...language, as he begins to soliloquize, grows more like Hamlet's: My stronger guilt defeats my sharp intent, And, like a man to double business bound,...pause where I shall first begin, And both neglect. (m, iii, 40-3) Under pressure from Hamlet the contrast steepens between what the king seems to be in...

...eldest curse upon't, A brother's murder. Pray can I not, Though the inclination be as sharp as will. My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent, And like a man to double business bound, 1 stand in pause where I shall first begin, And both neglect. What if this cursed hand Were thicker...

...Pray can I not, Though inclination be as sharp as will. My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent, 40 And, like a man to double business bound, I stand...blood. Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens 45 To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy But to confront the visage of offence? And what's...

...his "rank" offense (3.3.36). Yet even he is caught by the antithesis of penitent and sinner, saying My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent, And like...pause where I shall first begin, And both neglect. (3.3.40-43) How similar this sounds to Hamlet's own observation: Thus conscience does make cowards...

...against 'sinews of the new-born babe'; his similes have the considered effect of earlier tragic verse: And, like a man to double business bound, I stand...pause where I shall first begin, And both neglect; (in, iii, 41-3) and the most trenchant self-analysis is as cleverly antithetical as anything he has...

...with two things to do, I stand here, wondering where to begin And neglect both. This cursed hand seems Thicker than itself with brother's blood. Is there not rain enough in the heavens To wash it white as snow? What prayer Could I use? "Forgive me my foul murder"? That cannot...

...Pray can I not, Though inclination be as sharp as will, My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent, 5 And, like a man to double business bound, I stand...sweet heavens To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy To be forestalled ere we come to fall Or pardon'd being down? Then I '11 look up. My fault is...

...condition, Claudius feels guilt and fears damnation, but then considers the extent of God's mercy: What if this cursed hand Were thicker than itself...enough in the sweet heavens To wash it white as snow?'" The "snow" simile, though it seems more natural coming from the king of Denmark than the king of Israel,...

...Pray can I not, Though inclination be as sharp as will. My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent, 40 And like a man to double business bound, I stand in...sweet heavens To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy But to confront the visage of offence? And what's in prayer but this twofold force, To be forestalled...

...Hamlet's comment on Polonius dead, 'Who was in life a foolish prating knave.' He marked Claudius's 'Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens, / To wash it white as snow?'; also Horatio on Ophelia strewing 'Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds'; and the clown's 'gallows'...