Queen. Why, how now, Hamlet? Ham. No, by the rood, not so: You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife; 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? ducat, dead. [Draws.] Dead, for a [HAMLET makes a pass through the arras. Pol. [behind.] O, I am slain. Queen. O me, what hast thou done? Ham. Nay, I know not : Is it the king? [Falls and dies [Lifts up the arras, and draws forth POLONIUS. 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. Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell! [TO POLONIUS. I took thee for thy better; take thy fortune : Leave wringing of your hands: Peace; sit you down, 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 ; The very soul;4 and sweet religion makes A rhapsody of words: Heaven's face doth glow ; With tristful visage, as against the doom, Queen. Ah me, what act, That roars so loud, and thunders in the index ?5 This was your husband.-Look you now, what follows: Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes? And waits upon the judgment; And what judgment But it reserv'd some quantity of choice, To serve in such a difference. What devil was't, O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell, To flaming youth let virtue be as wax, And melt in her own fire proclaim no shame, [4] Contraction for marriage-contract. WARBURTON. [5] The meaning is, What is this act, of which the discovery or mention, cannot be made, but with this violence of clamour?. JOHNSON. [6] Station, in this instance, does not mean the spot where any one is placed but the act of stanling. STEEVENS. [7] That is, I suppose, the same as Blindman's buff. STEEVENS, When the compulsive ardour gives the charge; And reason panders will. Queen. O Hamlet, speak no more : Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul; Ham. Nay, but to live In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed ;9 Stew'd in corruption; honeying, and making love Queen O, speak to me no more; These words, like daggers enter in mine ears ; Ham. A murderer, and a villain : A slave, that is not twentieth part the tythe Queen. No more. Ham. A king Of shreds and patches: 3 Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings, Queen. Alas, he's mad. Ham. Do you not come your tardy son to chide, Ghost. Do not forget: This visitation Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose. [8] Grained-dyed in grain. [9] Enseamed-greasy. JOHNSON. [1] Vice of kings-a low mimic of kings. The vice is the fool of a farce; from whence the modern Punch is descended. JOHNSON. [2]. The usurper came not to the crown by any glorious villainy that carri ed danger with it, but by the low cowardly theft of a common pilferer. WARBURTON. [3] This is said, pursuing the idea of the vice of kings. The vice was dressed as a fool, in a coat of party-coloured patches. JOHNSON. [41. That, having suffered time to slip, and passion to cool, lets go, &c. JOHNSON. Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works; Ham. How is it with you, lady? That you do bend your eye on vacancy, Ham.On him! on him!-Look you,how pale he glares! Will want true colour; tears, perchance, for blood. Ham. Do you see nothing there? Queen. Nothing at all; yet all, that is, I see. 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. Ecstasy ! My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time, [5] The hair are excrementitious, that is, without life or sensation; yet those very hairs, as if they had life, start up, &c. POPE. [6] Ecstacy in this place, and many others, means a temporary alienation of mind, a fit. STEEVENS. And do not spread the compost on the weeds, To make them ranker.7 Forgive me this my virtue : For in the fatness of these pursy times, Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg; Yea, curb and woo, for leave to do him good. Queen. O Hamlet! thou hast cleft my heart in twain. And live the purer with the other half. That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat To the next abstinence: the next more easy; [Pointing to POLONIUS. Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.---- Queen. What shall I do? Ham. Not this, by no means, that I bid you do: Pinch wanton on your cheek; call you, his mouse; Or padling in your neck with his damn'd fingers, That I essentially am not in madness, But mad in craft. 'Twere good, you let him know: Such dear concernings hide? who would do so? [7] Do not, by any new indulgence, heighten your former offences. JOHN. [8] Gib was a common name for a cat. STEEVENS. |