Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Act 2 - Scene 2

Elsinore. A room in the Castle.

Claudius : Welcome, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. [p]Moreover that we much
did long to see you, [p]The need we have to use you did provoke [p]Our
hasty sending. Something have you heard [p]Of Hamlet's transformation.
So I call it, [p]Sith nor th' exterior nor the inward man [p]Resembles
that it was. What it should be, [p]More than his father's death, that
thus hath put him [p]So much from th' understanding of himself, [p]I
cannot dream of. I entreat you both [p]That, being of so young days
brought up with him, [p]And since so neighbour'd to his youth and
haviour, [p]That you vouchsafe your rest here in our court [p]Some
little time; so by your companies [p]To draw him on to pleasures, and
to gather [p]So much as from occasion you may glean, [p]Whether aught
to us unknown afflicts him thus [p]That, open'd, lies within our
remedy.

Gertrude : Good gentlemen, he hath much talk'd of you, [p]And sure I am two men
there are not living [p]To whom he more adheres. If it will please
you [p]To show us so much gentry and good will [p]As to expend your
time with us awhile [p]For the supply and profit of our hope, [p]Your
visitation shall receive such thanks [p]As fits a king's remembrance.

Rosencrantz : Both your Majesties [p]Might, by the sovereign power you have of
us, [p]Put your dread pleasures more into command [p]Than to
entreaty.

Guildenstern : But we both obey, [p]And here give up ourselves, in the full
bent, [p]To lay our service freely at your feet, [p]To be commanded.

Claudius : Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern.

Gertrude : Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz. [p]And I beseech you
instantly to visit [p]My too much changed son.- Go, some of
you, [p]And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is.

Guildenstern : Heavens make our presence and our practices [p]Pleasant and helpful to
him!

Gertrude : Ay, amen!

Polonius : Th' ambassadors from Norway, my good lord, [p]Are joyfully return'd.

Claudius : Thou still hast been the father of good news.

Polonius : Have I, my lord? Assure you, my good liege, [p]I hold my duty as I
hold my soul, [p]Both to my God and to my gracious king; [p]And I do
think- or else this brain of mine [p]Hunts not the trail of policy so
sure [p]As it hath us'd to do- that I have found [p]The very cause of
Hamlet's lunacy.

Claudius : O, speak of that! That do I long to hear.

Polonius : Give first admittance to th' ambassadors. [p]My news shall be the
fruit to that great feast.

Claudius : Thyself do grace to them, and bring them in. [p][Exit Polonius.] [p]He
tells me, my dear Gertrude, he hath found [p]The head and source of
all your son's distemper.

Gertrude : I doubt it is no other but the main, [p]His father's death and our
o'erhasty marriage.

Claudius : Well, we shall sift him. [p][Enter Polonius, Voltemand, and
Cornelius.] [p]Welcome, my good friends. [p]Say, Voltemand, what from
our brother Norway?

Voltemand : Most fair return of greetings and desires. [p]Upon our first, he sent
out to suppress [p]His nephew's levies; which to him appear'd [p]To be
a preparation 'gainst the Polack, [p]But better look'd into, he truly
found [p]It was against your Highness; whereat griev'd, [p]That so his
sickness, age, and impotence [p]Was falsely borne in hand, sends out
arrests [p]On Fortinbras; which he, in brief, obeys, [p]Receives
rebuke from Norway, and, in fine, [p]Makes vow before his uncle never
more [p]To give th' assay of arms against your Majesty. [p]Whereon old
Norway, overcome with joy, [p]Gives him three thousand crowns in
annual fee [p]And his commission to employ those soldiers, [p]So
levied as before, against the Polack; [p]With an entreaty, herein
further shown, [p][Gives a paper.] [p]That it might please you to give
quiet pass [p]Through your dominions for this enterprise, [p]On such
regards of safety and allowance [p]As therein are set down.

Claudius : It likes us well; [p]And at our more consider'd time we'll read,
[p]Answer, and think upon this business. [p]Meantime we thank you for
your well-took labour. [p]Go to your rest; at night we'll feast
together. [p]Most welcome home! Exeunt
Ambassadors.

Polonius : This business is well ended. [p]My liege, and madam, to
expostulate [p]What majesty should be, what duty is, [p]Why day is
day, night is night, and time is time. [p]Were nothing but to waste
night, day, and time. [p]Therefore, since brevity is the soul of
wit, [p]And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, [p]I will be
brief. Your noble son is mad. [p]Mad call I it; for, to define true
madness, [p]What is't but to be nothing else but mad? [p]But let that
go.

