William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition (315 page)
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Authors: William Shakespeare
Tags: #Drama, #Literary Criticism, #Shakespeare
BOOK: William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition
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HAMLET
O all you host of heaven! Oearth! What else?
And shall I couple hell? O fie! Hold, hold, my heart,
And you, my sinews, grow not instant old,
But bear me stiffly up. Remember thee?
Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat
In this distracted globe. Remember thee?
Yea, from the table of my memory
I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records,
All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,
That youth and observation copied there,
And thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain
Unmixed with baser matter. Yes, yes, by heaven.
O most pernicious woman!
O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!
My tables,
My tables—meet it is I set it down
That one may smile and smile and be a villain.
At least I’m sure it may be so in Denmark.
And shall I couple hell? O fie! Hold, hold, my heart,
And you, my sinews, grow not instant old,
But bear me stiffly up. Remember thee?
Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat
In this distracted globe. Remember thee?
Yea, from the table of my memory
I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records,
All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,
That youth and observation copied there,
And thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain
Unmixed with baser matter. Yes, yes, by heaven.
O most pernicious woman!
O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!
My tables,
My tables—meet it is I set it down
That one may smile and smile and be a villain.
At least I’m sure it may be so in Denmark.
He writes
So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word:
It is ‘Adieu, adieu, remember me’.
I have sworn’t.
It is ‘Adieu, adieu, remember me’.
I have sworn’t.
HORATIO and MARCELLUS (
within
) My lord, my lord.
within
) My lord, my lord.
Enter Horatio and Marcellus
MARCELLUS (
calling
) Lord Hamlet! 115
calling
) Lord Hamlet! 115
HORATIO Heaven secure him.
HAMLET So be it.
HORATIO (
calling
) Illo, ho, ho, my lord.
calling
) Illo, ho, ho, my lord.
HAMLET
Hillo, ho, ho, boy; come, bird, come.
MARCELLUS How is’t, my noble lord?
HORATIO (
to Hamlet
) What news, my lord?
to Hamlet
) What news, my lord?
HAMLET O wonderful!
HORATIO
Good my lord, tell it.
HAMLET
No, you’ll reveal it.
HORATIO
Not I, my lord, by heaven.
MARCELLUS
Nor I, my lord.
HAMLET
How say you then, would heart of man once think it?
But you’ll be secret?
But you’ll be secret?
HORATIO
and
MARCELLUS Ay, by heav’n, my lord.
and
MARCELLUS Ay, by heav’n, my lord.
HAMLET
There’s ne’er a villain dwelling in all Denmark
But he’s an arrant knave.
But he’s an arrant knave.
HORATIO
There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave
To tell us this.
To tell us this.
HAMLET
Why, right, you are i’th’ right,
And so without more circumstance at all
I hold it fit that we shake hands and part,
You as your business and desires shall point you—
For every man has business and desire,
Such as it is—and for mine own poor part,
Look you, I’ll go pray.
And so without more circumstance at all
I hold it fit that we shake hands and part,
You as your business and desires shall point you—
For every man has business and desire,
Such as it is—and for mine own poor part,
Look you, I’ll go pray.
HORATIO
These are but wild and whirling words, my lord.
HAMLET
I’m sorry they offend you, heartily,
Yes, faith, heartily.
Yes, faith, heartily.
HORATIO
There’s no offence, my lord.
HAMLET
Yes, by Saint Patrick, but there is, Horatio,
And much offence, too. Touching this vision here,
It is an honest ghost, that let me tell you.
For your desire to know what is between us,
O’ermaster’t as you may. And now, good friends,
As you are friends, scholars, and soldiers,
Give me one poor request.
And much offence, too. Touching this vision here,
It is an honest ghost, that let me tell you.
For your desire to know what is between us,
O’ermaster’t as you may. And now, good friends,
As you are friends, scholars, and soldiers,
Give me one poor request.
HORATIO
What is’t, my lord? We will.
HAMLET
Never make known what you have seen tonight.
HORATIO
and
MARCELLUS
and
MARCELLUS
My lord, we will not.
HAMLET
Nay, but swear’t.
HORATIO
In faith, my lord, not I.
MARCELLUS
Nor I, my lord, in faith.
HAMLET
Upon my sword.
MARCELLUS
We have sworn, my lord, already.
HAMLET
Indeed, upon my sword, indeed.
The Ghost cries under the stage
GHOST
Swear.
HAMLET
Ah ha, boy, sayst thou so? Art thou there, truepenny?—
Come on. You hear this fellow in the cellarage.
Consent to swear.
Come on. You hear this fellow in the cellarage.
Consent to swear.
HORATIO
Propose the oath, my lord.
HAMLET
Never to speak of this that you have seen,
Swear by my sword.
Swear by my sword.
GHOST (
under the stage
) Swear.
under the stage
) Swear.
⌈
They swear
⌉
HAMLET
Hic et ubique?
Then we’ll shift our ground.—
Come hither, gentlemen,
And lay your hands again upon my sword.
Never to speak of this that you have heard,
Swear by my sword.
