? Will they pursue the quality
FTLN 1434370 no longer than they can sing? Will they not say
FTLN 1435 afterwards, if they should grow themselves to common
FTLN 1436 players (as it is most like, if their means are
FTLN 1437 no better), their writers do them wrong to make
FTLN 1438 them exclaim against their own succession?
ROSENCRANTZ  FTLN 1439375Faith, there has been much to-do on
FTLN 1440 both sides, and the nation holds it no sin to tar
FTLN 1441 them to controversy. There was for a while no
FTLN 1442 money bid for argument unless the poet and the
FTLN 1443 player went to cuffs in the question.
HAMLET  FTLN 1444380Is ’t possible?
GUILDENSTERN  FTLN 1445O, there has been much throwing
FTLN 1446 about of brains.
HAMLET  FTLN 1447Do the boys carry it away?
ROSENCRANTZ  FTLN 1448Ay, that they do, my lord—Hercules
FTLN 1449385 and his load too.
HAMLET  FTLN 1450It is not very strange; for my uncle is King of
FTLN 1451 Denmark, and those that would make mouths at
FTLN 1452 him while my father lived give twenty, forty, fifty,
FTLN 1453 a hundred ducats apiece for his picture in little.
FTLN 1454390 ’Sblood, there is something in this more than natural,
FTLN 1455 if philosophy could find it out.
A flourish for the Players.
GUILDENSTERN  FTLN 1456There are the players.
HAMLET  FTLN 1457Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore.
FTLN 1458 Your hands, come then. Th’ appurtenance of welcome
FTLN 1459395 is fashion and ceremony. Let me comply
FTLN 1460 with you in this garb, lest my extent to the players,
FTLN 1461 which, I tell you, must show fairly outwards, should
FTLN 1462 more appear like entertainment than yours. You are
FTLN 1463 welcome. But my uncle-father and aunt-mother are
FTLN 1464400 deceived.

---

GUILDENSTERN  FTLN 1465In what, my dear lord?
HAMLET  FTLN 1466I am but mad north-north-west. When the
FTLN 1467 wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw.

Enter Polonius.

POLONIUS  FTLN 1468Well be with you, gentlemen.
HAMLET  FTLN 1469405Hark you, Guildenstern, and you too—at
FTLN 1470 each ear a hearer! That great baby you see there is
FTLN 1471 not yet out of his swaddling clouts.
ROSENCRANTZ  FTLN 1472Haply he is the second time come to
FTLN 1473 them, for they say an old man is twice a child.
HAMLET  FTLN 1474410I will prophesy he comes to tell me of the
FTLN 1475 players; mark it.—You say right, sir, a Monday
FTLN 1476 morning, ’twas then indeed.
POLONIUS  FTLN 1477My lord, I have news to tell you.
HAMLET  FTLN 1478My lord, I have news to tell you: when Roscius
FTLN 1479415 was an actor in Rome—
POLONIUS  FTLN 1480The actors are come hither, my lord.
HAMLET  FTLN 1481Buzz, buzz.
POLONIUS  FTLN 1482Upon my honor—
HAMLET  FTLN 1483Then came each actor on his ass.
POLONIUS  FTLN 1484420The best actors in the world, either for
FTLN 1485 tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical,
FTLN 1486 historical-pastoral, tragical-historical,
FTLN 1487 tragical-comical-historical-pastoral, scene individable, or
FTLN 1488 poem unlimited. Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor
FTLN 1489425 Plautus too light. For the law of writ and the liberty,
FTLN 1490 these are the only men.
HAMLET  FTLN 1491O Jephthah, judge of Israel, what a treasure
FTLN 1492 hadst thou!
POLONIUS  FTLN 1493What a treasure had he, my lord?
HAMLET  FTLN 1494430Why,
FTLN 1495 One fair daughter, and no more,
FTLN 1496 The which he lovèd passing well.
POLONIUS , aside  FTLN 1497Still on my daughter.
HAMLET  FTLN 1498Am I not i’ th’ right, old Jephthah?

