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, help, help! Ham. How now! a rat? [Draws.] Dead, for a ducat, dead! [Makes a pass through the arras. Pol. [behind] O, I am slain! Queen. O me, what hast thou done? Ham. Is it the king? [Falls and dies. Nay, I know not: 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! And let me wring your heart: for so I shall, If it be made of penetrable stuff; If damned custom have not braz'd it so, That it is proof and bulwark against sense. Queen. What have I done, that thou dar'st wag thy tongue In noise so rude against me? That blurs the grace and blush of modesty ; Calls virtue hypocrite; takes off the rose Yea, this solidity and compound mass, With tristful visage, as against the doom, 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 and 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 follows: The hey-day in the blood is tame, it 's humble, Nor sense to ecstasy was ne'er so thrall'd But it reserv'd some quantity of choice, To serve in such a difference. What devil was 't O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell, Since frost itself as actively doth burn, And reason panders will. Queen. O Hamlet, speak no more: Ham. Nay, but to live In the rank sweat of an enseamèd bed, Stew'd in corruption, honeying and making love Over the nasty sty, Queen. O, speak to me no more; These words, like daggers, enter in mine ears; Ham. A murderer and a villain; Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings, You heavenly guards!-What would your (63) gracious figure? Queen. Alas, he's mad! Ham. Do you not come your tardy son to chide, That, laps'd in time and passion, lets go by The important acting of your dread command? Ghost. Do not forget: this visitation Ham. How is it with you, lady? That And with the incorporal air do hold discourse? Ham. On him, on him! Look you, how pale he glares! Will want true colour; tears perchance for blood. Queen. Do you see nothing there? No, nothing but ourselves. Ham. Why, look you there! look, how it steals away! My father, in his habit as he liv'd! Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal! [Exit Gh. Queen. This is the very coinage of your brain: My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time, Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg, Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good. Queen. O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain. And live the purer with the other half. Good night: but go not to mine uncle's bed; That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat, (64) That to the use of actions fair and good That aptly is put on. Refrain to-night; And that shall lend a kind of easiness To the next abstinence: the next more easy; And master (65) the devil, or throw him out With wondrous potency. Once more, good night: [Pointing to Polonius. I do repent: but heaven hath pleas'd it so, Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.- Queen. What shall I do? Ham. Not this, by no means, that I bid you do: And let him, for a pair of reechy kisses, his mouse; Or paddling in your neck with his damn'd fingers, That I essentially am not in madness, But mad in craft. "Twere good you let him know; |