Then we’ll shift our ground.—
Come hither, gentlemen,
And lay your hands again upon my sword.
Never to speak of this that you have heard,
Swear by my sword.
GHOST (
under the stage
) Swear.
under the stage
) Swear.
⌈
They swear
⌉
HAMLET
Well said, old mole. Canst work i’th’ earth so fast?
A worthy pioneer.—Once more remove, good friends.
A worthy pioneer.—Once more remove, good friends.
HORATIO
O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!
HAMLET
And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in our philosophy. But come,
Here as before, never, so help you mercy,
How strange or odd soe‘er I bear myself—
As I perchance hereafter shall think meet
To put an antic disposition on—
That you at such time seeing me never shall,
With arms encumbered thus, or this headshake,
Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase
As ‘Well, we know’ or ‘We could an if we would’,
Or ‘If we list to speak’, or ‘There be, an if they might’,
Or such ambiguous giving out, to note
That you know aught of me—this not to do,
So grace and mercy at your most need help you, swear.
GHOST (
under the stage
) Swear.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in our philosophy. But come,
Here as before, never, so help you mercy,
How strange or odd soe‘er I bear myself—
As I perchance hereafter shall think meet
To put an antic disposition on—
That you at such time seeing me never shall,
With arms encumbered thus, or this headshake,
Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase
As ‘Well, we know’ or ‘We could an if we would’,
Or ‘If we list to speak’, or ‘There be, an if they might’,
Or such ambiguous giving out, to note
That you know aught of me—this not to do,
So grace and mercy at your most need help you, swear.
GHOST (
under the stage
) Swear.
⌈
They swear
⌉
HAMLET
Rest, rest, perturbed spirit.—So, gentlemen,
With all my love I do commend me to you,
And what so poor a man as Hamlet is
May do t’express his love and friending to you,
God willing, shall not lack. Let us go in together,
And still your fingers on your lips, I pray.
The time is out of joint. O cursed spite
That ever I was born to set it right!
Nay, come, let’s go together. Exeunt
2.1With all my love I do commend me to you,
And what so poor a man as Hamlet is
May do t’express his love and friending to you,
God willing, shall not lack. Let us go in together,
And still your fingers on your lips, I pray.
The time is out of joint. O cursed spite
That ever I was born to set it right!
Nay, come, let’s go together. Exeunt
Enter old Polonius with his man Reynaldo
POLONIUS
Give him this money and these notes, Reynaldo.
REYNALDO I will, my lord.
POLONIUS
You shall do marv’lous wisely, good Reynaldo,
Before you visit him to make enquire
Of his behaviour.
Before you visit him to make enquire
Of his behaviour.
REYNALDO
My lord, I did intend it.
POLONIUS
Marry, well said, very well said. Look you, sir,
Enquire me first what Danskers are in Paris,
And how, and who, what means, and where they keep,
What company, at what expense; and finding
By this encompassment and drift of question
That they do know my son, come you more nearer
Than your particular demands will touch it.
Take you, as ‘twere, some distant knowledge of him,
As thus: ‘I know his father and his friends,
And in part him’—do you mark this, Reynaldo?
Enquire me first what Danskers are in Paris,
And how, and who, what means, and where they keep,
What company, at what expense; and finding
By this encompassment and drift of question
That they do know my son, come you more nearer
Than your particular demands will touch it.
Take you, as ‘twere, some distant knowledge of him,
As thus: ‘I know his father and his friends,
And in part him’—do you mark this, Reynaldo?
REYNALDO Ay, very well, my lord.
POLONIUS
‘And in part him, but’, you may say, ‘not well,
But if’t be he I mean, he’s very wild,
Addicted so and so’; and there put on him
What forgeries you please—marry, none so rank
As may dishonour him, take heed of that—
But, sir, such wanton, wild, and usual slips
As are companions noted and most known
To youth and liberty.
But if’t be he I mean, he’s very wild,
Addicted so and so’; and there put on him
What forgeries you please—marry, none so rank
As may dishonour him, take heed of that—
But, sir, such wanton, wild, and usual slips
As are companions noted and most known
To youth and liberty.
REYNALDO As gaming, my lord?
POLONIUS
Ay, or drinking, fencing, swearing,
Quarrelling, drabbing—you may go so far.
Quarrelling, drabbing—you may go so far.
REYNALDO
My lord, that would dishonour him.
POLONIUS
Faith, no, as you may season it in the charge.
You must not put another scandal on him,
That he is open to incontinency.
That’s not my meaning—but breathe his faults so
quaintly
That they may seem the taints of liberty,
The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind,
A savageness in unreclaimed blood,
Of general assault.
You must not put another scandal on him,
That he is open to incontinency.
That’s not my meaning—but breathe his faults so
quaintly
That they may seem the taints of liberty,
The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind,
A savageness in unreclaimed blood,
Of general assault.
REYNALDO
But, my good lord—
POLONIUS
Wherefore should you do this?
REYNALDO
Ay, my lord.
I would know that.
