William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition (319 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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OPHELIA
O what a noble mind is here o‘erthrown!
The courtier’s, soldier‘s, scholar’s eye, tongue, sword,
Th’expectancy and rose of the fair state,
The glass of fashion and the mould of form,
Th‘observed of all observers, quite, quite, down!
And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,
That sucked the honey of his music vows,
Now see that noble and most sovereign reason
Like sweet bells jangled out of tune and harsh;
That unmatched form and feature of blown youth
Blasted with ecstasy. O woe is me,
T’have seen what I have seen, see what I see!
Enter King Claudius and Polonius
The courtier’s, soldier‘s, scholar’s eye, tongue, sword,
Th’expectancy and rose of the fair state,
The glass of fashion and the mould of form,
Th‘observed of all observers, quite, quite, down!
And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,
That sucked the honey of his music vows,
Now see that noble and most sovereign reason
Like sweet bells jangled out of tune and harsh;
That unmatched form and feature of blown youth
Blasted with ecstasy. O woe is me,
T’have seen what I have seen, see what I see!
Enter King Claudius and Polonius
KING CLAUDIUS
Love? His affections do not that way tend,
Nor what he spake, though it lacked form a little,
Was not like madness. There’s something in his soul
O’er which his melancholy sits on brood,
And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose
Will be some danger; which to prevent
I have in quick determination
Thus set it down: he shall with speed to England
For the demand of our neglected tribute.
Haply the seas and countries different,
With variable objects, shall expel
This something-settled matter in his heart,
Whereon his brains still beating puts him thus
From fashion of himself. What think you on’t?
Nor what he spake, though it lacked form a little,
Was not like madness. There’s something in his soul
O’er which his melancholy sits on brood,
And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose
Will be some danger; which to prevent
I have in quick determination
Thus set it down: he shall with speed to England
For the demand of our neglected tribute.
Haply the seas and countries different,
With variable objects, shall expel
This something-settled matter in his heart,
Whereon his brains still beating puts him thus
From fashion of himself. What think you on’t?
POLONIUS
It shall do well. But yet do I believe
The origin and commencement of this grief
Sprung from neglected love.—How now, Ophelia?
You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet said;
We heard it all.—My lord, do as you please,
But, if you hold it fit, after the play
Let his queen mother all alone entreat him
To show his griefs. Let her be round with him,
And I’ll be placed, so please you, in the ear
Of all their conference. If she find him not,
To England send him, or confine him where
Your wisdom best shall think.
The origin and commencement of this grief
Sprung from neglected love.—How now, Ophelia?
You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet said;
We heard it all.—My lord, do as you please,
But, if you hold it fit, after the play
Let his queen mother all alone entreat him
To show his griefs. Let her be round with him,
And I’ll be placed, so please you, in the ear
Of all their conference. If she find him not,
To England send him, or confine him where
Your wisdom best shall think.
KING CLAUDIUS
It shall be so.
Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.
Exeunt
3.2Enter Prince Hamlet and two or three of the Players
HAMLET Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you—trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I had as lief the town-crier had spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and as I may say the whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious, periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb shows and noise. I would have such a fellow whipped for o’erdoing Termagant. It out-Herods Herod. Pray you avoid it.
A PLAYER I warrant your honour.
HAMLET Be not too tame, neither; but let your own discretion be your tutor. Suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this special observance: that you o‘erstep not the modesty of nature. For anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is to hold as ’twere the mirror up to nature, to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure. Now this overdone, or come tardy off, though it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the censure of the which one must in your allowance o’erweigh a whole theatre of others. O, there be players that I have seen play, and heard others praise, and that highly, not to speak it profanely, that neither having the accent of Christians nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor no man, have so strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of nature’s journeymen had made men, and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably.
A PLAYER I hope we have reformed that indifferently with us, sir.
HAMLET O, reform it altogether. And let those that play your clowns speak no more than is set down for them; for there be of them that will themselves laugh to set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too, though in the mean time some necessary question of the play be then to be considered. That’s villainous, and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. Go make you ready.
Exeunt Players
Exeunt Players
Enter Polonius, Guildenstern, and Rosencrantz
(
To Polonius
) How now, my lord? Will the King hear this piece of work?
To Polonius
) How now, my lord? Will the King hear this piece of work?
POLONIUS And the Queen too, and that presently. HAMLET Bid the players make haste.
Exit Polonius
Exit Polonius
Will you two help to hasten them?