Gertrude : More matter, with less art.

Polonius : Madam, I swear I use no art at all. [p]That he is mad, 'tis true: 'tis
true 'tis pity; [p]And pity 'tis 'tis true. A foolish figure! [p]But
farewell it, for I will use no art. [p]Mad let us grant him then. And
now remains [p]That we find out the cause of this effect- [p]Or rather
say, the cause of this defect, [p]For this effect defective comes by
cause. [p]Thus it remains, and the remainder thus. [p]Perpend. [p]I
have a daughter (have while she is mine), [p]Who in her duty and
obedience, mark, [p]Hath given me this. Now gather, and
surmise. [p][Reads] the letter.] [p]'To the celestial, and my soul's
idol, the most beautified Ophelia,'- [p]That's an ill phrase, a vile
phrase; 'beautified' is a vile phrase. [p]But you shall hear.
Thus: [p][Reads.] [p]'In her excellent white bosom, these, &c.'

Gertrude : Came this from Hamlet to her?

Polonius : Good madam, stay awhile. I will be faithful. [Reads.] [p]
'Doubt thou the stars are fire; [p] Doubt that the sun doth
move; [p] Doubt truth to be a liar; [p] But never doubt I
love. [p] 'O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers; I have not art
to [p]reckon my groans; but that I love thee best, O most best,
believe [p]it. Adieu. [p] 'Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this
machine is to [p]him, HAMLET.' [p]This, in obedience, hath my daughter
shown me; [p]And more above, hath his solicitings, [p]As they fell out
by time, by means, and place, [p]All given to mine ear.

Claudius : But how hath she [p]Receiv'd his love?

Polonius : What do you think of me?

Claudius : As of a man faithful and honourable.

Polonius : I would fain prove so. But what might you think, [p]When I had seen
this hot love on the wing [p](As I perceiv'd it, I must tell you
that, [p]Before my daughter told me), what might you, [p]Or my dear
Majesty your queen here, think, [p]If I had play'd the desk or table
book, [p]Or given my heart a winking, mute and dumb, [p]Or look'd upon
this love with idle sight? [p]What might you think? No, I went round
to work [p]And my young mistress thus I did bespeak: [p]'Lord Hamlet
is a prince, out of thy star. [p]This must not be.' And then I
prescripts gave her, [p]That she should lock herself from his
resort, [p]Admit no messengers, receive no tokens. [p]Which done, she
took the fruits of my advice, [p]And he, repulsed, a short tale to
make, [p]Fell into a sadness, then into a fast, [p]Thence to a watch,
thence into a weakness, [p]Thence to a lightness, and, by this
declension, [p]Into the madness wherein now he raves, [p]And all we
mourn for.

Claudius : Do you think 'tis this?

Gertrude : it may be, very like.

Polonius : Hath there been such a time- I would fain know that- [p]That I have
Positively said ''Tis so,' [p]When it prov'd otherwise.?

Claudius : Not that I know.

Polonius : [points to his head and shoulder] Take this from this, if this be
otherwise. [p]If circumstances lead me, I will find [p]Where truth is
hid, though it were hid indeed [p]Within the centre.

Claudius : How may we try it further?

Polonius : You know sometimes he walks for hours together [p]Here in the lobby.

Gertrude : So he does indeed.

Polonius : At such a time I'll loose my daughter to him. [p]Be you and I behind
an arras then. [p]Mark the encounter. If he love her not, [p]And he
not from his reason fall'n thereon [p]Let me be no assistant for a
state, [p]But keep a farm and carters.

Claudius : We will try it.

Gertrude : But look where sadly the poor wretch comes reading.

Polonius : Away, I do beseech you, both away [p]I'll board him presently. O, give
me leave. [p][Exeunt King and Queen, [with Attendants].] [p]How does
my good Lord Hamlet?

Hamlet : Well, God-a-mercy.

Polonius : Do you know me, my lord?

Hamlet : Excellent well. You are a fishmonger.

Polonius : Not I, my lord.

Hamlet : Then I would you were so honest a man.

Polonius : Honest, my lord?

Hamlet : Ay, sir. To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man [p]pick'd
out of ten thousand.

Polonius : That's very true, my lord.

Hamlet : For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a god [p]kissing
carrion- Have you a daughter?

Polonius : I have, my lord.

Hamlet : Let her not walk i' th' sun. Conception is a blessing, but not [p]as
your daughter may conceive. Friend, look to't.

