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Ham. A murderer, and a villain!-
A flave, that is not twentieth part the tythe
Of your precedent lord. A Vice of Kings;
A cutpurfe of the Empire and the Rule,
That from a fhelf the precious Diadem ftole
And put it in his pocket.

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Ham. A King of fhreds and patches

;

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

[Starting up. You heav'nly guards!What would your gracious figure?

Queen. Alas, he's mad

Ham. Do you not come your tardy son to chide, That laps'd in time and paffion, lets go by Th' important acting of your dread command? O fay!

Ghoft. Do not forget: this vifitation

Is but to whet thy almoft blunted purpose.
But, look! amazement on thy mother fits;
O ftep between her and her fighting foul:
Conceit in weakest bodies ftrongeft works.
Speak to her, Hamlet.

Ham. How is it with you, lady?

Queen. Alas, how is't with you? That thus you bend your eye on vacancy, And with th' incorporal air do hold difcourfe? Forth at your eyes your fpirits wildly peep, And, as the fleeping foldiers in th' alarm, Your bedded hairs, like life in excrements, Start up, and stand on end. O gentle fon, Upon the heat and flame of thy diftemper Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look? Ham. On him! on him!- look you, how pale he glares!

His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to flones,

Would

Would make them capable. Do not look on me,
Left with this piteous action you convert
My ftern effects; then what I have to do,

Will want true colour; tears, perchance, for blood.
Queen. To whom do you speak this?

Ham. Do you fee nothing there?

[Pointing to the Ghost. Queen. Nothing at all; yet all, that is, I fee. Ham. Nor did you nothing hear?

Queen. No, nothing but ourselves.

Ham. Why, look you there! look, how it fteals away!

My father in his habit as he lived!

Look where he goes ev'n now, out at the portal.

[Exit Ghoft. Queen. This is the very coinage of your brain This bodilefs creation Ecstasy Is very cunning in.

Ham. What Ecstasy?

My pulfe, as yours, doth temp'rately keep time,
And makes as healthful mulic. 'Tis not madness.
That I have utter'd; bring me to the test,

And I the matter will re-word; which madness
Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace,
Lay not that flattering unction to your foul,
That not your trefpafs, but my madness speaks:
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place;
Whilft rank corruption, mining all within,
Infects unfeen. Confefs yourfelf to heav'n;
Repent what's past, avoid what is to come;
And do not fpread the compost on the weeds
To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue;
For, in the fatness of these pursy times,
Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg,

Yea, curb, and wooe, for leave to do it good.
Queen. Oh Hamlet! thou haft cleft my heart in twain.
Ham. Oh, throw away the worfer part of it,

And live the purer with the other half.

Good

Good-night; but go not to mine uncle's bed:
Affume a virtue, if you have it not.

That monfter custom, who all fense doth eat
Of habits evil, is angel yet in this;
That to the use of actions fair and good
He likewife gives a frock, or livery,
That aptly is put on: Refrain to night;
And That shall lend a kind of casiness
To the next abftinence; the next, more eafy ;
For ufe can almoft change the ftamp of Nature,
And mafter ev'n the Devil, or throw him out
With wondrous potency. Once more, good night!
And when you are defirous to be bleft;
I'll bleffing beg of you.

For this fame lord,
Pointing to Polonius.

I do repent: but heav'n hath pleas'd it fo,
To punish me with this, and this with me,
That I must be their fcourge and minifter.
I will beftow him, and will answer well
The death I gave him; fo, again, good-night!
I must be cruel, only to be kind;

Thus bad begins, and worfe remains behind.
Queen. What fhall I do?

you

do.

Ham. Not this by no means, that I bid * Let the bloat King tempt you again to bed; Pinch wanton on your cheek; call you his moufe; And let him, for a pair of reechy kiffes,

Or padling in your neck with his damn'd fingers, Make to ravel all this matter out, you

That I effentially am not in madness,

But mad in craft. 'Twere good you let him know.
For who that's but a Queen, fair, fober, wife,
Would form a paddock, from a bat, a gibbe,
Such dear concernings hide? who would do fo?
No, in despite of fenfe and fecrecy,

Unpeg the basket on the houfe's top,

Let the fond King] The old Quarto reads,
Let the bloat King · i. c. bloated.

Let

Let the birds fly, and like the famous ape,
To try conclufions, in the basket creep;
And break your own neck down.

Queen. Be thou affur'd, if words be made breath, And breath of Life, I have no life to breathe

What thou haft faid to me.

Ham. I muft to England, you know that?

Queen. Alack, I had forgot; 'tis fo concluded on. Ham. There's letters feal'd, and my two fchoolfellows,

(Whom I will truft, as I will adders fang'd;)
They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way,
And marshal me to knavery: let it work.-
For 'tis the sport, to have the engineer
Hoift with his own petar: and 't shall go hard,
But I will delve one yard below their mines,
And blow them at the moon. O, 'tis moft fweet,
When in one line two crafts directly meet!
This man fhall fet me packing;

I'll lug the guts into the neighbour room;
Mother, good night.-Indeed, this Counfellor
Is now moft ftill, moft fecret, and moft grave,
Who was in life a foolish prating knave.
Come, Sir, to draw toward an end with you.
Good-night, mother.

[Exit Hamlet, tugging in Polonius.

ACT IV. SCENE I.

A Royal APARTMENT.

Enter King and Queen, with Rofincrantz, and

Guildenftern.

KING.

HERE's matter in thefe fighs; these profound

THE

heaves

You must tranflate; 'tis fit, we understand them.
Where is your.fon?

Queen.

Queen. Bestow this place on us a little while.

[To Rofincrantz and Guildenftern, who go out. Ah, my good lord, what have I seen to night? King. What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet?

Queen. Mad as the feas, and wind, when both
contend

Which is the mightier; in his lawless fit,
Behind the arras hearing fomething stir,
He whips his rapier out, and cries, a rat!
And, in this brainish apprehenfion, kills
The unfeen good old man.

King. O heavy deed!

It had been fo with us, had we been there :
His liberty is full of threats to all,

Το you yourself, to us, to every one.

Alas! how fhall this bloody deed be answer'd?

It will be laid to us, whofe providence

Should have kept fhort, reftrain'd, and out of haunt,
This mad young man.
But fo much was our love,

We would not understand what was moft fit;
But, like the owner of a foul disease,
To keep it from divulging, let it feed

Ev'n on the pith of life. Where is he gone?
Queen. To draw apart the body he hath kill'd
O'er whom his very madness, like some ore
Among a mineral of metals base,

Shews itself pure. He weeps for what is done.
King. O Gertrude, come away:

The fun no fooner fhall the mountains touch,
But we will fhip him hence; and this vile deed
We muft, with all our Majefty and Skill,
Both countenance and excufe. Ho! Guildenftern!

Enter Rofincrantz and Guildenstern.

Friends both, go join you with fome further aid:
Hamlet in madness hath Polonius flain,
And from his mother's clofet hath he drag'd him.
Go feek him out, speak fair, and bring the body

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