_Ham._ T'is well, I thanke you: follow that lord:
And doe you heare sirs? take heede you mocke him not.
Gentlemen, for your kindnes I thanke you,
And for a time I would desire you leaue me.
_Gil._ Our loue and duetie is at your commaund.
_Exeunt all but Hamlet._
_Ham._ Why what a dunghill idiote slaue am I?
Why these Players here draw water from eyes:
For Hecuba, why what is Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba? [F1]
What would he do and if he had my losse?
His father murdred, and a Crowne bereft him,
He would turne all his teares to droppes of blood,
Amaze the standers by with his laments,
Strike more then wonder in the iudiciall eares,
Confound the ignorant, and make mute the wise,
Indeede his passion would be generall.
Yet I like to an asse and Iohn a Dreames,
Hauing my father murdred by a villaine,
Stand still, and let it passe, why sure I am a coward:
Who pluckes me by the beard, or twites my nose,
Giue's me the lie i'th throate downe to the lungs,
Sure I should take it, or else I haue no gall,
Or by this I should a fatted all the region kites
With this slaues offell, this damned villaine,
Treachcrous, bawdy, murderous villaine:
Why this is braue, that I the sonne of my deare father,
Should like a scalion, like a very drabbe
Thus raile in wordes. About my braine,
I haue heard that guilty creatures sitting at a play,
Hath, by the very cunning of the scene, confest a murder
Committed long before.
This spirit that I haue seene may be the Diuell,
And out of my weakenesse and my melancholy,
As he is very potent with such men,
Doth seeke to damne me, I will haue sounder proofes,
The play's the thing,
Wherein I'le catch the conscience of the King. _exit._
_Enter the King, Queene, and Lordes._
_King_ Lordes, can you by no meanes finde
The cause of our sonne Hamlets lunacie?
You being so neere in loue, euen from his youth,
Me thinkes should gaine more than a stranger should.
_Gil._ My lord, we haue done all the best we could, [F1v]
To wring from him the cause of all his griefe,
But still he puts vs off, and by no meanes
Would make an answere to that we exposde.
_Ross._ Yet was he something more inclin'd to mirth
Before we left him, and I take it,
He hath giuen order for a play to night,
At which he craues your highnesse company.
_King_ With all our heart, it likes vs very well:
Gentlemen, seeke still to increase his mirth,
Spare for no cost, our coffers shall be open,
And we vnto your selues will still be thankefull.
_Both_ In all wee can, be sure you shall commaund.
_Queene_ Thankes gentlemen, and what the Queene of
May pleasure you, be sure you shall not want. (_Denmarke_
_Gil._ Weele once againe vnto the noble Prince.
_King_ Thanks to you both; Gertred you'l see this play.
_Queene_ My lord I will, and it ioyes me at the soule
He is incln'd to any kinde of mirth.
_Cor._ Madame, I pray be ruled by me:
And my good Soueraigne, giue me leaue to speake,
We cannot yet finde out the very ground
Of his distemperance, therefore
I holde it meete, if so it please you,
Else they shall not meete, and thus it is.
_King_ What i'st _Corambis_? (done,
_Cor._ Mary my good lord this, soone when the sports are
Madam, send you in haste to speake with him,
And I my selfe will stand behind the Arras,
There question you the cause of all his griefe,
And then in loue and nature vnto you, hee'le tell you all:
My Lord, how thinke you on't?
_King_ It likes vs well, Gerterd, what say you?
_Queene_ With all my heart, soone will I send for him.
_Cor._ My selfe will be that happy messenger,
Who hopes his griefe will be reueal'd to her. _exeunt omnes_
_Enter Hamlet and the Players_. [F2]
_Ham._ Pronounce me this spcech trippingly a the tongue
as I taught thee,
Mary and you mouth it, as a many of your players do
I'de rather heare a towne bull bellow,
Then such a fellow speake my lines.
Nor do not saw the aire thus with your hands,
But giue euerything his action with temperance. (fellow,
O it offends mee to the soule, to heare a rebellious periwig
To teare a passion in totters, into very ragges,
To split the eares of the ignorant, who for the (noises,
Most parte are capable or nothing but dumbe shewes and
I would haue such a fellow whipt, or o're doing, tarmagant
It out, Herodes Herod.
