Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Act 3 - Scene 3
A room in the Castle.
Claudius : I like him not, nor stands it safe with us
[p]To let his madness
range. Therefore prepare you;
[p]I your commission will forthwith
dispatch,
[p]And he to England shall along with you.
[p]The terms of
our estate may not endure
[p]Hazard so near us as doth hourly
grow
[p]Out of his lunacies.
Guildenstern : We will ourselves provide.
[p]Most holy and religious fear it is
[p]To
keep those many many bodies safe
[p]That live and feed upon your
Majesty.
Rosencrantz : The single and peculiar life is bound
[p]With all the strength and
armour of the mind
[p]To keep itself from noyance; but much
more
[p]That spirit upon whose weal depends and rests
[p]The lives of
many. The cesse of majesty
[p]Dies not alone, but like a gulf doth
draw
[p]What's near it with it. It is a massy wheel,
[p]Fix'd on the
summit of the highest mount,
[p]To whose huge spokes ten thousand
lesser things
[p]Are mortis'd and adjoin'd; which when it
falls,
[p]Each small annexment, petty consequence,
[p]Attends the
boist'rous ruin. Never alone
[p]Did the king sigh, but with a general
groan.
Claudius : Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy voyage;
[p]For we will fetters put
upon this fear,
[p]Which now goes too free-footed.
Rosencrantz : [with Guildenstern] We will haste us.
Polonius : My lord, he's going to his mother's closet.
[p]Behind the arras I'll
convey myself
[p]To hear the process. I'll warrant she'll tax him
home;
[p]And, as you said, and wisely was it said,
[p]'Tis meet that
some more audience than a mother,
[p]Since nature makes them partial,
should o'erhear
[p]The speech, of vantage. Fare you well, my
liege.
[p]I'll call upon you ere you go to bed
[p]And tell you what I
know.
Claudius : Thanks, dear my lord.
[p][Exit [Polonius].]
[p]O, my offence is rank,
it smells to heaven;
[p]It hath the primal eldest curse upon't,
[p]A
brother's murther! Pray can I not,
[p]Though inclination be as sharp
as will.
[p]My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent,
[p]And, like a
man to double business bound,
[p]I stand in pause where I shall first
begin,
[p]And both neglect. What if this cursed hand
[p]Were thicker
than itself with brother's blood,
[p]Is there not rain enough in the
sweet heavens
[p]To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy
[p]But
to confront the visage of offence?
[p]And what's in prayer but this
twofold force,
[p]To be forestalled ere we come to fall,
[p]Or
pardon'd being down? Then I'll look up;
[p]My fault is past. But, O,
what form of prayer
[p]Can serve my turn? 'Forgive me my foul
murther'?
[p]That cannot be; since I am still possess'd
[p]Of those
effects for which I did the murther-
[p]My crown, mine own ambition,
and my queen.
[p]May one be pardon'd and retain th' offence?
[p]In the
corrupted currents of this world
[p]Offence's gilded hand may shove by
justice,
[p]And oft 'tis seen the wicked prize itself
[p]Buys out the
law; but 'tis not so above.
[p]There is no shuffling; there the action
lies
[p]In his true nature, and we ourselves compell'd,
[p]Even to the
teeth and forehead of our faults,
[p]To give in evidence. What then?
What rests?
[p]Try what repentance can. What can it not?
[p]Yet what
can it when one cannot repent?
[p]O wretched state! O bosom black as
death!
[p]O limed soul, that, struggling to be free,
[p]Art more
engag'd! Help, angels! Make assay.
[p]Bow, stubborn knees; and heart
with strings of steel,
[p]Be soft as sinews of the new-born
babe!
[p]All may be well. He kneels.
Hamlet : Now might I do it pat, now he is praying;
[p]And now I'll do't. And so
he goes to heaven,
[p]And so am I reveng'd. That would be
scann'd.
[p]A villain kills my father; and for that,
[p]I, his sole
son, do this same villain send
[p]To heaven.
[p]Why, this is hire and
salary, not revenge!
[p]He took my father grossly, full of
bread,
[p]With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May;
[p]And how
his audit stands, who knows save heaven?
[p]But in our circumstance
and course of thought,
[p]'Tis heavy with him; and am I then
reveng'd,
[p]To take him in the purging of his soul,
[p]When he is fit
and seasoned for his passage?
[p]No.
[p]Up, sword, and know thou a
more horrid hent.
[p]When he is drunk asleep; or in his rage;
[p]Or in
th' incestuous pleasure of his bed;
[p]At gaming, swearing, or about
some act
[p]That has no relish of salvation in't-
[p]Then trip him,
that his heels may kick at heaven,
[p]And that his soul may be as
damn'd and black
[p]As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays.
[p]This
physic but prolongs thy sickly days. Exit.
Claudius : [rises] My words fly up, my thoughts remain below.
[p]Words without
thoughts never to heaven go. Exit.
Previous: Act 3 - Scene 2
Next: Act 3 - Scene 4
