QUEEN.

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

[POLONIUS hides himself. S.

Enter Hamlet.

Ham. Now, mother; what's the matter?
QUEEn. Hamlet, thou hast thy father much of

fended. Ham. Mother, you have my father much of

fended. QUEEN. Come, come, you answer with an idle

tongue. HAM. Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue. QUEEN. Why, how now, Hamlet ? HAм.

What's the matter now? Queen. Have you forgot me? HAM.

No, by the rood,“ not so: You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife; But would you 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 mur.

der me? Help, help, ho!

Pol. [Behind.] What, ho! help!

* by the rood] From the A. S. rode. crux. a cross. Skinn. See IÍ. H. IV. Shal. III. 2. • The quartos and modern editors read

“ And, -'would it were not so !-you are my mother."

NIUS.

HAM.

How now! a rat?

[Draws. Dead, for a ducat, dead.

[Hamlet makes a pass through the Arras. Pol. [Behind.] O, I am slain. '

[Falls, and dies. QUEEN. O me, what hast thou done? HAM.

Nay, I know not: Is it the king?

[Lifts up the Arras, and draws forth Polo:

NIUS.
QUEEN. O, what a rash and bloody deed is this !
HAM. A bloody deed ;-—almost aś bad, good

mother,
As kill a king, (81) and marry with his brother.

Queen. As kill a king!
HAM.

y, lady, 'twas my word. Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!

[To POLONIUS.
I took thee for thy betters ; * take thy fortune:
Thou find'st, to be too busy, is some danger.
Leave wringing of your hands : Peace; sit you

down,
And let me wring your heart: for so I shall,
If it be made of penetrable stuff ; (82)
If damned custom have not braz'd it so,
That it be proof and bulwark against sense.*
QUEEN. What have I done, that thou dar’st wag

thy tongue
In noise so rude against me?
Hлм.

Such an act, That blurs the grace and blush of modesty; Calls virtue, hypocrite; takes off the rose

bettet,

4to.

• Proof and bulwark against sense] Against all feeling,

From the fair forehead of an innocent love, * sets, 4105. And makes * a blister there ; (83) makes marriage

vows
As false as dicer's oaths: 0, such a deed
As from the body of contraction plucks
The very soul;“ and sweet religion makes
A rhapsody of words : Heaven's face doth glow
Yea, this solidity and compound mass,
With tristful visage, as against the doom,
Is thought-sick at the act.
QUEEN.

. Ah me, what act, That roars so loud, and thunders in the index? (84) Ham. Look here, upon this picture, and on

this ; (85)
The counterfeit presentment (86) of two brothers.
See, what a grace was seated on this brow:
Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself;
An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;
A station like the herald Mercury,(87)
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, So...tos, Blasting his wholesome brother*. Have you breath, 1693, 32.

eyes ?

As from the body of contraction plucks

The very soul] Annihilates the very principle of contracts.

Heaven's face— Yea this solidity-
With tristful visage,

18 thought-sick at the act.] The face of heaven looks
heated, as if abashed; and this massive compound, the earth,
with heavy looks, as on the approach of the day of doom, is dis-
quieted and disordered at the thought of what is done.
The quartos read,

“ O'er this solidity, &c.
“ With heated visage."

Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed,
And batten on this moor ?(88) Ha! have you eyes?
You cannot call it, love: for, at your age,
The hey-day in the blood (89) is tame, it's humble,
And waits upon the judgment; And what judg.

ment Would step from this to this? [Sense, sure, you

have, Else, could you not have motion:() But, sure,

that sense Is apoplexed : for madness would not err; Nor sense to ecstasy was ne'er so thrallid, But it reserv'd some quantity of choice,91) To serve in such a difference.) What devil was't That thus hath cozen'd you at hoodman-blind? (92) [Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight, Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all, Or but a sickly part of one true sense Could not so mope.] O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell, If thou canst mutine (93) in a matron's bones, To flaming youth let virtue be as wax, And melt in her own fire: proclaim no shame, When the compulsive ardour gives the charge ; 6 Since frost itself as actively doth burn, And reason panders will.(94)

QUEEN. . O Hamlet, speak no more :: Thou turn’st mine eyes into my very soul; And there I see such black and grained spots, As will not leave their tinct.

*s0 mope] Be so blind and stupid. See Temp. last sc. Boatsw.

HAM.

Nay, but to live
In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed ; (95)
Stewd in corruption; honeying, and making love
Over the nasty stye;
QUEEN.

O, speak to me no more;
These words, like daggers enter in mine ears;
No more, sweet Hamlet.
НАМ.

A murderer, and a villain :
A slave, that is not twentieth part the tythe
Of your precedent lord :-a vice of kings ; (96)
A cutpurse of the empire and the rule;
That from a shelf the precious diadem stole,
And put it in his pocket!
QUEEN.

No more.

Enter Ghost.

HAM.

· A king
Of shreds and patches : (97)
Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings,
You heavenly guards! What would your gracious

figure ?
QUEEN. Alas, he's mad.

Ham. Do you not come your tardy son to chide,
That, laps'd in time and passion,(98) lets go by
The important acting of your dread command ?
O, say!

Ghost. 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;
Conceit (99) in weakest bodies strongest works;
Speak to her, Hamlet.
HAM.

How is it with you, lady? QUEEN. Alas, how is't with you; do bend, That you bend * your eye on vacancy, 4tos.

And with the incorporal air do hold discourse?

An thus you a