_players_ My Lorde, wee haue indifferently reformed that
among vs.
_Ham._ The better, the better, mend it all together:
There be fellowes that I haue seene play,
And heard others commend them, and that highly too,
That hauing neither the gate or Christian, Pagan,
Nor Turke, haue so strutted and bellowed,
That you would a thought, some of Natures journeymen
Had made men, and not made them well,
They imitated humanitie, so abhominable:
Take heede, auoyde it.
_players_ I warrant you my Lord.
_Ham._ And doe you heare? let not your Clowne speake
More then is set downe, there be of them I can tell you
That will laugh themselues, to set on some
Quantitie of barren spectators to laugh with them,
Albeit there is some necessary point in the Play
Then to be obserued: O t'is vile, and shewes
A pittifull ambition in the foole that vseth it.
And then you haue some agen, that keepes one sute
Of ieasts, as a man is knowne by one sute of
Apparell, and Gentlemen quotes his ieasts downe
In their tables, before they come to the play, as thus: [F2v]
Cannot you stay till I eate my porrige? and, you owe me
A quarters wages: and, my coate wants a cullison:
And, your beere is sowre: and, blabbering with his lips,
And thus keeping in his cinkapase of ieasts,
When, God knows, the warme Clowne cannot make a iest
Vnlesse by chance, as the blinde man catcheth a hare:
Maisters tell him of it.
_players_ We will my Lord.
_Ham._ Well, goe make you ready. _exeunt players._
_Horatio_. Heere my Lord.
_Ham._ _Horatio_, thou art euen as iust a man,
As e're my conuersation cop'd withall.
_Hor._ O my lord!
_Ham._ Nay why should I flatter thee?
Why should the poore be flattered?
What gaine should I receiue by flattering thee,
That nothing hath but thy good minde?
Let flattery sit on those time-pleasing tongs,
To glose with them that loues to heare their praise,
And not with such as thou _Horatio_.
There is a play to night, wherein one Sceane they haue
Comes very neere the murder of my father,
When thou shalt see that Act afoote,
Marke thou the King, doe but obserue his lookes,
For I mine eies will riuet to his face:
And if he doe not bleach, and change at that,
It is a dammed ghost that we haue seene.
_Horatio_, haue a care, obserue him well.
_Hor._ My lord, mine eies shall still be on his face,
And not the smallest alteration
That shall appeare in him, but I shall note it.
_Ham._ Harke, they come.
_Enter King, Queene, Corambis, and other Lords._ (a play?
_King_. How now son _Hamlet_, how fare you, shall we haue
_Ham_. Yfaith the Camelions dish, not capon cramm'd,
feede a the ayre. [F3]
I father: My lord, you playd in the Vniuersitie.
_Cor._ That I did my L: and I was counted a good actor.
_Ham_. What did you enact there?
_Cor._ My lord, I did act _Iulius Cæsar_, I was killed
in the Capitol, _Brutus_ killed me.
_Ham_. It was a brute parte of him,
To kill so capitall a calfe.
Come, be these Players ready?
_Queene_ Hamlet come sit downe by me.
_Ham._ No by my faith mother, heere's a mettle more at-
Lady will you giue me leaue, and so forth: (tractiue:
To lay my head in your lappe?
_Ofel._ No my Lord. (trary matters?
_Ham._ Vpon your lap, what do you thinke I meant con-
_Enter in Dumbe Shew, the King and the Queene, he sits
downe in an Arbor, she leaues him: Then enters Luci-
anus with poyson in a Viall, and powres it in his eares, and
goes away: Then the Queene commmeth and findes him
dead: and goes away with the other._
_Ofel._ What meanes this my Lord? _Enter the Prologue._
_Ham._ This is myching Mallico, that meanes my chiefe.
_Ofel._ What doth this meane my lord?
_Ham._ You shall heare anone, this fellow will tell you all.
_Ofel._ Will he tell vs what this shew meanes?
_Ham._ I, or any shew you'le shew him,
Be not afeard to shew, hee'le not be afeard to tell:
O, these Players cannot keepe counsell, thei'le tell all.
_Prol._ For vs, and for our Tragedie,
Here stowpiug to your clemencie,
We begge your hearing patiently.