---

POLONIUS  FTLN 1499435If you call me “Jephthah,” my lord: I have a
FTLN 1500 daughter that I love passing well.
HAMLET  FTLN 1501Nay, that follows not.
POLONIUS  FTLN 1502What follows then, my lord?
HAMLET  FTLN 1503Why,
FTLN 1504440 As by lot, God wot
FTLN 1505 and then, you know,
FTLN 1506 It came to pass, as most like it was—
FTLN 1507 the first row of the pious chanson will show you
FTLN 1508 more, for look where my abridgment comes.

Enter the Players.

FTLN 1509445 You are welcome, masters; welcome all.—I am glad
FTLN 1510 to see thee well.—Welcome, good friends.—O my
FTLN 1511 old friend! Why, thy face is valanced since I saw thee
FTLN 1512 last. Com’st thou to beard me in Denmark?—What,
FTLN 1513 my young lady and mistress! By ’r Lady, your ladyship
FTLN 1514450 is nearer to heaven than when I saw you last, by
FTLN 1515 the altitude of a chopine. Pray God your voice, like a
FTLN 1516 piece of uncurrent gold, be not cracked within the
FTLN 1517 ring. Masters, you are all welcome. We’ll e’en to ’t
FTLN 1518 like French falconers, fly at anything we see. We’ll
FTLN 1519455 have a speech straight. Come, give us a taste of your
FTLN 1520 quality. Come, a passionate speech.
FIRST PLAYER  FTLN 1521What speech, my good lord?
HAMLET  FTLN 1522I heard thee speak me a speech once, but it
FTLN 1523 was never acted, or, if it was, not above once; for
FTLN 1524460 the play, I remember, pleased not the million:
FTLN 1525 ’twas caviary to the general. But it was (as I
FTLN 1526 received it, and others whose judgments in such
FTLN 1527 matters cried in the top of mine) an excellent play,
FTLN 1528 well digested in the scenes, set down with as much
FTLN 1529465 modesty as cunning. I remember one said there
FTLN 1530 were no sallets in the lines to make the matter
FTLN 1531 savory, nor no matter in the phrase that might indict
FTLN 1532 the author of affection, but called it an honest

---

FTLN 1533 method, as wholesome as sweet and, by very much,
FTLN 1534470 more handsome than fine. One speech in ’t I
FTLN 1535 chiefly loved. ’Twas Aeneas’ tale to Dido, and
FTLN 1536 thereabout of it especially when he speaks of
FTLN 1537 Priam’s slaughter. If it live in your memory, begin at
FTLN 1538 this line—let me see, let me see:
FTLN 1539475 The rugged Pyrrhus, like th’ Hyrcanian beast—
FTLN 1540 ’tis not so; it begins with Pyrrhus:
FTLN 1541 The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms,
FTLN 1542 Black as his purpose, did the night resemble
FTLN 1543 When he lay couchèd in th’ ominous horse,
FTLN 1544480 Hath now this dread and black complexion smeared
FTLN 1545 With heraldry more dismal. Head to foot,
FTLN 1546 Now is he total gules, horridly tricked
FTLN 1547 With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons,
FTLN 1548 Baked and impasted with the parching streets,
FTLN 1549485 That lend a tyrannous and a damnèd light
FTLN 1550 To their lord’s murder. Roasted in wrath and fire,
FTLN 1551 And thus o’ersizèd with coagulate gore,
FTLN 1552 With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus
FTLN 1553 Old grandsire Priam seeks.
FTLN 1554490 So, proceed you.
POLONIUS  FTLN 1555’Fore God, my lord, well spoken, with good
FTLN 1556 accent and good discretion.
FIRST PLAYER  FTLN 1557 Anon he finds him
FTLN 1558 Striking too short at Greeks. His antique sword,
FTLN 1559495 Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls,
FTLN 1560 Repugnant to command. Unequal matched,
FTLN 1561 Pyrrhus at Priam drives, in rage strikes wide;
FTLN 1562 But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword
FTLN 1563 Th’ unnervèd father falls. Then senseless Ilium,
FTLN 1564500 Seeming to feel this blow, with flaming top
FTLN 1565 Stoops to his base, and with a hideous crash
FTLN 1566 Takes prisoner Pyrrhus’ ear. For lo, his sword,
FTLN 1567 Which was declining on the milky head
FTLN 1568 Of reverend Priam, seemed i’ th’ air to stick.