Polonius : [aside] How say you by that? Still harping on my daughter. Yet [p]he
knew me not at first. He said I was a fishmonger. He is far [p]gone,
far gone! And truly in my youth I suff'red much extremity [p]for love-
very near this. I'll speak to him again.- What do you [p]read, my
lord?

Hamlet : Words, words, words.

Polonius : What is the matter, my lord?

Hamlet : Between who?

Polonius : I mean, the matter that you read, my lord.

Hamlet : Slanders, sir; for the satirical rogue says here that old men [p]have
grey beards; that their faces are wrinkled; their eyes [p]purging
thick amber and plum-tree gum; and that they have a [p]plentiful lack
of wit, together with most weak hams. All which, [p]sir, though I most
powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it [p]not honesty to have
it thus set down; for you yourself, sir, [p]should be old as I am if,
like a crab, you could go backward.

Polonius : [aside] Though this be madness, yet there is a method in't.- [p] Will
You walk out of the air, my lord?

Hamlet : Into my grave?

Polonius : Indeed, that is out o' th' air. [Aside] How pregnant sometimes [p]his
replies are! a happiness that often madness hits on, which [p]reason
and sanity could not so prosperously be delivered of. I [p]will leave
him and suddenly contrive the means of meeting between [p]him and my
daughter.- My honourable lord, I will most humbly take [p]my leave of
you.

Hamlet : You cannot, sir, take from me anything that I will more [p]willingly
part withal- except my life, except my life, except my [p]life,

Polonius : Fare you well, my lord.

Hamlet : These tedious old fools!

Polonius : You go to seek the Lord Hamlet. There he is.

Rosencrantz : [to Polonius] God save you, sir!

Guildenstern : My honour'd lord!

Rosencrantz : My most dear lord!

Hamlet : My excellent good friends! How dost thou, Guildenstern?
Ah, [p]Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do ye both?

Rosencrantz : As the indifferent children of the earth.

Guildenstern : Happy in that we are not over-happy. [p]On Fortune's cap we are not
the very button.

Hamlet : Nor the soles of her shoe?

Rosencrantz : Neither, my lord.

Hamlet : Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of her [p]favours?

Guildenstern : Faith, her privates we.

Hamlet : In the secret parts of Fortune? O! most true! she is a [p]strumpet.
What news ?

Rosencrantz : None, my lord, but that the world's grown honest.

Hamlet : Then is doomsday near! But your news is not true. Let me [p]question
more in particular. What have you, my good friends, [p]deserved at the
hands of Fortune that she sends you to prison [p]hither?

Guildenstern : Prison, my lord?

Hamlet : Denmark's a prison.

Rosencrantz : Then is the world one.

Hamlet : A goodly one; in which there are many confines, wards,
and [p]dungeons, Denmark being one o' th' worst.

Rosencrantz : We think not so, my lord.

Hamlet : Why, then 'tis none to you; for there is nothing either good [p]or bad
but thinking makes it so. To me it is a prison.

Rosencrantz : Why, then your ambition makes it one. 'Tis too narrow for
your [p]mind.

Hamlet : O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a [p]king of
infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.

Guildenstern : Which dreams indeed are ambition; for the very substance of [p]the
ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.

Hamlet : A dream itself is but a shadow.

Rosencrantz : Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality that [p]it
is but a shadow's shadow.

Hamlet : Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and
outstretch'd [p]heroes the beggars' shadows. Shall we to th' court?
for, by my [p]fay, I cannot reason.

Rosencrantz : [with Guildenstern] We'll wait upon you.

Hamlet : No such matter! I will not sort you with the rest of my [p]servants;
for, to speak to you like an honest man, I am most [p]dreadfully
attended. But in the beaten way of friendship, what [p]make you at
Elsinore?

Rosencrantz : To visit you, my lord; no other occasion.

Hamlet : Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks; but I thank you; [p]and
sure, dear friends, my thanks are too dear a halfpenny. Were [p]you
not sent for? Is it your own inclining? Is it a free [p]visitation?
Come, deal justly with me. Come, come! Nay, speak.

Guildenstern : What should we say, my lord?

Hamlet : Why, anything- but to th' purpose. You were sent for; and [p]there is
a kind of confession in your looks, which your modesties [p]have not
craft enough to colour. I know the good King and Queen [p]have sent
for you.

Rosencrantz : To what end, my lord?

