ACT

III.

SCENE I.

The palace.

Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rofincrantz,

·King.

A

Guildenstern, and Lords.

ND can you by no drift of conference Get from him why he puts on this confufion, Grating fo harfhly all his days of quiet, With turbulent and dang'rous lunacy?

Rof. He does confefs, he feels himself distracted: But from what caufe, he will by no means fpeak. Guil. Nor do we find him forward to be founded ; But with a crafty madness keeps aloof,

When we would bring him on to some confeffion
Of his true flate.

Queen. Did he receive you well?

Ref. Moft like a gentleman.

Guil. But with much forcing of his difpofition. Rof. Most free of question, but of our demands Niggard in his reply.

Queen. Did you affay him to any paftime?

Rof. Madam, it fo fell out, that certain players
We o'er-rode on the way; of these we told him:
And there did feem in him a kind of joy
To hear of it: they are about the court;
And (as I think) they have already order
This night to play before him.

Pol. 'Tis most true:

And he befeech'd me to intreat your Majefties

To hear and fee the matter.

King. With all my heart, and it doth much content

To hear him fo inclin'd.

Good gentlemen, give him a further edge,

And drive his purpose on to these delights.
Ref. We fhall, my Lord.

[me

[Exeunt.

King. Sweet Gertrude, leave us too;
For we have closely fent for Hamlet hither,
That he, as 'twere by accident, may here
Affront Ophelia. Her father, and myfelf,
Will fo beftow ourselves, that feeing, unfeen,
* affront, for confront, to meet face to face.

We

We may of their encounter frankly judge;
And gather by him, as he is behaved,
If 't be th' affliction of his love, or no,
That thus he fuffers for.

Queen. I fhall obey you.

And for my part, Ophelia, I do wish,

That your good beauties be the happy caufe

Of Hamlet's wildnefs: fo fhall i hope your virtues May bring him to his wonted way again

To both your honours.

Oph. Madam, I with it may.

Pol. Ophelia, walk you here

[Exit Queen Gracious, fo please

We will beítow ourselves -Read on this book: [ye, That thew of fuch an exercife may colour

Your lonelinefs. We're oft to blame in this,

'Tis too much prov'd, that, with devotion's vifage, And pious action, we do sugar o'er

The devil himself

King. Oh, 'tis too true.

How imart a lath that fpeech doth give my confcience !
The harlot's cheek, beautied with plast'ring art,
Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it,

Than is my deed to my most painted word.

Oh heavy burthen!

[Afide.

Pol. I hear him coming; let's withdraw, my Lord.

[Exeunt all but Ophelia.

SCENE II.

Enter Hamlet.

Ham. "To be, or not to be? that is the question. — "Whether 'tis nobler in the mind, to fuffer "The ftings and arrows of outrageous fortune; "Or to take arms against affail of troubles, "And by opposing end them? To die,-to fleep"No more; and by a fleep, to fay, we end

"The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks "That flesh is heir to; 'tis a confummation

Devoutly to be with'd. To die-to fleep"To fleep perchance to dream; ay, there's the rub— "For in that fleep of death what dreams may come, "When we have fhuffled off this mortal coil, "Muft give us pause. There's the respect "That makes calamity of fo long life..

* respect, for confideration, motive.

*

"For

"For who would bear the whips and fcorns of th' time, "The oppreffor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, "The pang of difpis'd love, the law's delay, "The infolence of office, and the fpurns "That patient merit of th' unworthy takes; "When he himself might his Quietus make "With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear, "To grone and fweat under a weary life; "But that the dread of something after death

(That undiscover'd country, from whose bourne "No traveller returns) puzzles the will; "And makes us rather bear thofe ills we have, "Than fly to others that we know not of? "Thus confcience does make cowards of us all : "And thus the native hue of refolution

"Is ficklied o'er with the pale caft of thought; "And enterprises of great pith and moment, "With this regard their currents turn awry, "And lofe the name of action- Soft you, now! [Seeing Oph. The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orifons Be all my fins remembred.

