When he is drunk asleep; or in his rage;

Or in the incestuous pleasures of his bed; at game, At gaming,* swearing; or about some act a swearing, That has no relish of salvation in't:a

at game

4tos.

swearing. Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven; And that his soul may be as damn'd, and black, As hell, whereto it goes. (79) My mother stays: + weary. This physick but prolongs thy sickly† days. [Exit.

1603.

The King rises, and advances.

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

Words, without thoughts, never to heaven go.

SCENE IV.

[Exit.

Another Room in the same.

Enter Queen and POLONIUS.

POL. He will come straight. Look, you lay home to him:b

Tell him, his pranks have been too broad to bear

with;

And that your grace hath screen'd and stood be

tween

Much heat and him. I'll silence me e'en here.d
Pray you, be round with him.

HAM. [Within] Mother, mother, mother!

a relish of salvation in't] i. e. smack or savour.

blay home to him] i. e. pointedly and closely charge.

d silence me e'en here] i. e. without a word more said, here

snugly stow myself. For "round &c." See II. 2. Pol.

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 hast thy father much of-
fended.

HAM. Mother, you have my father much of

fended.

QUEEN. Come, come, you answer with an idle

tongue.

HAM. Go, go, you question with an idle* tongue. * a wicked.

QUEEN. Why, how now, Hamlet?

Нам.

What's the matter now?

No, by the rood," not so:

QUEEN. Have you forgot me?

4tos.

Нам. You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife; But would you were not so. You are my mother. + and

would it.

QUEEN. Nay, then I'll set those to you that can 4tos.

speak.

HAM. Come, come, and sit you down; you shall

not budge;

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! help, help.

Нам.

Dead, for a ducat, dead.

How now! a rat?

[Draws.

[HAMLET makes a pass through the Arras.

a by the rood] From the A. S. rode. crux. a cross. Skinn.

As Holyrood House. See II. H. IV. Shal. III. 2.

POL. [Behind]

O, I am slain.

[Falls, and dies.

QUEEN. O me, what hast thou done?

Нам.

Is it the king?

Nay, I know not:

[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,(81) and marry with his brother.

QUEEN. As kill a king!

HAM.
Ay, lady, 'twas my word.
Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!

[TO POLONIUS. *better. I took thee for thy betters;* take thy fortune : Thou find'st, to be too busy, is some danger.

4to.

Leave wringing of your hands: Peace; sit you
down,

And let me wring your heart: for so I shall,
If it be made of penetrable stuff; (82)

If damned custom have not braz'd it so,

+ be. 4tos. That it is† proof and bulwark against sense."

QUEEN. What have I done, that thou dar'st wag thy tongue

In noise so rude against me?

Such an act,

Нам. That blurs the grace and blush of modesty; Calls virtue, hypocrite; takes off the rose From the fair forehead of an innocent love, sets. 4tos. And makes a blister there; (83) makes marriage vows As false as dicer's oaths: O, such a deed As from the body of contraction plucks The very soul; and sweet religion makes

A rhapsody of words: Heaven's face doth glow;

a

Proof and bulwark against sense] i. e. against all feeling.

As from the body of contraction plucks

The very soul] i. e. annihilates the very principle of con

tracts.

Yea, this solidity and compound mass,
With tristful visage, as against the doom,
Is thought-sick at the act.a

QUEEN.

Ah me, what act, That roars so loud, and thunders in the index ?(84)

HAM. Look here, upon this picture, and on
this; (85)

The counterfeit presentment (86) of two brothers.
See, what a grace was seated on his brow:
Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself;
An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;
A station like the herald Mercury,(87)
New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill;
A combination, and a form, indeed,
Where every god did seem to set his seal,
To give the world assurance of a man:

This was your husband.-Look you now, what

follows:

Here is your husband; like a mildew'd ear,

Blasting his wholesome brother.* Have you eyes? So 4tos.
Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed,

And batten on this moor?(88) Ha! have you eyes?
You cannot call it, love: for, at your age,
The hey-day in the blood(89) is tame, it's humble,
And waits upon the judgment; And what judgment
Would step from this to this? [Sense, sure, you
have,

a Heaven's face-Yea this solidity—

With tristful visage,—

Is thought-sick at the act.] i. e. the face of heaven looks heated, as if abashed; and this massive compound, the earth, with heavy looks, as on the approach of the day of doom, is disquieted and disordered at the thought of what is done. The quartos read,

Blasting his wholesome brother.] These were images and the language of the day. "The Lord doth smite them with fevers and agues and blastings and mildews." Dr. Wall's Sermons, 4to. 1627. p. 139.

breath. 1623, 32.

Else, could you not have motion : (90) But, sure, that

sense

Is apoplexed: for madness would not err;
Nor sense to ecstasy was ne'er so thrall'd,
But it reserv'd some quantity of choice,(91)
To serve in such a difference.] What devil was't
That thus hath cozen'd you at hoodman-blind ?(92)
[Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight,
Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all,
Or but a sickly part of one true sense
Could not so mope."]

O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell,
If thou canst mutine (93) in a matron's bones,
To flaming youth let virtue be as wax,

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

As. 1623,

32.

QUEEN.

O Hamlet, speak no more:
Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul;
And there I see such black and grained spots,
As will not leave their tinct.c

Нам.

Nay, but to live

In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed; (95)

Stew'd in corruption; honeying, and making love

Over the nasty stye;

QUEEN.

These words, like daggers enter in mine ears;

No more, sweet Hamlet.

HAM.

O, speak to me no more;

A murderer, and a villain:

A slave, that is not twentieth part the tythe

a

so mope] i. e. be so blind and stupid. See Temp. last sc. Boatsw.

b gives the charge] i. e. gives the signal for attack. SEYMOUR.

As will not leave their tinct] i. e. so died in grain, that they will not relinquish or lose their tinct-are not to be discharged. In a sense not very dissimilar he presently says,

"Then what I have to do

Will want true colour."