ROSENCRANTZ
and
GUILDENSTERN We will, my lord.
and
GUILDENSTERN We will, my lord.
Exeunt
HAMLET
What ho, Horatio!
Enter Horatio
HORATIO
Here, sweet lord, at your service.
HAMLET
Horatio, thou art e‘en as just a man
As e’er my conversation coped withal.
As e’er my conversation coped withal.
HORATIO
O my dear lord—
HAMLET
Nay, do not think I flatter;
For what advancement may I hope from thee,
That no revenue hast but thy good spirits
To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be
flattered?
No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp,
And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee
Where thrift may follow feigning. Dost thou hear?—
Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice
And could of men distinguish, her election
Hath sealed thee for herself; for thou hast been
As one in suff‘ring all that suffers nothing,
A man that Fortune’s buffets and rewards
Hath ta’en with equal thanks; and blest are those
Whose blood and judgement are so well commingled
That they are not a pipe for Fortune’s finger
To sound what stop she please. Give me that man
That is not passion’s slave, and I will wear him
In my heart’s core, ay, in my heart of heart,
As I do thee. Something too much of this.
There is a play tonight before the King.
One scene of it comes near the circumstance
Which I have told thee of my father’s death.
I prithee, when thou seest that act afoot,
Even with the very comment of thy soul
Observe mine uncle. If his occulted guilt
Do not itself unkennel in one speech,
It is a damned ghost that we have seen,
And my imaginations are as foul
As Vulcan’s stithy. Give him heedful note,
For I mine eyes will rivet to his face,
And after, we will both our judgements join
To censure of his seeming.
For what advancement may I hope from thee,
That no revenue hast but thy good spirits
To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be
flattered?
No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp,
And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee
Where thrift may follow feigning. Dost thou hear?—
Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice
And could of men distinguish, her election
Hath sealed thee for herself; for thou hast been
As one in suff‘ring all that suffers nothing,
A man that Fortune’s buffets and rewards
Hath ta’en with equal thanks; and blest are those
Whose blood and judgement are so well commingled
That they are not a pipe for Fortune’s finger
To sound what stop she please. Give me that man
That is not passion’s slave, and I will wear him
In my heart’s core, ay, in my heart of heart,
As I do thee. Something too much of this.
There is a play tonight before the King.
One scene of it comes near the circumstance
Which I have told thee of my father’s death.
I prithee, when thou seest that act afoot,
Even with the very comment of thy soul
Observe mine uncle. If his occulted guilt
Do not itself unkennel in one speech,
It is a damned ghost that we have seen,
And my imaginations are as foul
As Vulcan’s stithy. Give him heedful note,
For I mine eyes will rivet to his face,
And after, we will both our judgements join
To censure of his seeming.
HORATIO Well, my lord.
If a steal aught the whilst this play is playing
And scape detecting, I will pay the theft.
And scape detecting, I will pay the theft.
⌈
Sound a flourish
⌉
HAMLET
They are coming to the play. I must be idle.
Get you a place.
Get you a place.
⌈
Danish march. Enter King Claudius, Queen
Gertrude, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz,
Guildenstern, and other lords attendant, with the
King’s guard carrying torches
⌉
KING CLAUDIUS How fares our cousin Hamlet?
HAMLET Excellent, i’faith, of the chameleon’s dish. I eat the air, promise-crammed. You cannot feed capons so.
KING CLAUDIUS I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet.
These words are not mine.
HAMLET No, nor mine now. (
To Polonius
) My lord, you played once i’th’ university, you say.
To Polonius
) My lord, you played once i’th’ university, you say.
POLONIUS That I did, my lord, and was accounted a good actor.
HAMLET And what did you enact?
POLONIUS I did enact Julius Caesar. I was killed i’th’ Capitol. Brutus killed me.
HAMLET It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf there.—Be the players ready?
ROSENCRANTZ Ay, my lord, they stay upon your patience.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Come hither, my good Hamlet. Sit by me.
HAMLET No, good-mother, here’s mettle more attractive.
He sits by Ophelia
POLONTUS (
aside
) O ho, do you mark that?
aside
) O ho, do you mark that?
HAMLET (
to Ophelia
) Lady, shall I lie in your lap?
to Ophelia
) Lady, shall I lie in your lap?
OPHELIA No, my lord.
HAMLET I mean my head upon your lap?
OPHELIA Ay, my lord.
HAMLET Do you think I meant country matters?
