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For if the king like not the comedy,

When then, belike, he likes it not, perdy.

Come, some music!

Re-enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.

Guil. Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with

you.

Ham. Sir, a whole history.

Guil. The king, sir,

Ham. Ay, sir, what of him?

310

Guil. Is in his retirement marvelous distempered.
Ham. With drink, sir?

Guil. No, my lord, rather with choler.

Ham. Your wisdom should show itself more richer to signify this to his doctor; for, for me to put him to his purgation would perhaps plunge him into far more choler.

Guil. Good my lord, put your discourse into some 320 frame, and start not so wildly from my affair.

Ham. I am tame, sir: pronounce.

Guil. The queen, your mother, in most great affliction of spirit, hath sent me to you.

Ham. You are welcome.

Guil. Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the right breed. If it shall please you to make me a wholesome answer, I will do your mother's commandment: if not, your pardon and my return shall be the end of my business.

Ham. Sir, I cannot.

Guil. What, my lord?

330

Ham. Make you a wholesome answer; my wit's

diseased: but, sir, such answer as I can make,

you shall command; or rather, as you say, my
mother: therefore no more, but to the matter:
my mother, you say,—

Ros. Then thus she says; your behavior hath struck
her into amazement and admiration.

Ham. O wonderful son, that can so astonish a 340 mother! But is there no sequel at the heels of this mother's admiration? Impart.

Ros. She desires to speak with you in her closet, ere you go to bed.

Ham. We shall obey, were she ten times our mother. Have you any further trade with us?

Ros. My lord, you once did love me.

Ham. So I do still, by these pickers and stealers.

Ros. Good my lord, what is your cause of dis- 350 temper? you do surely bar the door upon

your own liberty, if you deny your griefs to
your friend.

Ham. Sir, I lack advancement.

Ros. How can that be, when you have the voice of the king himself for your succession in Denmark?

Ham. Ay, sir, but 'While the grass grows,'-the proverb is something musty.

Re-enter PLAYERS with recorders.

O, the recorders! let me see one. To withdraw 360

with you:—why do you go about to recover the wind of me, as if you would drive me into a toil? Guil. O, my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love

is too unmannerly.

Ham. I do not well understand that. Will you

play upon this pipe?

Guil. My lord, I cannot.

Ham. I pray you.

Guil. Believe me, I cannot.

Ham. I do beseech you.

370

Guil. I know no touch of it, my lord.

Ham. 'Tis as easy as lying: govern these ventages with your fingers and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music. Look you, these are

the stops.

Guil. But these cannot I command to any utter

ance of harmony; I have not the skill.

Ham. Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing

you make of me! You would play upon me; 380
you would seem to know my stops; you would
pluck out the heart of my mystery; you would
sound me from my lowest note to the top of
my compass: and there is much music, excel-
lent voice, in this little organ; yet cannot you
make it speak. 'Sblood, do you think I am
easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me
what instrument you will, though you can fret
me, yet you cannot play upon me.

Re-enter POLONIUS.

God bless you, sir!

Pol. My lord, the queen would speak with you, and

presently.

Ham. Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in

shape of a camel?

Pol. By the mass, and 'tis like a camel, indeed.

Ham. Methinks it is like a weasel.

Pol. It is backed like a weasel.

Ham. Or like a whale?

Pol. Very like a whale.

390.

Ham. Then I will come to my mother by and by. 400 They fool me to the top of my bent. I will

come by and by.

Pol. I will say so.

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[Exit Polonius.

Ham. By and by' is easily said. Leave me, friends.

[Exeunt all but Hamlet.

'Tis now the very witching time of night,

When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out Contagion to this world: now could I drink hot blood,

And do such bitter business as the day

Would quake to look on. Soft! now to my mother.
O heart, lose not thy nature; let not ever

The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom:
Let me be cruel, not unnatural:

I will speak daggers to her, but use none;
My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites;

How in my words soever she be shent,

411

To give them seals never, my soul, consent! [Exit.

SCENE III

A room in the castle.

Enter KING, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTErn.

King. I like him not, nor stands it safe with us
To let his madness range. Therefore prepare you;
I your commission will forthwith dispatch,
And he to England shall along with you:
The terms of our estate may not endure
Hazard so near us as doth hourly grow
Out of his lunacies.

Guil.

We will ourselves provide:
Most holy and religious fear it is
To keep those many many bodies safe
That live and feed upon your majesty.
Ros. The single and peculiar life is bound

ΙΟ

With all the strength and armor of the mind
To keep itself from noyance; but much more
That spirit upon whose weal depends and rests
The lives of many. The cease of majesty
Dies not alone, but, like a gulf, doth draw
What's near it with it: it is a massy wheel,
Fix'd on the summit of the highest mount,
To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things
Are mortised and adjoin'd; which, when it falls, 20
Each small annexment, petty consequence,

Attends the boisterous ruin. Never alone

Did the king sigh, but with a general groan.

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