Bow,ftubborn knees! and, heart, with ftrings of steel,
Be foft as finews of the new-born babe ;

[The king kneels.

Ham. Now might I do it, pat, now he is praying; And now I'll do't ;-And fo he goes to heaven: And fo am I reveng'd! That would be scann'd : A villain kills my father; and, for that,

1, his fole fon, do this fame villain fend

To heaven.

Why, this is hire and falary, not revenge.
He took my father grofsly, full of bread;
With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May;
And, how his audit ftands, who knows, fave heaven,
But in our circumstance and course of thought,
'Tis heavy with him: And am I then reveng'd?
To take him in the purging of his foul,

When he is fit and feafon'd for his paffage ?
No.

Up, fword; and know thou a more horrid bent:
When he is drunk, asleep, or in his rage;
Or in the incestuous pleasures of his bed ;
At gaming, fwearing; or about fome act
That has no relish of falvation in't:

Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven;
And that his foul may be as damn'd, and black,
As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays:
This phyfick but prolongs thy fickly days. [Exit.

The King rifes.

King. My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:

Words,

Words, without thoughts, never to heaven go.

SCENE IV. The Queen's Clofet.

Enter Queen, and POLONIUS.

[Exit.

Pol. He will come ftraight. Look, you lay home to him;

Tell him, his pranks have been too broad to bear with;

And that your grace hath screen'd and stood between Much heat and him. I'll filence me e'en here. Pray yo, be round with him.

Ham. [within] Mother, mother, mother! Queen. I'll warrant you; fear me not. Withdraw, I hear him coming.

POLONIUS hides himself.

Enter HAMLET.

Ham. Now, mother, what's the matter? Queen. Hamlet, thou haft thy father much of. fended.

Ham. Mother, you have my father much offended. Queen. Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.

Ham. Go, go, you queftion with a wicked tongue.
Queen. Why, how now, Hamlet?
Ham. What's the matter now?
Queen. Have you forgot me?

Ham. No, by the rood, not fo:

You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife And-'would it were not fo!-you are my mother. Queen.Nay,then I'll fet thofe to you that can speak. Ham. Come, come, and fit you down; you shall not budge;

You

You go not, 'till I fet you up a glass
Where you may fee the inmoft part of you.

Queen. What wilt thou do? thou wilt not mur

Help, help, ho!

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

Ham. How now! a rat?

Dead, for a ducat, dead.

[der me?

[HAMLET Arikes at POLONIUS through the arras. Pol. [Behind.] O, I am flain.

Queen. O me, what haft thou done?

Ham. Nay, I know not :

Is it the king?

Queen. what a rash and bloody deed is this? Ham. A bloody deed:-almost as bad, good moAs kill a king, and marry with his brother. [ther, Queen. As kill a king?

Ham. Ay, lady, 'twas my word.

Thou wretched, rafh, intruding fool, farewell!

[TO POLONIUS.
I took thee for thy better: take thy fortune:
Thou find'st, to be too busy, is fome danger.→
Leave wringing of your hands: Peace, fit you down,
And let me wring your heart : for fo I thall,
If it be made of penetrable stuff;

If damned cuftom have not braz'd it fo,
That it be proof and bulwark against sense.
Queen. What have I done that thou dar'st wag
In noife fo rude against me?

Ham. Such an act,

[thy tongue

That blurs the grace and blush of modesty :
Calls virtue, hypocrite; takes off the rofe,
From the fair forehead of an innocent love,
And fets a blister there; makes marriage vows
As false as dicers' oaths; O, fuch a deed,

As

As from the body of contraction plucks

The foul; very

and fweet religion makes

A rhapfody of words: Heaven's face doth glow;
Yea, this folidity and compound mafs,

With triftful vilage, as against the doom,
Is thought-fick at the act.
Queen. Ay me, what act,

That roars fo loud, and thunders in the index?
Ham. Look, here, upon this picture, and on this;
The counterfeit prefentment of two brothers.
See, what a grace was feated on this brow:
Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself;
An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;
A ftation like the herald Mercury,
New lighted on a heaven-kiffing hill;
A combination, and a form, indeed,
Where every god did feem to fet his feal,
To give the world affurance of a man:
This was your husband.- -Look you now,

follows:

what

Here is your husband; like a mildew'd ear,
Blafting 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 judgment
Would step from this to this? Senfe, fure, you have,
Elfe could you not have motion: But, fure, that
Is apoplex'd: for madness would not err; [fenfe
Nor fenfe to ecftafy was ne'er fo thrall'd,
But it referv'd fome quantity of choice,
To ferve in such a difference. What devil was't,
That thus hath cozen'd you at hood-man blind?

Eyes

Eyes without feeling, feeling without fight,
Ears without hands or eyes, fmelling fans all,
Or but a fickly part of one true sense
Could not fo mope.

O fhame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell,
If thou canst mutiny in a matron's bones,
To flaming youth let virtue be as wax,

And melt in her own fire; proclaim no shame,
When the compulfive ardour gives the charge;
Since frost itself as actively doth burn,

And reafon panders will.

Queen. O Hamlet, speak no more:

Thou turn'ft mine eyes into my very foul;
And there I fee fuch black and grained fpots,
As will not leave their tinct.

Ham. Nay, but to live

In the rank fweat of an inceftuous bed;
Stew'd in corruption; honeying, and making love
Over the nasty stye ;-

Queen. O, fpeak to me no more;

Thefe words, like daggers, enter in mine ears;
No more, fweet Hamlet.

Ham. A murderer, and a villain:

A flave, that is not twentieth part the tythe
Of your precedent lord:-a vice of kings;
A cutpurse of the empire and the rule;
That from a shelf the precious diadem ftole,
And put it in his pocket!

Queen. No more.

Enter Ghost.

Ham. A king of fhreds and patches:

Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings,

You