---

113

Hamlet

ACT 2. SC. 2

FTLN 1569505 So as a painted tyrant Pyrrhus stood
FTLN 1570 And, like a neutral to his will and matter,
FTLN 1571 Did nothing.
FTLN 1572 But as we often see against some storm
FTLN 1573 A silence in the heavens, the rack stand still,
FTLN 1574510 The bold winds speechless, and the orb below
FTLN 1575 As hush as death, anon the dreadful thunder
FTLN 1576 Doth rend the region; so, after Pyrrhus’ pause,
FTLN 1577 Arousèd vengeance sets him new a-work,
FTLN 1578 And never did the Cyclops’ hammers fall
FTLN 1579515 On Mars’s armor, forged for proof eterne,
FTLN 1580 With less remorse than Pyrrhus’ bleeding sword
FTLN 1581 Now falls on Priam.
FTLN 1582 Out, out, thou strumpet Fortune! All you gods
FTLN 1583 In general synod take away her power,
FTLN 1584520 Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel,
FTLN 1585 And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven
FTLN 1586 As low as to the fiends!
POLONIUS  FTLN 1587This is too long.
HAMLET  FTLN 1588It shall to the barber’s with your beard.—
FTLN 1589525 Prithee say on. He’s for a jig or a tale of bawdry, or
FTLN 1590 he sleeps. Say on; come to Hecuba.
FIRST PLAYER 
FTLN 1591 But who, ah woe, had seen the moblèd queen—
HAMLET  FTLN 1592“The moblèd queen”?
POLONIUS  FTLN 1593That’s good. “Moblèd queen” is good.
FIRST PLAYER 
FTLN 1594530 Run barefoot up and down, threat’ning the flames
FTLN 1595 With bisson rheum, a clout upon that head
FTLN 1596 Where late the diadem stood, and for a robe,
FTLN 1597 About her lank and all o’erteemèd loins
FTLN 1598 A blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up—
FTLN 1599535 Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steeped,
FTLN 1600 ’Gainst Fortune’s state would treason have
FTLN 1601 pronounced.
FTLN 1602 But if the gods themselves did see her then

---

115

Hamlet

ACT 2. SC. 2

FTLN 1603 When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport
FTLN 1604540 In mincing with his sword her husband’s limbs,
FTLN 1605 The instant burst of clamor that she made
FTLN 1606 (Unless things mortal move them not at all)
FTLN 1607 Would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven
FTLN 1608 And passion in the gods.
POLONIUS  FTLN 1609545Look whe’er he has not turned his color and
FTLN 1610 has tears in ’s eyes. Prithee, no more.
HAMLET  FTLN 1611’Tis well. I’ll have thee speak out the rest of
FTLN 1612 this soon.—Good my lord, will you see the players
FTLN 1613 well bestowed? Do you hear, let them be well used,
FTLN 1614550 for they are the abstract and brief chronicles of the
FTLN 1615 time. After your death you were better have a bad
FTLN 1616 epitaph than their ill report while you live.
POLONIUS  FTLN 1617My lord, I will use them according to their
FTLN 1618 desert.
HAMLET  FTLN 1619555God’s bodykins, man, much better! Use every
FTLN 1620 man after his desert and who shall ’scape
FTLN 1621 whipping? Use them after your own honor and
FTLN 1622 dignity. The less they deserve, the more merit is in
FTLN 1623 your bounty. Take them in.
POLONIUS  FTLN 1624560Come, sirs.
HAMLET  FTLN 1625Follow him, friends. We’ll hear a play
FTLN 1626 tomorrow.  As Polonius and Players exit, Hamlet speaks to
 the First Player.  FTLN 1627Dost thou hear me, old friend? Can
FTLN 1628 you play “The Murder of Gonzago”?
FIRST PLAYER  FTLN 1629565Ay, my lord.
HAMLET  FTLN 1630We’ll ha ’t tomorrow night. You could, for a
FTLN 1631 need, study a speech of some dozen or sixteen
FTLN 1632 lines, which I would set down and insert in ’t,
FTLN 1633 could you not?
FIRST PLAYER  FTLN 1634570Ay, my lord.
HAMLET  FTLN 1635Very well. Follow that lord—and look you
FTLN 1636 mock him not.  First Player exits. My good friends,
FTLN 1637 I’ll leave you till night. You are welcome to Elsinore.
ROSENCRANTZ  FTLN 1638Good my lord.

