To hear the process; I'll warrant, she'll tax him home: 'Tis meet, that some more audience, than a mother, King. Thanks, dear my lord. And what's in prayer, but this twofold force,- Or pardon'd, being down? Then I'll look up; O wretched state! O bosom, black as death! Bow, stubborn knees! and, heart, with strings of steel, Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe; All may be well! [Retires, and kneels. Enter HAMLET. Ham. Now might I do it, pat, now he is praying; I, his sole son, do this same villain send Why, this is hire and salary, not revenge. No. Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent: Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven; The KING rises, and advances. [Exit. King. My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: Words, without thoughts, never to heaven go. [Exit. SCENE IV. Another Room in the same. Enter QUEEN and POLONIUS. Pol. He will come straight. Look, you lay home to him: Tell him, his pranks have been too broad to bear with; And that your grace hath screen'd and stood between Much heat and him. I'll silence me e'en here. Pray you, be round with him. Queen. I'll warrant you; Fear me not-withdraw, I hear him coming. [Polonius hides himself. Enter HAMLET. Ham. Now, mother; what's the matter? Queen. Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended. Ham. Mother, you have my father much offended. Queen. Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue. Ham. Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue. Queen. Why, how now, Hamlet? Ham. What's the matter now? Queen. Have you forgot me? Ham. No, by the rood, not so: You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife; And, 'would it were not so!-you are my mother. Queen. Nay, then I'll set those to you that can speak. Ham. Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge; You go not, till I set you up a glass Where you may see the inmost part of you. Queen. What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder me? Help, help, ho! Pol. [Behind] What, ho! help! Ham. Dead, for a ducat, dead. How now! a rat? [Draws. [Hamlet makes a Pass through the Arras. O, I am slain. Pol. [Behind] Queen. O me, what hast thou done? [Falls, and Dies. Ham. Is it the king? Nay, I know not: [Lifts up the Arras, and draws forth Polonius. Queen. O, what a rash and bloody deed is this! Ham. A bloody deed;-almost as bad, good mother, As kill a king, and marry with his brother. Queen. As kill a king! Ham. Ay, lady, 'twas my word.-Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell! [To Polonius. I took thee for thy better; take thy fortune: If it be made of penetrable stuff; If damned custom have not braz'd it so, Queen. What have I done, that thou dar'st wag thy tongue In noise so rude against me? Ham. With tristful visage, as against the doom, Queen. Ah me, what act, That roars so loud, and thunders in the index? Ham. Look here, upon this picture, and on this; The counterfeit presentment of two brothers. See, what a grace was seated on this brow: Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself; An eye like Mars, to threaten and command; A station like the herald Mercury, This was your husband.-Look you now, what follows: Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes? Nor sense to ecstasy was ne'er so thrall'd, To serve in such a difference. What devil was't, O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell, And melt in her own fire proclaim no shame, And reason panders will. Queen. O, Hamlet, speak no more: Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul; And there I see such black and grained spots, As will not leave their tinct. Ham. Nay, but to live In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed; Stew'd in corruption; honeying, and making love |