Chapter 13

_Enter_ QUEEN _and_ POLONIUS (L.H.)

_Pol._ He will come straight. Look, you lay home to him:[112] Tell him his pranks have been too broad[113] to bear with, And that your grace hath screen'd and stood between Much heat and him. I'll sconce me even here.[114] Pray you, be round with him.

_Queen._ I'll warrant you; Fear me not:--withdraw, I hear him coming.

[POLONIUS _hides himself_, L.H.U.E.

_Enter_ HAMLET (R.)

_Ham._ (R.C.) Now, mother, what's the matter?

_Queen._ (L.C.) Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.

_Ham._ Mother, you have my father much offended.

_Queen._ Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.

_Ham._ Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.

_Queen._ Why, how now, Hamlet!

_Ham._ What's the matter now?

_Queen._ Have you forgot me?

_Ham._ No, by the rood,[115] not so: You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife; 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!

_Ham._ How now! a rat?[116]

[_Draws._]

Dead, for a ducat, dead!

[HAMLET _rushes off behind the arras._]

_Pol._ (_Behind._) O, I am slain!

[_Falls and dies._]

_Queen._ O me, what hast thou done?

_Ham._

(_Returning._)

Nay, I know not: Is it the king?

_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.

[_Goes off behind the arras, and returns._]

Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!

[_To the dead body of_ POLONIUS, _behind the arras_.]

I took thee for thy better. Leave wringing of your hands: Peace; sit you down,

[_To the_ QUEEN.]

And let me wring your heart: for so I shall, If it be made of penetrable stuff; If damnèd custom have not brazed it so,[117] That it be proof and bulwark against sense.[118]

_Queen._

(_Sits_ R.C.)

What have I done, that thou dar'st wag thy tongue In noise so rude against me?

_Ham._

(_Seated_ L.C.)

Such an act, That blurs the grace and blush of modesty; Calls virtue, hypocrite; takes off the rose From the fair forehead of an innocent love, And sets a blister there;[119] makes marriage vows As false as dicer's oaths: O, such a deed As from the body of contraction plucks The very soul;[120] and sweet religion makes A rhapsody of words.-- Ah, me, that act!

_Queen._ Ah me, what act?

_Ham._ Look here, upon this picture, and on this, The counterfeit presentment[121] of two brothers. See, what a grace was seated on this brow; Hypérion's curls;[122] the front of Jove himself; An eye like Mars, to threaten and command; A station like the herald Mercury[123] 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: Here is your husband; like a mildew'd ear, Blasting his wholesome brother.[124] Have you eyes? Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed, And batten on this moor?[125] Ha! have you eyes? You cannot call it love; for, at your age The hey-day in the blood[126] is tame, it's humble, And waits upon the judgment: And what judgment Would step from this to this? O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell, If thou canst mutine,[127] in a matron's bones, To flaming youth let virtue be as wax, And melt in her own fire.

_Queen._ O, Hamlet, speak no more: Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul; And there I see such black and grainèd spots As will not leave their tinct.[128]

_Ham._ Nay, but to live In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed,----[129]

_Queen._ O, speak to me no more; No more, sweet Hamlet!

_Ham._ A murderer and a villain: A slave that is not twentieth part the tythe Of your precedent lord;--a vice of kings;[130] A cutpurse of the empire and the rule; That from a shelf the precious diadem stole, And put it in his pocket![131]

_Queen._ No more!

_Ham._ A king Of shreds and patches.[132]

[_Enter_ Ghost, R.]

Save me

[_Starts from his chair_],

and hover o'er me with your wings, You heavenly guards! What would your gracious figure?

_Queen._ Alas, he's mad!

[_Rising._]

_Ham._ (L.) Do you not come your tardy son to chide, That, laps'd in time and passion,[133] lets go by The important acting of your dread command? O, say!

_Ghost._ (R.) Do not forget: This visitation Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose. But, look, amazement on thy mother sits: O, step between her and her fighting soul. Speak to her Hamlet.

_Ham._ How is it with you, lady?

_Queen._ Alas, how is't with you, That you do bend your eye on vacancy, And with the incorporal air do hold discourse? Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep. O gentle son,

[_Crosses to_ HAMLET.]

Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper Sprinkle cool patience.[134] Whereon do you look?

_Ham._ On him, on him!--Look you, how pale he glares! His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones, Would make them capable.[135] Do not look upon me; Lest with this piteous action, you convert My stern effects:[136] then what I have to do Will want true colour; tears perchance, for blood.

_Queen._ To whom do you speak this?

_Ham._ Do you see nothing there?

_Queen._ Nothing at all; yet all that is, I see.[137]

_Ham._ Nor did you nothing hear?

_Queen._ No, nothing but ourselves.

_Ham._ Why, look you there! look, how it steals away!

[_Ghost crosses to_ L.]

My father in his habit as he lived![138] Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal!

[_Exit_ Ghost, L.H. HAMLET _sinks into chair_ C. _The_ QUEEN _falls on her knees by his side._]

_Queen._ This is the very coinage of your brain: This bodiless creation ecstasy Is very cunning in.[139]

_Ham._ Ecstasy! My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time, And makes as healthful music: It is not madness That I have uttered: bring me to the test, And I the matter will re-word; which madness Would gambol from.[140] Mother, for love of grace,

_Rising._]

Lay not that flattering unction to your soul, That not your trespass, but my madness speaks: It will but skin and film[141] the ulcerous place, Whiles rank corruption, mining all within, Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven; Repent what's past; avoid what is to come.

_Queen._ O, Hamlet! thou hast cleft my heart in twain.

_Ham._ O, throw away the worser part of it, And live the purer with the other half. Good night: but go not to my uncle's bed;

[_Raising the_ QUEEN.]

Assume a virtue, if you have it not. Once more, good night! And when you are desirous to be bless'd, I'll blessing beg of you.[142] For this same lord,

[_Pointing to_ POLONIUS.]

I do repent: I will bestow him, and will answer well The death I gave him. So, again, good night.

[_Exit_ QUEEN, R.H.]

I must be cruel, only to be kind: Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.

[_Exit_ HAMLET _behind the arras_, L.H.U.E.

END OF ACT THIRD.

Notes