ACT 2
Scene 2
...utter love. Come.
Flourish. Enter King and Queen, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and Attendants.
...a king’s remembrance.
Both your Majesties
Might, by the sovereign power you have of us,
Put your dread pleasures more into command
Than to entreaty.
... Ay, amen!
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern exit with some Attendants.
...tedious old fools.
Enter Guildenstern and Rosencrantz.
...There he is.
to Polonius
God save you, sir.
...My honored lord.
My most dear lord.
...do you both?
As the indifferent children of the earth.
...of her shoe?
Neither, my lord.
...strumpet. What news?
None, my lord, but that the world’s
grown honest.
...Denmark’s a prison.
Then is the world one.
...o’ th’ worst.
We think not so, my lord.
...is a prison.
Why, then, your ambition makes it one.
’Tis too narrow for your mind.
...but a shadow.
Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy
and light a quality that it is but a shadow’s shadow.
...I cannot reason.
We’ll wait upon you.
...you at Elsinore?
To visit you, my lord, no other occasion.
...sent for you.
To what end, my lord?
...for or no.
to Guildenstern
What say you?
...to say so.
My lord, there was no such stuff in my
thoughts.
...delights not me”?
To think, my lord, if you delight not in
man, what Lenten entertainment the players shall
receive from you. We coted them on the way, and
hither are they coming to offer you service.
...players are they?
Even those you were wont to take such
delight in, the tragedians of the city.
...better both ways.
I think their inhibition comes by the
means of the late innovation.
...they so followed?
No, indeed are they not.
...they grow rusty?
Nay, their endeavor keeps in the wonted
pace. But there is, sir, an aerie of children, little
eyases, that cry out on the top of question and are
most tyrannically clapped for ’t. These are now the
fashion and so berattle the common stages (so
they call them) that many wearing rapiers are afraid
of goose quills and dare scarce come thither.
...their own succession?
Faith, there has been much to-do on
both sides, and the nation holds it no sin to tar
them to controversy. There was for a while no
money bid for argument unless the poet and the
player went to cuffs in the question.
...carry it away?
Ay, that they do, my lord—Hercules
and his load too.
...his swaddling clouts.
Haply he is the second time come to
them, for they say an old man is twice a child.
...welcome to Elsinore.
Good my lord.
...good-bye to you.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern exit.
ACT 3
Scene 1
...of the King.
Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Lords.
...and dangerous lunacy?
He does confess he feels himself distracted,
But from what cause he will by no means speak.
...receive you well?
Most like a gentleman.
...of his disposition.
Niggard of question, but of our demands
Most free in his reply.
...to any pastime?
Madam, it so fell out that certain players
We o’erraught on the way. Of these we told him,
And there did seem in him a kind of joy
To hear of it. They are here about the court,
And, as I think, they have already order
This night to play before him.
...into these delights.
We shall, my lord.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and Lords exit.
Scene 2
...make you ready.
Enter Polonius, Guildenstern, and Rosencrantz.
...to hasten them?
Ay, my lord.
They exit.
...you a place.
Enter Trumpets and Kettle Drums. Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and other Lords attendant with the King’s guard carrying torches.
...the players ready?
Ay, my lord. They stay upon your
patience.
...Lights, lights, lights!
All but Hamlet and Horatio exit.
...Come, some music!
Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
...Sir, I cannot.
What, my lord?
...mother, you say—
Then thus she says: your behavior hath
struck her into amazement and admiration.
...mother’s admiration? Impart.
She desires to speak with you in her
closet ere you go to bed.
...trade with us?
My lord, you once did love me.
...pickers and stealers.
Good my lord, what is your cause of
distemper? You do surely bar the door upon your
own liberty if you deny your griefs to your friend.
...I lack advancement.
How can that be, when you have the
voice of the King himself for your succession in
Denmark?
...Leave me, friends.
All but Hamlet exit.
Scene 3
...my soul, consent.
Enter King, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern.
...upon your Majesty.
The single and peculiar life is bound
With all the strength and armor of the mind
To keep itself from noyance, but much more
That spirit upon whose weal depends and rests
The lives of many. The cess of majesty
Dies not alone, but like a gulf doth draw
What’s near it with it; or it is a massy wheel
Fixed on the summit of the highest mount,
To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things
Are mortised and adjoined, which, when it falls,
Each small annexment, petty consequence,
Attends the boist’rous ruin. Never alone
Did the king sigh, but with a general groan.
...goes too free-footed.
We will haste us.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern exit.
ACT 4
Scene 1
...Good night, mother.
Enter King and Queen, with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
...a little while.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern exit.
...and excuse.—Ho, Guildenstern!
Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
...haste in this.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern exit.
Scene 2
...here they come.
Enter Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and others.
What have you done, my lord, with the dead body?
...whereto ’tis kin.
Tell us where ’tis, that we may take it thence
And bear it to the chapel.
...not believe it.
Believe what?
...of a king?
Take you me for a sponge, my lord?
...be dry again.
I understand you not, my lord.
...a foolish ear.
My lord, you must tell us where the
body is and go with us to the King.
...and all after!
They exit.
Scene 3
...not at all.
Enter Rosencrantz.
...what hath befallen?
Where the dead body is bestowed, my lord,
We cannot get from him.
...where is he?
Without, my lord; guarded, to know your pleasure.
...him before us.
Ho! Bring in the lord.
...you, make haste.
All but the King exit.
Scene 4
...Go softly on.
Enter Hamlet, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and others.
...wi’ you, sir.
Will ’t please you go, my lord?
...a little before.
All but Hamlet exit.