---

HAMLET 
FTLN 1639575 Ay, so, good-bye to you.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern exit.
FTLN 1640 Now I am alone.
FTLN 1641 O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!
FTLN 1642 Is it not monstrous that this player here,
FTLN 1643 But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
FTLN 1644580 Could force his soul so to his own conceit
FTLN 1645 That from her working all his visage wanned,
FTLN 1646 Tears in his eyes, distraction in his aspect,
FTLN 1647 A broken voice, and his whole function suiting
FTLN 1648 With forms to his conceit—and all for nothing!
FTLN 1649585 For Hecuba!
FTLN 1650 What’s Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,
FTLN 1651 That he should weep for her? What would he do
FTLN 1652 Had he the motive and the cue for passion
FTLN 1653 That I have? He would drown the stage with tears
FTLN 1654590 And cleave the general ear with horrid speech,
FTLN 1655 Make mad the guilty and appall the free,
FTLN 1656 Confound the ignorant and amaze indeed
FTLN 1657 The very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet I,
FTLN 1658 A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak
FTLN 1659595 Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause,
FTLN 1660 And can say nothing—no, not for a king
FTLN 1661 Upon whose property and most dear life
FTLN 1662 A damned defeat was made. Am I a coward?
FTLN 1663 Who calls me “villain”? breaks my pate across?
FTLN 1664600 Plucks off my beard and blows it in my face?
FTLN 1665 Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i’ th’ throat
FTLN 1666 As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this?
FTLN 1667 Ha! ’Swounds, I should take it! For it cannot be
FTLN 1668 But I am pigeon-livered and lack gall
FTLN 1669605 To make oppression bitter, or ere this
FTLN 1670 I should have fatted all the region kites
FTLN 1671 With this slave’s offal. Bloody, bawdy villain!
FTLN 1672 Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless
FTLN 1673 villain!

---

FTLN 1674610 O vengeance!
FTLN 1675 Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave,
FTLN 1676 That I, the son of a dear father murdered,
FTLN 1677 Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,
FTLN 1678 Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words
FTLN 1679615 And fall a-cursing like a very drab,
FTLN 1680 A stallion! Fie upon ’t! Foh!
FTLN 1681 About, my brains!—Hum, I have heard
FTLN 1682 That guilty creatures sitting at a play
FTLN 1683 Have, by the very cunning of the scene,
FTLN 1684620 Been struck so to the soul that presently
FTLN 1685 They have proclaimed their malefactions;
FTLN 1686 For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
FTLN 1687 With most miraculous organ. I’ll have these players
FTLN 1688 Play something like the murder of my father
FTLN 1689625 Before mine uncle. I’ll observe his looks;
FTLN 1690 I’ll tent him to the quick. If he do blench,
FTLN 1691 I know my course. The spirit that I have seen
FTLN 1692 May be a devil, and the devil hath power
FTLN 1693 T’ assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps,
FTLN 1694630 Out of my weakness and my melancholy,
FTLN 1695 As he is very potent with such spirits,
FTLN 1696 Abuses me to damn me. I’ll have grounds
FTLN 1697 More relative than this. The play’s the thing
FTLN 1698 Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King.
He exits.