Oph. Good my Lord,

How does your Honour for this many a day.
Ham. I humbly thank you, well;

Oph. My Lord, I have remembrances of your's,
That I have long'd long to re-deliver.

I pray you, now receive them.

Ham. No. I never gave you aught.

Oph. My honour'd Lord, you know right well you did;

And with them words of fo fweet breath compos'd,
As made the things more rich: that perfume loft,
Take these again; for to the noble mind

Rich gifts wax poor, when givers prove unkind.
There my Lord.

Ham. Ha, ha! are you honest?

Oph. My Lord,

Ham. Are you fair?

Oph. What means your Lordship?

Ham. That if you be honest and fair, you fhould

admit no difcourfe to your beauty.

Oph.

Oph. Could beauty, my Lord, have better commerce than with honefty?

Ham. Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will fooner transform honefty from what it is, to a bawd, than the force of honefty can tranflate beauty into its likenefs This was fometime a paradox, but now the time gives it proof. -I did love you once.

Oph. Indeed, my Lord, you made me believe fo.

Ham. You fhould not have believed me. For virtue cannot fo inoculate our old stock, but we shall relish of it. I lov'd you not.

Oph. I was the more deceiv'd.

Ham. Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of finners? I am myself indifferent honeft; but yet I could accufe me of fuch things, that it were better my mother had not born me. I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offences at my beck, than I have thoughts to put them in name, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in. What fhould fuch fellows as I do crawling between heav'n and earth? we are arrant knaves, believe none of us— Go thy ways to a nunnery Where's your father?

Oph. At home, my Lord. Ham. Let the doors be fhut upon him, that he may play the fool no where but in's own house. Farewel. Oph. Oh help him, you fweet heav'ns!

Ham. If thou doft marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry. Be thou as chate as ice, as pure as fnow, thou fhalt not escape calumny.-Get thee to a nunnery.- farewel- Or, if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool; for wife men know well enough, what monfters you make of them-To a nunnery, goand quickly too: farewel.

Oph. Heav'nly powers, reftore him!

Ham. I have heard of your painting too, well enough. God has given you one face, and you make yourselves another. You jig, you amble, and you lifp, and nickname God's creatures, and make your wantonnefs your ignorance. Go to, I'll no more on't, it hath made ine mad. I fay, we will have no more marriages. Thofe that are married already, all but one, fhall live;

the

the reft fhall keep as they are. To a nunnery, go. [xit Hamlet.

Oph. "Oh, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown! The courtier's, fcholar's, foldier's eye, tongue, "Th' expectancy and rofe of the fair ftate, [fword! "The glafs of fafhion, and the mould of form, "Th' obferv'd of all observers, quite, quite down! I am of ladies moft deject and wretched, That fuck'd the honey of his mufic vows: "Now fee that noble and molt fovereign reafon, "Like sweet bells jangled out of tune, and harsh; "That unmatch'd form, and feature of blown youth, "Blafted with ecftafy. Oh, woe is me,

T'have feen what I have feen, fee what I fee!

SCENE III. Enter King and Polonius.

King. Love his affections do not that way tend;
Nor what he spoke, tho' it lack'd form a little,
Was not like madnefs. Something's in his foul,
O'er which his melancholy fits on brood;
And, I do doubt, the hatch and the difclofe
Will be forne danger, which, how to prevent,
I have in quick determination

Thus fet it down. He fhall with speed to England,
For the demand of our neglected tribute:
Haply the feas, and countries different,
With variable objects, fhall expel

This fomething-fettled matter in his heart;
Whereon his brains ftill beating, puts him thus
From fashion of himself. What think you on't?

Pol. It fhall 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 faid,
We heard it all.- My Lord, do as you please;
[Exit Ophelia.

But if you hold it fit, after the play
Let his Queen-mother all alone intreat him
To fhew his griefs; let her be round with him:
And I'll be place'd, fo pleafe you, in the ear
Of all their conf'rence. If the find him not,
To England fend him; or confine him, where
Your wifdom beft fhall think.

VOL. VIII.

M

King.