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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?

Dead, for a ducat, dead.

[HAMLET draws, and makes a pass through the

Arras.

Pol. [Behind.] 0, 0, 0!—

[POLONIUS falls, and dies.

Queen. O me, what hast thou done?

Ham. 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.

[Lifts up the Arras, and sees POLONIUS.

Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!

I took thee for thy better.—

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;

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?

Ham. 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; makes marriage vows
As false as dicers' oaths: O, such a deed,

As from the body of contraction plucks
The very soul; and sweet religion makes
A rhapsody of words :-

Ah me, what act!

Queen. Ah me! what act?

Ham. Look here, upon this picture, and on this ; The counterfeit presentment 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, 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. Have you eyes?
Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed,
And batten on this moor? Ha! have

you eyes? You cannot call it, love: for, at your age,

The hey-day in the blood is tame, it's humble,

And waits upon the judgment. And what judg

ment

Would step from this to this?

O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell,
If thou canst mutine 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;
Since frost itself as actively doth burn,

And reason panders will.

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.

Ham. Nay, but to live

In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed ;—
Queen. No more, sweet Hamlet.

Ham. A murderer, and a villain :
A slave, that is not twentieth part the tithe
Of your precedent lord :—a vice of kings;
A cutpurse of the empire and the rule;
That from a shelf the precious diadem stołe,
And put it in his pocket;-

Enter GHOST.

A king of shreds and patches;—

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, 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.
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;
And, as the sleeping soldiers in the alarm,
Your bedded hair, like life in excrements,
Starts up, and stands on end. O gentle son,
Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper
Sprinkle cool patience.-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.-Do not look upon me; Lest, with this piteous action, you convert

My stern effects: 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.
Ham. Nor did you nothing hear?

Queen. No, nothing but ourselves.

Ham. Why, look you there! look, how it steals away!

My father, in his habit as he liv'd!

Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal !

[Exit GHOST, Queen. This is the very coinage of your brain; This bodiless creation ecstacy

Is very cunning in.

Ham. Ecstacy!

My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time,
And makes as healthful music: It is not madness
That I have utter'd bring me to the test,
And I the matter will re-word; which madness
Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace,
Lay not that flattering unction to your soul,
That not your trespass, but my madness speaks:
It will but skin and film 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;
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.-For this same lord,
I do repent;

I will bestow him, and will answer well

The death I gave him. So, again, good night!—

I must be cruel, only to be kind:

[Exit QUEEN.

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King. There's matter in these sighs, these profound heaves;

You must translate; 'tis fit we understand them:
How does Hamlet?

Queen. Mad as the sea, and wind, when both contend

Which is the mightier: In his lawless fit,
Behind the arras hearing something stir,
He whips his rapier out, and cries, "A rat!"
And, in this brainish apprehension, kills
The unseen good old man.

King. O heavy deed!

It had been so with us, had we been there.
Where is he gone?

Queen. To draw apart the body he hath kill'd.

G

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