_Ham._ Is't a prologue, or a poesie for a ring?
_Ofel._ T'is short, my Lord.
_Ham._ As womens loue.
_Enter the Duke and Dutchesse._
_Duke_ Full fortie yeares are past, their date is gone,
Since happy time ioyn'd both our hearts as one: [F3v]
And now the blood that fill'd my youthfull veines,
Runnes weakely in their pipes, and all the straines
Of musicke, which whilome pleasde mine eare,
Is now a burthen that Age cannot beare:
And therefore sweete Nature must pay his due,
To heauen must I, and leaue the earth with you.
_Dutchesse_ O say not so, lest that you kill my heart,
When death takes you, let life from me depart.
_Duke_ Content thy selfe, when ended is my date,
Thon maist (perchance) haue a more noble mate,
More wise, more youthfull, and one.
_Dutchesse_ O speake no more for then I am accurst,
None weds the second, but she kils the first:
A second time I kill my Lord that's dead,
When second husband kisses me in bed.
_Ham._ O wormewood, wormewood!
_Duke_ I doe beleeue you sweete, what now you speake,
But what we doe determine oft we breake,
For our demises stil are ouerthrowne,
Our thoughts are ours, their end's none of our owne:
So thinke you will no second husband wed,
But die thy thoughts, when thy first Lord is dead.
_Dutchesse_ Both here and there pursue me lasting strife,
If once a widdow, euer I be wife.
_Ham._ If she should breake now.
_Duke_ T'is deepely sworne, sweete leaue me here a while,
My spirites growe dull, and faine I would beguile the tedi-
ous time with sleepe.
_Dutchesse_ Sleepe rocke thy braine,
And neuer come mischance betweene vs twaine. _exit Lady_
_Ham._ Madam, how do you like this play?
_Queene_ The Lady protests too much.
_Ham._ O but shee'le keepe her word.
_King_ Haue you heard the argument, is there no offence
in it?
_Ham._ No offence in the world, poyson in iest, poison in [F4]
_King_ What do you call the name of the play? (iest.
_Ham._ Mouse-trap: mary how trapically: this play is
The image of a murder done in _guyana_, _Albertus_
Was the Dukes name, his wife _Baptista_,
Father, it is a knauish peece a worke: but what
A that, it toucheth not vs, you and I that haue free
Soules, let the galld iade wince, this is one
_Lucianus_ nephew to the King.
_Ofel._ Ya're as good as a _Chorus_ my lord.
_Ham._ I could interpret the loue you beare, if I sawe the
poopies dallying.
_Ofel._ Y'are very pleasant my lord.
_Ham._ Who I, your onlie jig-maker, why what shoulde
a man do but be merry? for looke how cheerefully my mother
lookes, my father died within these two houres.
_Ofel._ Nay, t'is twice two months, my Lord.
_Ham._ Two months, nay then let the diuell weare blacke,
For i'le haue a sute of Sables: Iesus, two months dead,
And not forgotten yet? nay then there's some
Likelyhood, a gentlemans death may outliue memorie,
But by my faith hee must build churches then,
Or els hee must follow the olde Epitithe,
With hoh, with ho, the hobi-horse is forgot.
_Ofel._ Your iests are keene my Lord.
_Ham._ It would cost you a groning to take them off.
_Ofel._ Still better and worse.
_Ham._ So you must take your husband, begin. Murdred
Begin, a poxe, leaue thy damnable faces and begin,
Come, the croking rauen doth bellow for reuenge.
_Murd._ Thoughts blacke, hands apt, drugs fit, and time
Confederate season, else no creature seeing: (agreeing.
Thou mixture rancke, of midnight weedes collected,
With _Hecates_ bane thrise blasted, thrise infected,
Thy naturall magicke, and dire propertie,
One wholesome life vsurps immediately. _exit._
_Ham._ He poysons him for his estate. [F4v]
_King_ Lights, I will to bed.
_Cor._ The king rises, lights hoe.
_Exeunt King and Lordes._
_Ham._ What, frighted with false fires?
Then let the stricken deere goe weepe,
The Hart vngalled play,
For some must laugh, while some must weepe,
Thus runnes the world away.
_Hor._ The king is mooued my lord.