POLONIUS
Marry, sir, here’s my drift,
And I believe it is a fetch of warrant:
You laying these slight sullies on my son,
As ‘twere a thing a little soiled i’th’ working,
Mark you, your party in converse, him you would
sound,
Having ever seen in the prenominate crimes
The youth you breathe of guilty, be assured
He closes with you in this consequence:
‘Good sir’, or so, or ‘friend’, or ‘gentleman’,
According to the phrase and the addition
Of man and country.
You laying these slight sullies on my son,
As ‘twere a thing a little soiled i’th’ working,
Mark you, your party in converse, him you would
sound,
Having ever seen in the prenominate crimes
The youth you breathe of guilty, be assured
He closes with you in this consequence:
‘Good sir’, or so, or ‘friend’, or ‘gentleman’,
According to the phrase and the addition
Of man and country.
REYNALDO
Very good, my lord.
POLONIUS
And then, sir, does a this—a does—
what was I about to say? By the mass, I was about to
say something. Where did I leave?
what was I about to say? By the mass, I was about to
say something. Where did I leave?
REYNALDO
At ‘closes in the consequence’, at ‘friend,
Or so’, and ‘gentleman’.
Or so’, and ‘gentleman’.
POLONIUS
At ‘closes in the consequence’—ay, marry,
He closes with you thus: ‘I know the gentleman,
I saw him yesterday’—or t‘other day,
Or then, or then—’with such and such, and, as you
say,
There was a gaming, there o‘ertook in ’s rouse,
There falling out at tennis’, or perchance
‘I saw him enter such a house of sale’,
Videlicet, a brothel, or so forth. See you now,
Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth;
And thus do we of wisdom and of reach
With windlasses and with assays of bias
By indirections find directions out.
So, by my former lecture and advice,
Shall you my son. You have me, have you not?
He closes with you thus: ‘I know the gentleman,
I saw him yesterday’—or t‘other day,
Or then, or then—’with such and such, and, as you
say,
There was a gaming, there o‘ertook in ’s rouse,
There falling out at tennis’, or perchance
‘I saw him enter such a house of sale’,
Videlicet, a brothel, or so forth. See you now,
Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth;
And thus do we of wisdom and of reach
With windlasses and with assays of bias
By indirections find directions out.
So, by my former lecture and advice,
Shall you my son. You have me, have you not?
REYNALDO My lord, I have.
POLONIUS God b’wi’ ye. Fare ye well.
REYNALDO Good my lord.
POLONIUS
Observe his inclination in yourself.
REYNALDO I shall, my lord.
POLONIUS And let him ply his music.
REYNALDO Well, my lord.
Enter Ophelia
POLONIUS
Farewell.
Exit Reynaldo
How now, Ophelia, what’s the matter?
OPHELIA
Alas, my lord, I have been so affrighted.
POLONIUS With what, i’th’ name of God?
OPHELIA
My lord, as I was sewing in my chamber,
Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced,
No hat upon his head, his stockings fouled,
Ungartered, and down-gyvèd to his ankle,
Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other,
And with a look so piteous in purport
As if he had been loosed out of hell
To speak of horrors, he comes before me.
Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced,
No hat upon his head, his stockings fouled,
Ungartered, and down-gyvèd to his ankle,
Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other,
And with a look so piteous in purport
As if he had been loosed out of hell
To speak of horrors, he comes before me.
POLONIUS
Mad for thy love?
OPHELIA
My lord, I do not know,
But truly I do fear it.
But truly I do fear it.
POLONIUS
What said he?
OPHELIA
He took me by the wrist and held me hard,
Then goes he to the length of all his arm,
And with his other hand thus o’er his brow
He falls to such perusal of my face
As a would draw it. Long stayed he so.
At last, a little shaking of mine arm,
And thrice his head thus waving up and down,
He raised a sigh so piteous and profound
That it did seem to shatter all his bulk
And end his being. That done, he lets me go,
And, with his head over his shoulder turned,
He seemed to find his way without his eyes,
For out o’ doors he went without their help,
And to the last bended their light on me.
Then goes he to the length of all his arm,
And with his other hand thus o’er his brow
He falls to such perusal of my face
As a would draw it. Long stayed he so.
At last, a little shaking of mine arm,
And thrice his head thus waving up and down,
He raised a sigh so piteous and profound
That it did seem to shatter all his bulk
And end his being. That done, he lets me go,
And, with his head over his shoulder turned,
He seemed to find his way without his eyes,
For out o’ doors he went without their help,
And to the last bended their light on me.
POLONIUS
Come, go with me. I will go seek the King.
This is the very ecstasy of love,
Whose violent property fordoes itself
And leads the will to desperate undertakings
As oft as any passion under heaven
That does afflict our natures. I am sorry—
What, have you given him any hard words of late?
This is the very ecstasy of love,
Whose violent property fordoes itself
And leads the will to desperate undertakings
As oft as any passion under heaven
That does afflict our natures. I am sorry—
What, have you given him any hard words of late?
OPHELIA
No, my good lord, but as you did command
I did repel his letters and denied
His access to me.
I did repel his letters and denied
His access to me.
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