OPHELIA I think nothing, my lord.
HAMLET That’s a fair thought to lie between maids’ legs.
OPHELIA What is, my lord?
HAMLET No thing.
OPHELIA You are merry, my lord.
HAMLET Who, I?
OPHELIA Ay, my lord.
HAMLET O God, your only jig-maker! What should a man do but be merry? For look you how cheerfully my mother looks, and my father died within ’s two hours.
OPHELIA Nay, ’tis twice two mqnths, my lord. 122
HAMLET So long? Nay then, let the devil wear black, for I’ll have a suit of sables. O heavens, die two months ago and not forgotten yet! Then there’s hope a great man’s memory may outlive his life half a year. But, by‘r Lady, a must build churches then, or else shall a suffer not thinking on, with the hobby-horse, whose epitaph is ‘For O, for O, the hobby-horse is forgot.’
Hautboys play. The dumb show enters. Enter a King
and a Queen very lovingly, the Queen embracing him.
She kneels and makes show of protestation unto him.
He takes her up and declines his head upon her neck.
He lays him down upon a bank of flowers. She, seeing
him asleep, leaves him. Anon comes in a fellow, takes
off his crown, kisses it, and pours poison in the King’s
ears, and exits. The Queen returns, finds
the King dead, and makes passionate action. The
poisoner, with some two or three mutes, comes in
again, seeming to lament with her. The dead body is
carried away. The poisoner woos the Queen with
gifts. She seems loath and unwilling a while, but in
the end accepts his love. Exeunt the Players
OPHELIA What means this, my lord?
HAMLET Marry, this is miching malhecho. That means mischief.
OPHELIA Belike this show imports the argument of the play.
Enter Prologue
Enter Prologue
HAMLET We shall know by this fellow. The players cannot keep counsel, they’ll tell all.
OPHELIA Will a tell us what this show meant?
HAMLET Ay, or any show that you’ll show him. Be not you ashamed to show, he’ll not shame to tell you what it means.
OPHELIA You are naught, you are naught. I’ll mark the play.
PROLOGUE
For us and for our tragedy
Here stooping to your clemency,
We beg your hearing patiently. Exit
Here stooping to your clemency,
We beg your hearing patiently. Exit
HAMLET Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring?
OPHELIA ’Tis brief, my lord.
HAMLET As woman’s love.
Enter the Player King and his Queen
PLAYER KING
Full thirty times hath Phoebus’ cart gone round
Neptune’s salt wash and Tellus’ orbèd ground,
And thirty dozen moons with borrowed sheen
About the world have times twelve thirties been
Since love our hearts and Hymen did our hands
Unite commutual in most sacred bands.
Neptune’s salt wash and Tellus’ orbèd ground,
And thirty dozen moons with borrowed sheen
About the world have times twelve thirties been
Since love our hearts and Hymen did our hands
Unite commutual in most sacred bands.
PLAYER QUEEN
So many journeys may the sun and moon
Make us again count o’er ere love be done.
But woe is me, you are so sick of late,
So far from cheer and from your former state,
That I distrust you. Yet, though I distrust,
Discomfort you my lord it nothing must.
For women’s fear and love holds quantity,
In neither aught, or in extremity.
Now what my love is, proof hath made you know,
And as my love is sized, my fear is so.
Make us again count o’er ere love be done.
But woe is me, you are so sick of late,
So far from cheer and from your former state,
That I distrust you. Yet, though I distrust,
Discomfort you my lord it nothing must.
For women’s fear and love holds quantity,
In neither aught, or in extremity.
Now what my love is, proof hath made you know,
And as my love is sized, my fear is so.
PLAYER KING
Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly too.
My operant powers their functions leave to do,
And thou shalt live in this fair world behind,
Honoured, beloved; and haply one as kind
For husband shalt thou—
My operant powers their functions leave to do,
And thou shalt live in this fair world behind,
Honoured, beloved; and haply one as kind
For husband shalt thou—
PLAYER QUEEN O, confound the rest!
Such love must needs be treason in my breast.
In second husband let me be accurst;
None wed the second but who killed the first.
In second husband let me be accurst;
None wed the second but who killed the first.
HAMLET Wormwood, wormwood.
PLAYER QUEEN
The instances that second marriage move
Are base respects of thrift, but none of love.
A second time I kill my husband dead
When second husband kisses me in bed.
Are base respects of thrift, but none of love.
A second time I kill my husband dead
When second husband kisses me in bed.
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