Hamlet : That you must teach me. But let me conjure you by the rights [p]of our
fellowship, by the consonancy of our youth, by the [p]obligation of
our ever-preserved love, and by what more dear a [p]better proposer
could charge you withal, be even and direct with [p]me, whether you
were sent for or no.

Rosencrantz : [aside to Guildenstern] What say you?

Hamlet : [aside] Nay then, I have an eye of you.- If you love me, hold [p]not
off.

Guildenstern : My lord, we were sent for.

Hamlet : I will tell you why. So shall my anticipation prevent
your [p]discovery, and your secrecy to the King and Queen moult
no [p]feather. I have of late- but wherefore I know not- lost all
my [p]mirth, forgone all custom of exercises; and indeed, it goes
so [p]heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the
earth, [p]seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent
canopy, the [p]air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this
majestical [p]roof fretted with golden fire- why, it appeareth no
other thing [p]to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of
vapours. What a [p]piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how
infinite in [p]faculties! in form and moving how express and
admirable! in [p]action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a
god! the [p]beauty of the world, the paragon of animals! And yet to me
what [p]is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me- no, nor
woman [p]neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.

Rosencrantz : My lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts.

Hamlet : Why did you laugh then, when I said 'Man delights not me'?

Rosencrantz : To think, my lord, if you delight not in man, what
lenten [p]entertainment the players shall receive from you. We coted
them [p]on the way, and hither are they coming to offer you service.

Hamlet : He that plays the king shall be welcome- his Majesty shall [p]have
tribute of me; the adventurous knight shall use his foil
and [p]target; the lover shall not sigh gratis; the humorous man
shall [p]end his part in peace; the clown shall make those laugh
whose [p]lungs are tickle o' th' sere; and the lady shall say her
mind [p]freely, or the blank verse shall halt for't. What players
are [p]they?

Rosencrantz : Even those you were wont to take such delight in, the [p]tragedians of
the city.

Hamlet : How chances it they travel? Their residence, both in [p]reputation and
profit, was better both ways.

Rosencrantz : I think their inhibition comes by the means of the
late [p]innovation.

Hamlet : Do they hold the same estimation they did when I was in the [p]city?
Are they so follow'd?

Rosencrantz : No indeed are they not.

Hamlet : How comes it? Do they grow rusty?

Rosencrantz : Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace; but there is, [p]sir,
an eyrie of children, little eyases, that cry out on the top [p]of
question and are most tyrannically clapp'd for't. These are now [p]the
fashion, and so berattle the common stages (so they call [p]them) that
many wearing rapiers are afraid of goosequills and [p]dare scarce come
thither.

Hamlet : What, are they children? Who maintains 'em? How are they [p]escoted?
Will they pursue the quality no longer than they can [p]sing? Will
they not say afterwards, if they should grow [p]themselves to common
players (as it is most like, if their means [p]are no better), their
writers do them wrong to make them exclaim [p]against their own
succession.

Rosencrantz : Faith, there has been much to do on both sides; and the
nation [p]holds it no sin to tarre them to controversy. There was, for
a [p]while, no money bid for argument unless the poet and the
player [p]went to cuffs in the question.

Hamlet : Is't possible?

Guildenstern : O, there has been much throwing about of brains.

Hamlet : Do the boys carry it away?

Rosencrantz : Ay, that they do, my lord- Hercules and his load too.

Hamlet : It is not very strange; for my uncle is King of Denmark, and [p]those
that would make mows at him while my father lived give [p]twenty,
forty, fifty, a hundred ducats apiece for his picture in [p]little.
'Sblood, there is something in this more than natural,
if [p]philosophy could find it out.

Guildenstern : There are the players.

Hamlet : Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands, come!
Th' [p]appurtenance of welcome is fashion and ceremony. Let me
comply [p]with you in this garb, lest my extent to the players (which
I [p]tell you must show fairly outwards) should more appear
like [p]entertainment than yours. You are welcome. But my
uncle-father [p]and aunt-mother are deceiv'd.

Guildenstern : In what, my dear lord?

Hamlet : I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly I [p]know a
hawk from a handsaw.xxx. Enter Polonius.

Polonius : Well be with you, gentlemen!

Hamlet : Hark you, Guildenstern- and you too- at each ear a hearer! [p]That
great baby you see there is not yet out of his swaddling [p]clouts.

Rosencrantz : Happily he's the second time come to them; for they say an old [p]man
is twice a child.

Hamlet : I will prophesy he comes to tell me of the players. Mark it.- [p]You
say right, sir; a Monday morning; twas so indeed.

