Enter HAMLET.

Ham. Now might I do it pat, now he is praying, And now I'll do't-and so he goes to heaven. And so am I revenged? that would be scanned; A villain kills my father, and for that

I, his sole son, do this same villain send

To heaven-0, this is hire and salary, not revenge..
He took my father grossly, full of bread,

With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May;
And how his audit stands, who knows, save Heaven? .
But in our circumstance and course of thought,
'Tis heavy with him. Am I then revenged,
To take him in the purging of his soul,
When he is fit and seasoned for his passage?
Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid bent;
When he is drunk, asleep, or in his rage,
Or in th' incestuous pleasure of his bed;
At gaming, swearing, or about some act
That has no relish of salvation in't;

Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven;
And that his soul may be as damn'd and black
As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays;
This physic but prolongs thy sickly days. [Exit.

The King rises, and comes forward. King. My words fly up, my thoughts remain [Exit.

below.

Words, without thoughts, never to Heaven go.

SCENE changes to the Queen's Apartment.

Enter Queen and POLONIUS.

Pol. He will come straight; look you lay home

to him:

[with; Tell him, his pranks have been too broad to bear And that your Grace hath screened, and stood

between

Much heat and him. I'll silence me e'en here; Pray you, be round with him.

Ham. [within.] Mother, mother, mother.

Queen. I'll warrant you, fear me not.

Withdraw, I hear him coming.

[Polonius hides himself behind the Arras.

Enter HAMLET.

Ham. Now, mother, what's the matter?
Queen. Hamlet, thou hast thy father much of-

fended?

[fended.

Ham. Mother, you have my father much of Queen. Come, come, you answer with an idle

tongue.

Ham. Go, go, you question with a wicked

Queen. Why, how now, Hamlet?
Ham. What's the matter now?

[tongue.

Queen. Have you forgot me?

Ham. No, by the rood, not so;

You are the Queen, your husband's brother's wife, But 'would you were not so!-You are my mother.

Queen. Nay, then. I'll set those to you that can

speak.

[not budge: Ham. Come, come, and sit you down; you shall You go not, 'till I set you up a glass (58)

Where you may see the inmost part of you.

Queen. What wilt thou do? thou wilt not Help, ho.

Pol. What ho, help.

[murder me?

[Behind the Arras.

Ham. How now, a rat? dead for a ducat, dead.

Pol. Oh, I am slain.

[Hamlet kills Polonius.

Queen. Oh me, what hast thou done?

Ham. Nay, I know not: is it the King?

Queen. Oh, 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?

word.my

Ham. Ay, Lady, 'twas Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewel, [To Polonius.

(58) The face of the queen in the moon is like a looking-glass with reflected shadows in it: there may be also an allusion here to the moon itself being only a mirror of the sun. The old theatrical motto, veluti in speculum, might have been intended to put the spectators in mind that the characters of many plays are drawn from, or connected with, appearances in the moon.

I took thee for thy betters; take thy fortune; Thou findest, to be too busy, is some danger. Leave wringing of your hands; peace, sit you

down,

And let me wring your heart, for so I shall,
If it be made of penetrable stuff:

If damned custom have not brazed it so,
That it is proof and bulwark against sense.

Queen. What have I done, that thou darest wag

In noise so rude against me?

Ham. Such an act,

[thy tongue

That blurs the grace and blush of modesty;
Calls virtue hypocrite; takes off the rose
From the fair forehead of an innocent love,
And sets a blister there; makes marriage-vows
As false as dicers' oaths. Oh, such a deed,

As from the body of contraction plucks

The very soul, and sweet religion makes

A rhapsody of words. Heaven's face doth glow;
Yea, this solidity and compound mass,

With tristful visage, as against the doom,
Is thought sick at the act.

Queen. Ay 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 or command;
A station, like the herald Mercury
New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill;
A combination, and a form indeed,
Where every God did seem to set his seal,
To give the world assurance of a man.

This was your

husband.-Look you now, what folHere is your husband, like a mildewed ear, [lows; Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes? Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed, And batten on this moor? ha! have you eyes? You cannot call it Love; for, at your age,

The hey-day in the blood is tame, it's humble, And waits upon the judgment; and what judgment Would step from this to this? Sense, sure, you

have,.

Else could you not have motion: but, sure, that
Is apoplexed: for madness would not err; [sense
Nor sense to ecstasy was ne'er so thralled,

But it reserved some quantity of choice
To serve in such a difference.-What devil was't
That thus had cozened you at hoodman blind?
Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight,
Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all,
Or but a sickly part of one true sense

Could not so mope,

O shame! where is thy blush? rebellious hell, If thou canst mutiny in a matron's bones,