Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz,
Guildenstern, ⟨and⟩ Lords.KING And can you by no drift of conference Get from him why he puts on this confusion, Grating so harshly all his days of quiet With turbulent and dangerous lunacy?ROSENCRANTZ 5 He does confess he feels himself distracted, But from what cause he will by no means speak.GUILDENSTERN Nor do we find him forward to be sounded, But with a crafty madness keeps aloof When we would bring him on to some confession10 Of his true state.QUEEN Did he receive you well?ROSENCRANTZ Most like a gentleman.GUILDENSTERN But with much forcing of his disposition.ROSENCRANTZ Niggard of question, but of our demands15 Most free in his reply.QUEEN Did you assay him to any pastime?ROSENCRANTZ Madam, it so fell out that certain players
We o’erraught on the way. Of these we told him, And there did seem in him a kind of joy20 To hear of it. They are here about the court, And, as I think, they have already order This night to play before him.POLONIUS ’Tis most true, And he beseeched me to entreat your Majesties25 To hear and see the matter.KING With all my heart, and it doth much content me To hear him so inclined. Good gentlemen, give him a further edge And drive his purpose into these delights.ROSENCRANTZ 30 We shall, my lord.Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
⌜and Lords⌝ exit.KING Sweet Gertrude, leave us ⟨too,⟩ For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither, That he, as ’twere by accident, may here Affront Ophelia.35 Her father and myself, ⟨lawful espials,⟩ ⟨Will⟩ so bestow ourselves that, seeing unseen, We may of their encounter frankly judge And gather by him, as he is behaved, If ’t be th’ affliction of his love or no40 That thus he suffers for.QUEEN I shall obey you. And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish That your good beauties be the happy cause Of Hamlet’s wildness. So shall I hope your virtues45 Will bring him to his wonted way again, To both your honors.OPHELIA Madam, I wish it may.⌜Queen exits.⌝POLONIUS Ophelia, walk you here.—Gracious, so please you,
We will bestow ourselves. ⌜To Ophelia.⌝ Read on this50 book, That show of such an exercise may color Your ⟨loneliness.⟩—We are oft to blame in this (’Tis too much proved), that with devotion’s visage And pious action we do sugar o’er55 The devil himself.KING, ⌜aside⌝ O, ’tis too true! How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience. The harlot’s cheek beautied with plast’ring art60 Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it Than is my deed to my most painted word. O heavy burden!POLONIUS I hear him coming. ⟨Let’s⟩ withdraw, my lord.⌜They withdraw.⌝Enter Hamlet.HAMLET To be or not to be—that is the question:65 Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles And, by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep— No more—and by a sleep to say we end70 The heartache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to—’tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep— To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there’s the rub, For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,75 When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause. There’s the respect That makes calamity of so long life. For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, Th’ oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
80 The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of th’ unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,85 To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscovered country from whose bourn No traveler returns, puzzles the will And makes us rather bear those ills we have90 Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience does make cowards ⟨of us all,⟩ And thus the native hue of resolution Is ⟨sicklied⟩ o’er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pitch and moment95 With this regard their currents turn awry And lose the name of action.—Soft you now, The fair Ophelia.—Nymph, in thy orisons Be all my sins remembered.OPHELIA Good my lord,100 How does your Honor for this many a day?HAMLET I humbly thank you, well.OPHELIA My lord, I have remembrances of yours That I have longèd long to redeliver. I pray you now receive them.HAMLET 105 No, not I. I never gave you aught.OPHELIA My honored lord, you know right well you did, And with them words of so sweet breath composed As made ⟨the⟩ things more rich. Their perfume lost,110 Take these again, for to the noble mind Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind. There, my lord.
HAMLET Ha, ha, are you honest?OPHELIA My lord?HAMLET 115Are you fair?OPHELIA What means your Lordship?HAMLET That if you be honest and fair, ⟨your honesty⟩ should admit no discourse to your beauty.OPHELIA Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce120 than with honesty?HAMLET Ay, truly, for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness. This was sometime a paradox, but now125 the time gives it proof. I did love you once.OPHELIA Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.HAMLET You should not have believed me, for virtue cannot so ⟨inoculate⟩ our old stock but we shall relish of it. I loved you not.OPHELIA 130I was the more deceived.HAMLET Get thee ⟨to⟩ a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest, but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me: I am135 very proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offenses at my beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves140 ⟨all;⟩ believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery. Where’s your father?OPHELIA At home, my lord.HAMLET Let the doors be shut upon him that he may play the fool nowhere but in ’s own house. Farewell.OPHELIA 145O, help him, you sweet heavens!HAMLET If thou dost marry, I’ll give thee this plague for thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a
nunnery, farewell. Or if thou wilt needs marry,150 marry a fool, for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go, and quickly too. Farewell.OPHELIA Heavenly powers, restore him!HAMLET I have heard of your paintings ⟨too,⟩ well155 enough. God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another. You jig and amble, and you ⟨lisp;⟩ you nickname God’s creatures and make your wantonness ⟨your⟩ ignorance. Go to, I’ll no more on ’t. It hath made me mad. I say we will have160 no more marriage. Those that are married already, all but one, shall live. The rest shall keep as they are. To a nunnery, go.He exits.OPHELIA O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown! The courtier’s, soldier’s, scholar’s, eye, tongue,165 sword, ⟨Th’ expectancy⟩ and rose of the fair state, The glass of fashion and the mold of form, Th’ observed of all observers, quite, quite down! And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,170 That sucked the honey of his musicked vows, Now see ⟨that⟩ noble and most sovereign reason, Like sweet bells jangled, out of time and harsh; That unmatched form and stature of blown youth Blasted with ecstasy. O, woe is me175 T’ have seen what I have seen, see what I see!KING, ⌜advancing with⌝ Polonius 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,180 And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose Will be some danger; which for to prevent, I have in quick determination
Thus set it down: he shall with speed to England For the demand of our neglected tribute.185 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 190 It shall do well. But yet do I believe The origin and commencement of his 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,195 But, if you hold it fit, after the play Let his queen-mother all alone entreat him To show his grief. 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,200 To England send him, or confine him where Your wisdom best shall think.KING It shall be so. Madness in great ones must not ⟨unwatched⟩ go.They exit.