Polonius : My lord, I have news to tell you.

Hamlet : My lord, I have news to tell you. When Roscius was an actor in Rome-

Polonius : The actors are come hither, my lord.

Hamlet : Buzz, buzz!

Polonius : Upon my honour-

Hamlet : Then came each actor on his ass-

Polonius : The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, [p]history,
pastoral, pastoral-comical,
historical-pastoral, [p]tragical-historical,
tragical-comical-historical-pastoral; scene [p]individable, or poem
unlimited. Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor [p]Plautus too light. For
the law of writ and the liberty, these are [p]the only men.

Hamlet : O Jephthah, judge of Israel, what a treasure hadst thou!

Polonius : What treasure had he, my lord?

Hamlet : Why, [p] 'One fair daughter, and no more, [p] The which he
loved passing well.'

Polonius : [aside] Still on my daughter.

Hamlet : Am I not i' th' right, old Jephthah?

Polonius : If you call me Jephthah, my lord, I have a daughter that I [p]love
passing well.

Hamlet : Nay, that follows not.

Polonius : What follows then, my lord?

Hamlet : Why, [p] 'As by lot, God wot,' [p] and then, you know, [p]
'It came to pass, as most like it was.' [p]The first row of the pious
chanson will show you more; for look [p]where my abridgment
comes. [p][Enter four or five Players.] [p]You are welcome, masters;
welcome, all.- I am glad to see thee [p]well.- Welcome, good friends.-
O, my old friend? Why, thy face is [p]valanc'd since I saw thee last.
Com'st' thou to' beard me in [p]Denmark?- What, my young lady and
mistress? By'r Lady, your [p]ladyship is nearer to heaven than when I
saw you last by the [p]altitude of a chopine. Pray God your voice,
like a piece of [p]uncurrent gold, be not crack'd within the ring.-
Masters, you are [p]all welcome. We'll e'en to't like French
falconers, fly at [p]anything we see. We'll have a speech straight.
Come, give us a [p]taste of your quality. Come, a passionate speech.

First Player : What speech, my good lord?

Hamlet : I heard thee speak me a speech once, but it was never acted; [p]or if
it was, not above once; for the play, I remember, pleas'd [p]not the
million, 'twas caviary to the general; but it was (as I [p]receiv'd
it, and others, whose judgments in such matters cried in [p]the top of
mine) an excellent play, well digested in the scenes, [p]set down with
as much modesty as cunning. I remember one said [p]there were no
sallets in the lines to make the matter savoury, [p]nor no matter in
the phrase that might indict the author of [p]affectation; but call'd
it an honest method, as wholesome as [p]sweet, and by very much more
handsome than fine. One speech in't [p]I chiefly lov'd. 'Twas AEneas'
tale to Dido, and thereabout of it [p]especially where he speaks of
Priam's slaughter. If it live in [p]your memory, begin at this line-
let me see, let me see: [p] 'The rugged Pyrrhus, like th'
Hyrcanian beast-' [p]'Tis not so; it begins with Pyrrhus: [p] 'The
rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms, [p] Black as his purpose, did
the night resemble [p] When he lay couched in the ominous
horse, [p] Hath now this dread and black complexion smear'd [p]
With heraldry more dismal. Head to foot [p] Now is be total gules,
horridly trick'd [p] With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters,
sons, [p] Bak'd and impasted with the parching streets, [p] That
lend a tyrannous and a damned light [p] To their lord's murther.
Roasted in wrath and fire, [p] And thus o'ersized with coagulate
gore, [p] With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus [p] Old
grandsire Priam seeks.' [p]So, proceed you.

Polonius : Fore God, my lord, well spoken, with good accent and good discretion.

First Player : 'Anon he finds him,

Polonius : This is too long.

Hamlet : It shall to the barber's, with your beard.- Prithee say on. [p]He's
for a jig or a tale of bawdry, or he sleeps. Say on; come
to [p]Hecuba.

First Player : 'But who, O who, had seen the mobled queen-'

Hamlet : 'The mobled queen'?

Polonius : That's good! 'Mobled queen' is good.

First Player : 'Run barefoot up and down, threat'ning the flames [p] With bisson
rheum; a clout upon that head [p] Where late the diadem stood, and for
a robe, [p] About her lank and all o'erteemed loins, [p] A blanket, in
the alarm of fear caught up- [p] Who this had seen, with tongue in
venom steep'd [p] 'Gainst Fortune's state would treason have
pronounc'd. [p] But if the gods themselves did see her then, [p] When
she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport [p] In Mincing with his sword her
husband's limbs, [p] The instant burst of clamour that she made [p]
(Unless things mortal move them not at all) [p] Would have made milch
the burning eyes of heaven [p] And passion in the gods.'

