And cleave the general ear with horrid

speech;

Make mad the guilty and appal the free,
Confound the ignorant, and amaze, indeed,
The very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet I,
A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak,
Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause
And can say nothing; no, not for a king
530 Upon whose property, and most dear life,

A damn'd defeat was made. Am I a coward ?
Who calls me villain? breaks my pate across?
Plucks off my beard, and blows it in my face?
Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i'
the throat,

As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this?
Ha!

'Swounds, I should take it: for it cannot be,
But I am pigeon-liver'd, and lack gall

To make oppression bitter; or, ere this,

I should have fatted all the region kites
With this slave's offal: bloody, bloody vil-
lain!

540 Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain !

O, vengeance!

Why, what an ass am I! this is most

brave;

That I, the son of a dear father murder'd,
Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,
Must fall a cursing, like a very trull,

A scullion!

Fie upon't! foh! About, my brain! I have heard

That guilty creatures, sitting at a play,
Have by the very cunning of the scene
Been struck so to the soul that presently
They have proclaim'd their malefactions;
For murder, though it have no tongue, will
speak
[players
With most miraculous organ. I'll have these
Play something like the murder of my father
Before mine uncle: I'll observe his looks;
I'll tent him to the quick; if he but blench,
I know my course. The spirit that I have

seen

May be the devil: and the devil hath power
To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and per-
haps

Out of my weakness, and my melancholy,
(As he is very potent with such spirits)
Abuses me to damn me: I'll have grounds
More relative than this: the play's the thing
Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.

[Exit.

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Το

ACT III.

SCENE I.-A Room in the Castle.

Enter KING, QUEEN, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSEN-
CRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN.

King.

ND can you, by no drift of circum

quiet

stance,

[confusion

Get from him why he puts on this
Grating so harshly all his days of

With turbulent and dangerous lunacy?
Ros. He does confess he feels himself dis-

tracted;
[speak.
But from what cause he will by no means
Guil. Nor do we find him forward to be

sounded;

But, with a crafty madness, keeps aloof, [sion
When we would bring him on to some confes-
Of his true state.

Queen.

Did he receive you well?

Ros. Most like a gentleman.

Guil. But with much forcing of his dispo

sition.

Ros. Most free of question; but of our demands

Niggard in his reply.

Queen. Did you assay him to any pastime?
Ros. Madam, it so fell out that certain
players
[him,
We o'er-raught on the way of these we told
And there did seem 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 beseech'd me to entreat your majes

ties

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 on to these delights.
Ros. We shall, my lord.

King.

[Exeunt ROSEN. and GUILD.
Sweet Gertrude, leave us too:

For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither;
That he, as 'twere by accident, may here
Affront Ophelia.

Her father and myself (lawful espials)

Will so bestow ourselves that, seeing, un

seen,

We may of their encounter frankly judge;
And gather by him, as he is behaved,

If 't be the affliction of his love or no

That thus he suffers for.

I shall obey you:

Queen.
And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish
That your good beauty be the happy cause

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30

Of Hamlet's wildness; so shall I hope your

virtues

Will bring him to his wonted way again,
To both your honors.

Oph. Madam, I wish it may.

[Exit Queen. Pol. Ophelia, walk you here.—Gracious, so please you, [Read on this book, We will bestow ourselves.-[ To OPHELIA.] That show of such an exercise may color Your loneliness. We are oft to blame in [visage 'Tis too much proved,—that, with devotion's And pious action we do sugar o'er The devil himself.

this,

King. [aside.] O, 'tis too true!

conscience!

How smart a lash that speech doth give my
[art,
The harlot's cheek, beautied with plastering
Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it
Than is my deed to my most painted word:
O heavy burden !

Pol. I hear him coming; let's withdraw,
my lord.
[Exeunt KING and POLONIUS.

Enter HAMLET.

Ham. To be, or not to be,-that is the
question :

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,-

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