_Hor._ I _Horatio_, i'le take the Ghosts word
For more then all the coyne in _Denmarke_.
_Enter Rossencraft and Gilderstone._
_Ross._ Now my lord, how i'st with you?
_Ham._ And if the king like not the tragedy,
Why then belike he likes it not perdy.
_Ross._ We are very glad to see your grace so pleasant,
My good lord, let vs againe intreate (ture
To know of you the ground and cause of your distempera-
_Gil._ My lord, your mother craues to speake with you.
_Ham._ We shall obey, were she ten times our mother.
_Ross._ But my good Lord, shall I intreate thus much?
_Ham._ I pray will you play vpon this pipe?
_Ross._ Alas my lord I cannot.
_Ham._ Pray will you.
_Gil._ I haue no skill my Lord.
_Ham._ Why looke, it is a thing of nothing,
T'is but stopping of these holes,
And with a little breath from your lips,
It will giue most delicate musick.
_Gil._ But this cannot wee do my Lord.
_Ham._ Pray now, pray hartily, I beseech you.
_Ros._ My lord wee cannot. (me?
_Ham._ Why how vnworthy a thing would you make of
You would seeme to know my stops, you would play vpon [G1]
You would search the very inward part of my hart, mee,
And diue into the secreet of my soule.
Zownds do you thinke I am easier to be pla'yd
On, then a pipe? call mee what Instrument
You will, though you can frett mee, yet you can not
Play vpon mee, besides, to be demanded by a spunge.
_Ros._ How a spunge my Lord?
_Ham._ I sir, a spunge, that sokes vp the kings
Countenance, fauours, and rewardes, that makes
His liberalitie your store house: but such as you,
Do the king, in the end, best seruise;
For hee doth keep you as an Ape doth nuttes,
In the corner of his Iaw, first mouthes you,
Then swallowes you: so when hee hath need
Of you, t'is but squeesing of you,
And spunge, you shall be dry againe, you shall.
_Ros._ Wel my Lord wee'le take our leaue.
_Ham_ Farewell, farewell, God blesse you.
_Exit Rossencraft and Gilderstone._
_Enter Corambis_
_Cor._ My lord, the Queene would speake with you.
_Ham._ Do you see yonder clowd in the shape of a camell?
_Cor._ T'is like a camell in deed.
_Ham._ Now me thinkes it's like a weasel.
_Cor._ T'is back't like a weasell.
_Ham._ Or like a whale.
_Cor._ Very like a whale. _exit Coram._
_Ham._ Why then tell my mother i'le come by and by.
Good night Horatio.
_Hor._ Good night vnto your Lordship. _exit Horatio._
_Ham._ My mother she hath sent to speake with me:
O God, let ne're the heart of _Nero_ enter
This soft bosome.
Let me be cruell, not vnnaturall.
I will speake daggers, those sharpe wordes being spent, [G1v]
To doe her wrong my soule shall ne're consent. _exit._
_Enter the King_.
_King_. O that this wet that falles vpon my face
Would wash the crime cleere from my conscience!
When I looke vp to heauen, I see my trespasse,
The earth doth still crie out vpon my fact,
Pay me the murder of a brother and a king,
And the adulterous fault I haue committed:
O these are sinnes that art vnpardonable:
Why say thy sinnes were blacker then is ieat,
Yet may contrition make them as white as snowe:
I but still to perseuer in a sinne,
It is an act gainst the vniuerfall power,
Most wretched man, stoope, bend thee to thy prayer,
Aske grace of heauen to keepe thee from despaire.
_hee kneeles._ _enters Hamlet_
_Ham._ I so, come forth and worke thy last,
And thus hee dies: and so, am I reuenged:
No, not so: he tooke my father sleeping, his sins brim full,
And how his soule floode to the state of heauen
Who knowes, saue the immortall powres,
And shall I kill him now
When he is purging of his soule?
Making his way for heauen, this is a benefit,
And not reuenge: no, get thee vp agen, (drunke,
When hee's at game swaring, taking his carowse, drinking
Or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed,
Or at some act that hath no relish
Of saluation in't, then trip him
That his heeles may kicke at heauen,
And fall as lowe as hel: my mother stayes,
This phisicke but prolongs they weary dayes. _exit Ham._
_King_. My wordes fly vp, my sinnes remaine below.
No King on earth is safe, if Gods his foe. _exit King._[G2]
_Enter Queene and Corambis._
_Cor._ Madame, I heare yong Hamlet comming,
I'le shrowde my selfe behinde the Arras. _exit Cor._
_Queene_ Do so my Lord.
_Ham._ Mother, mother, O are you here?
How i'st with you mother?
_Queene_ How i'st with you?
_Ham,_ I'le tell you, but first weele make all safe.
_Queene_ Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.
_Ham._ Mother, you haue my father much offended.
_Queene_ How now boy?
_Ham._ How now mother! come here, sit downe, for you
shall heare me speake.
_Queene_ What wilt thou doe? thou wilt not murder me:
Helpe hoe.
_Cor._ Helpe for the Queene.
_Ham._ I a Rat, dead for a Duckat.
Rash intruding foole, farewell,
I tooke thee for thy better.
_Queene_ Hamlet, what hast thou done?
_Ham._ Not so much harme, good mother,
As to kill a king, and marry with his brother.
_Queene_ How! kill a king!
_Ham._ I a King: nay sit you downe, and ere you part,
If you be made of penitrable stuffe,
I'le make your eyes looke downe into your heart,
And see how horride there and blacke it shews. (words?
_Queene_ Hamlet, what mean'st thou by these killing
_Ham._ Why this I meane, see here, behold this picture,
It is the portraiture, of your deceased husband,
See here a face, to outface _Mars_ himselfe,
An eye, at which his foes did tremble at,
A front wherin all vertues are set downe
For to adorne a king, and guild his crowne,
Whose heart went hand in hand euen with that vow,
He made to you in marriage, and he is dead. [G2v]
Murdred, damnably murdred, this was your husband,
Looke you now, here is your husband,
With a face like _Vulcan_.
A looke fit for a murder and a rape,
A dull dead hanging looke, and a hell-bred eie,
To affright children and amaze the world:
And this same haue you left to change with this.
What Diuell thus hath cosoned you at hob-man blinde?
A! haue you eyes and can you looke on him
That slew my father, and your deere husband,
To liue in the incestuous pleasure of his bed?
_Queene_ O Hamlet, speake no more.
_Ham._ To leaue him that bare a Monarkes minde,
For a king of clowts, of very shreads.
_Queene_ Sweete Hamlet cease.
_Ham._ Nay but still to persist and dwell in sinne,
To sweate vnder the yoke of infamie,
To make increase of shame, to seale damnation.
_Queene_ Hamlet, no more.
_Ham._ Why appetite with you is in the waine,
Your blood runnes backeward now from whence it came,
Who'le chide hote blood within a Virgins heart,
When lust shall dwell within a matrons breast?
_Queene_ Hamlet, thou cleaues my heart in twaine.
_Ham._ O throw away the worser part of it, and keepe the
better.
_Enter the ghost in his night gowne._
Saue me, saue me, you gratious
Powers aboue, and houer ouer mee,
With your celestiall wings.
Doe you not come your tardy sonne to chide,
That I thus long haue let reuenge slippe by?
O do not glare with lookes so pittifull!
Lest that my heart of stone yeelde to compassion,
And euery part that should assist reuenge, [G3]
Forgoe their proper powers, and fall to pitty.
_Ghost_ Hamlet, I once againe appeare to thee,
To put thee in remembrance of my death:
Doe not neglect, nor long time put it off.
But I perceiue by thy distracted lookes,
Thy mother's fearefull, and she stands amazde:
Speake to her Hamlet, for her sex is weake,
Comfort thy mother, Hamlet, thinke on me.
_Ham._ How i'st with you Lady?
_Queene_ Nay, how i'st with you
That thus you bend your eyes on vacancie,
And holde discourse with nothing but with ayre?
_Ham._ Why doe you nothing heare?
_Queene_ Not I.
_Ham._ Nor doe you nothing see?
_Queene_ No neither. (habite
_Ham._ No, why see the king my father, my father, in the
As he liued, looke you how pale he lookes,
See how he steales away out of the Portall,
Looke, there he goes. _exit ghost._
_Queene_ Alas, it is the weakeness of thy braine,
Which makes thy tongue to blazon thy hearts griefe:
But as I haue a soule, I sweare by heauen,
I neuer knew of this most horride murder:
But Hamlet, this is only fantasie,
And for my loue forget these idle fits.
_Ham._ Idle, no mother, my pulse doth beate like yours,
It is not madnesse that possesseth Hamlet.
O mother, if euer you did my deare father loue,
Forbeare the adulterous bed to night,
And win your selfe by little as you may,
In time it may be you wil lothe him quite:
And mother, but assist mee in reuenge,
And in his death your infamy shall die.
_Queene_ _Hamlet_, I vow by that maiesty,
That knowes our thoughts, and lookes into our hearts, [G3v]
I will conceale, consent, and doe my best,
What stratagem soe're thou shalt deuise.
_Ham._ It is enough, mother good night:
Come sir, I'le provide for you a graue,
Who was in life a foolish prating knaue.
_Exit Hamlet with the dead body._
_Enter the King and Lordes._
_King_ Now Gertred, what sayes our sonne, how doe you
finde him?
_Queene_ Alas my lord, as raging as the sea:
Whenas he came, I first bespake him faire,
But then he throwes and tosses me about,
As one forgetting that I was his mother:
At last I call'd for help: and as I cried, _Corambis_
Call'd, which Hamlet no sooner heard, but whips me
Out his rapier, and cries, a Rat, a Rat, and in his rage
The good olde man he killes.
_King_ Why this his madnesse will vndoe our state.
Lordes goe to him, inquire the body out.
_Gil._ We will my Lord. _Exeunt Lordes._
_King_ Gertred, your sonne shall presently to England,
His shipping is already furnished,
And we have sent by _Rossencraft_ and _Gilderstone_,
Our letters to our deare brother of England,
For Hamlets welfare and his happinesse:
Happly the aire and climate of the Country
May please him better than his natiue home:
See where he comes.
_Enter Hamlet and the Lordes._
_Gil._ My lord, we can by no meanes
Know of him where the body is.
_King_ Now sonne Hamlet, where is this dead body?
_Ham._ At supper, not where he is eating, but
Where he is eaten, a certaine company of politicke wormes [G4]
are euen now at him.
Father, your fatte King, and your leane Beggar
Are but variable seruices, two dishes to one messe:
Looke you, a man may fish with that worme
That hath eaten of a King,
And a Beggar eate that fish,
Which that worme hath caught.
_King_ What of this?
_Ham._ Nothing father, but to tell you, how a King
May go a progresse through the guttes of a Beggar.
_King_ But sonne _Hamlet_, where is this body?
_Ham._ In heau'n, if you chance to misse him there,
Father, you had best looke in the other partes below
For him, aud if you cannot finde him there,
You may chance to nose him as you go vp the lobby.
_King_ Make haste and finde him out.
_Ham._ Nay doe you heare? do not make too much haste,
I'le warrant you hee'le stay till you come.
_King_ Well sonne _Hamlet_, we in care of you: but specially
in tender preseruation of your health,
The which we price euen as our proper selfe,
It is our minde you forthwith goe for _England_,
The winde sits faire, you shall aboorde to night,
Lord _Rossencraft_ and _Gilderstone_ shall goe along with you.
_Ham._ O with all my heart: farewel mother.
_King_ Your louing father, _Hamlet_.
_Ham._ My mother I say: you married my mother,
My mother is your wife, man and wife is one flesh,
And so (my mother) farewel: for England hoe.
_exeunt all but the king._
_king_ Gertred, leaue me,
And take your leaue of _Hamlet_,
To England is he gone, ne're to returne:
Our Letters are vnto the King of England,
That on the sight of them, on his allegeance,
He presently without demaunding why, [G4v]
That _Hamlet_ loose his head, for he must die,
There's more in him than shallow eyes can see:
He once being dead, why then our state is free. _exit._
_Enter Fortenbrasse, Drumme and Souldiers._
_Fort._ Captaine, from vs goe greete
The king of Denmarke:
Tell him that _Fortenbrasse_ nephew to old _Norway_,
Craues a free passe and conduct ouer his land.
According to the Articles agreed on:
You know our Randevous, goe march away. _exeunt all._
_enter King and Queene._