Polonius : Look, whe'r he has not turn'd his colour, and has tears in's [p]eyes.
Prithee no more!

Hamlet : 'Tis well. I'll have thee speak out the rest of this soon.- [p]Good my
lord, will you see the players well bestow'd? Do you [p]hear? Let them
be well us'd; for they are the abstract and brief [p]chronicles of the
time. After your death you were better have a [p]bad epitaph than
their ill report while you live.

Polonius : My lord, I will use them according to their desert.

Hamlet : God's bodykins, man, much better! Use every man after his [p]desert,
and who should scape whipping? Use them after your own [p]honour and
dignity. The less they deserve, the more merit is in [p]your bounty.
Take them in.

Polonius : Come, sirs.

Hamlet : Follow him, friends. We'll hear a play to-morrow. [p][Exeunt Polonius
and Players [except the First].] [p]Dost thou hear me, old friend? Can
you play 'The Murther of [p]Gonzago'?

First Player : Ay, my lord.

Hamlet : We'll ha't to-morrow night. You could, for a need, study a [p]speech
of some dozen or sixteen lines which I would set down and [p]insert
in't, could you not?

First Player : Ay, my lord.

Hamlet : Very well. Follow that lord- and look you mock him not. [p][Exit First
Player.] [p]My good friends, I'll leave you till night. You are
welcome to [p]Elsinore.

Rosencrantz : Good my lord!

Hamlet : Ay, so, God b' wi' ye! [Exeunt Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern [p]Now I am alone. [p]O what a rogue and peasant slave
am I! [p]Is it not monstrous that this player here, [p]But in a
fiction, in a dream of passion, [p]Could force his soul so to his own
conceit [p]That, from her working, all his visage wann'd, [p]Tears in
his eyes, distraction in's aspect, [p]A broken voice, and his whole
function suiting [p]With forms to his conceit? And all for
nothing! [p]For Hecuba! [p]What's Hecuba to him, or he to
Hecuba, [p]That he should weep for her? What would he do, [p]Had he
the motive and the cue for passion [p]That I have? He would drown the
stage with tears [p]And cleave the general ear with horrid
speech; [p]Make mad the guilty and appal the free, [p]Confound the
ignorant, and amaze indeed [p]The very faculties of eyes and
ears. [p]Yet I, [p]A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak [p]Like
John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause, [p]And can say nothing! No,
not for a king, [p]Upon whose property and most dear life [p]A damn'd
defeat was made. Am I a coward? [p]Who calls me villain? breaks my
pate across? [p]Plucks off my beard and blows it in my face? [p]Tweaks
me by th' nose? gives me the lie i' th' throat [p]As deep as to the
lungs? Who does me this, ha? [p]'Swounds, I should take it! for it
cannot be [p]But I am pigeon-liver'd and lack gall [p]To make
oppression bitter, or ere this [p]I should have fatted all the region
kites [p]With this slave's offal. Bloody bawdy
villain! [p]Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless
villain! [p]O, vengeance! [p]Why, what an ass am I! This is most
brave, [p]That I, the son of a dear father murther'd, [p]Prompted to
my revenge by heaven and hell, [p]Must (like a whore) unpack my heart
with words [p]And fall a-cursing like a very drab, [p]A scullion!
[p]Fie upon't! foh! About, my brain! Hum, I have heard [p]That guilty
creatures, sitting at a play, [p]Have by the very cunning of the
scene [p]Been struck so to the soul that presently [p]They have
proclaim'd their malefactions; [p]For murther, though it have no
tongue, will speak [p]With most miraculous organ, I'll have these
Players [p]Play something like the murther of my father [p]Before mine
uncle. I'll observe his looks; [p]I'll tent him to the quick. If he
but blench, [p]I know my course. The spirit that I have seen [p]May be
a devil; and the devil hath power [p]T' assume a pleasing shape; yea,
and perhaps [p]Out of my weakness and my melancholy, [p]As he is very
potent with such spirits, [p]Abuses me to damn me. I'll have
grounds [p]More relative than this. The play's the thing [p]Wherein
I'll catch the conscience of the King. Exit.

Previous: Act 2 - Scene 1

Next: Act 3 - Scene 1

Web Standards & Support: