ACT IV. SCENE V.

whatter & chest bean is in
mind any beater than the beast
Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple

129

40

esque of thinking too precisely on the event,-
Of

A thought which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom
And ever three parts coward,—I do not know
Why yet I live to say 'This thing 's to do,'

Sith I have cause and will and strength and means
To do 't. Examples gross as earth exhort me; falfable,

"

cst,ex Witness this army of such mass and charge,
Led by a delicate and tender prince,
Whose spirit with divine ambition puff'd in fired

Makes mouths at the invisible event,
Exposing what is mortal and unsure

scan the fate of wäre.

To all that fortune, death, and danger dare,
Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be great

Is not to stir without great argument, matter.
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw

When honour 's at the stake. How stand I then,
That have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd,

Excitements of my reason and my blood, persons.
And let all sleep, while to my shame I see
The imminent death of twenty thousand men,
That for a fantasy and trick of fame

Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot
Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
Which is not tomb enough and continent it
To hide the slain? O, from this time forth,
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!

A wwere

who

favey,

It what hold the wen
wont hald 'een,
bj

SCENE V. Elsinore. A Room in the Castle.

Enter QUEEN, HORATIO, and a Gentleman.

Queen I will not speak with her.

[Exit.

Gentleman. She is importunate, indeed distract; " that she fell

مهنة

Gentleman. She speaks much of her father; says she hears
There's tricks i' the world; and hems, and beats her heart;
Spurns enviously at straws; speaks things in doubt, resents
That carry but half sense: her speech is nothing,
Yet the unshaped use of it doth move
The hearers to collection; they aim at it,
And botch the words up fit to their own thoughts;
Which, as her winks and nods and gestures yield them,
Indeed would make one think there might be thought,
Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily.

frimless, confused.
to supply the defineur
a get

10

Horatio. 'T were good she were spoken with, for she may

strew

Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds. muschig hatching
Queen. Let her come in.
[Exit Horatio.

[Aside] To my sick soul, as sin's true nature is,

Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss; future, this arter,
So full of artless jealousy is guilt, fooling
It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.

Suspicion.

Re-enter HORATIO, with OPHELIA.

Ophelia. Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark?
Queen. How now, Ophelia !

Ophelia. [Sings] How should I your true love know

From another one?

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By his cockle hat and staff, cochle shell in
And his sandal shoon.

the best was

Queen. Alas, sweet lady, what imports this song?

Ophelia. Say you? nay, pray you, mark.
[Sings] He is dead and gone, lady,

He is dead and gone;

At his head a grass-green turf,

At his heels a stone.

Queen. Nay, but, Ophelia,—

Ophelia. Pray you, mark.

[Sings] White his shroud as the mountain snow,

30

Enter KING.

Queen. Alas, look here, my lord.

Ophelia. [Sings] Larded with sweet flowers; staffed, garnished.
Which bewept to the grave did go

With true-love showers.

King. How do you, pretty lady?

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Ophelia. Well, God 'ield you! They say the owl was a baker's daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be. God be at your table!

King. [Aside] Conceit upon her father. Augination "Concent us weakest Ophelia. Pray you, let's have no words of this; but when coby sta

they ask you what it means, say you this:

[Sings] To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day,

All in the morning betime,

And I a maid at your window,

To be your Valentine.

King. How long hath she been thus?

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Ophelia. I hope all will be well. We must be patient; but I cannot choose but weep, to think they should lay him i' the cold ground. My brother shall know of it; and so I thank you for your good counsel.-Come, my coach!-Good night, ladies; good night, sweet ladies; good night, good night. [Exit. King. Follow her close; give her good watch, I pray you.

O, this is the poison of deep grief; it springs

[Exit Horatio.

All from her father's death. O Gertrude, Gertrude,

When sorrows come, they come not single spies, they have toyo singly,

But in battalions. First, her father slain;

Next, your son gone; and he most violent author

Of his own just remove: the people muddied, made turbid (SCI) Thick and unwholesome in their thoughts and whispers,

For good Polonius' death; and we have done but greenly, antidy to min In hugger-mugger to inter him: poor Ophelia

hastily

& Lucretty; clandestinely (8ch)

Divided from herself and her fair judgment,
Without the which we are pictures, or mere beasts:
Last, and as much containing as all these,
Her brother is in secret come from France,
Feeds on his wonder, keeps himself in clouds,
And wants not buzzers to infect his ear
With pestilent speeches of his father's death;
Wherein necessity, of matter beggar'd,
deur Will nothing stick our person to arraign
Jones In ear and ear. O my dear Gertrude, this,
and Like to a murthering-piece, in many places
Gives me superfluous death.

must

70

self in

be the which water they
means they have noting
b
in neut

carter or ease shot. [A noise within.

Queen.
Alack, what noise is this? 79
King. Where are my Switzers ? Let them guard the
The Swiss guard.

door.―

Enter another Gentleman.

What is the matter?

Gentleman.

Save yourself, my lord;
The ocean, overpeering of his list,
Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste
Than young Laertes, in a riotous head, a

rise above

arewed free.

O'erbears your officers. The rabble call him lord;
And, as the world were now but to begin,
Antiquity forgot, custom not known,

The ratifiers and props of every word,

They cry 'Choose we; Laertes shall be king!'
Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds,
'Laertes shall be king, Laertes king!'

90

Queen. How cheerfully on the false trail they cry!
O, this is counter, you false Danish dogs! "you hunt counter".
King. The doors are broke.

[Noise within.

Enter LAERTES, armed; Danes following.

Laertes. Where is this king?-Sirs, stand you all without.

Danes. No, let's come in.
Laertes.

Danes. We will, we will.

Laertes. I thank you: keep
Give me my father!
Queen.

I pray you, give me leave.
[They retire without the door.
the door.-O thou vile king,

Calmly, good Laertes.

Laertes. That drop of blood that 's calm proclaims me

bastard,

Cries cuckold to my father, brands the harlot

Even here, between the chaste unsmirched brows

Of my true mother.

King.

What is the cause, Laertes,

That thy rebellion looks so giant-like?—

as if from

Let him go, Gertrude ; do not fear our person:
There's such divinity doth hedge a king,
That treason can but peep to what it would, as
Acts little of his will.-Tell me, Laertes,
Why thou art thus incens'd.—Let him go,
Speak, man.

Laertes. Where is my father?

King.

Queen.

King. Let him demand his fill.

Gertrude.

Dead.

But not by him.

Laertes. How came he dead? I'll not be juggled with:

To hell, allegiance! vows, to the blackest devil!

Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit!

I'll

I dare damnation. To this point I stand: stick to this
That both the worlds I give to negligence, dis
Let come what comes; only I'll be reveng'd

Most throughly for my father.

King.

Who shall stay you? prevent you.

Laertes. My will, not all the world;
And for my means, I'll husband them so well,

They shall go far with little.

King

Good Laertes,

12c