Ham. I am tame, sir: pronounce. Guil. The queen your mother in most great affliction of spirit hath sent me to you. Ham. You are welcome. Guil. Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the right breed: if it shall please you to make me a wholesome answer, I will do your mother's commandment; if not, your pardon and my return shall be the end of my business. Ham. Sir, I cannot. Ham. Make you a wholesome answer; my wit's diseased: but, sir, such answer as I can make, you shall command; or, rather, as you say, my mother: therefore no more, but to the matter: my mother, you say, Ro. Then thus she says: your behavior hath struck her into amazement and admiration. Ham. O wonderful son, that can so astonish a mother !—But is there no sequel at the heels of this mother's admiration? impart. Ro. She desires to speak with you in her closet ere you go to bed. Ham. We shall obey were she ten times our mother. Have you any farther trade with us? Ro. My lord, you once did love me. Ham. And do still, by these pickers and stealers.1 Ro. Good my lord, what is your cause of dis 1 i. e. by these hands. temper? you do surely bar the door upon your own liberty, if you deny your griefs to your friend. Ham. Sir, I lack advancement. Ro. How can that be, when you have the voice of the king himself for your succession in Denmark? Ham. Ay, sir, but, while the grass grows,'the proverb is something musty. with you: Enter PLAYERS, with recorders. O, the recorders :-let me see one. To withdraw -Why do you go about to recover the wind of me, as if you would drive me into a toil? Guil. O, my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is too unmannerly. Ham. I do not well understand that. Will you play upon this pipe? Guil. My lord, I cannot. Ham. I pray you. Guil. Believe me, I cannot. Ham. I do beseech you. Guil. I know no touch of it, my lord. 1 Ham. 'Tis as easy as lying: govern these ventages 1 with your finger and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music. Look you, these are the stops. Guil. But these cannot I command to any utterance of harmony: I have not the skill. Ham. Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing 1 Holes. you make of me. You would play upon me; you would seem to know my stops; you would pluck out the heart of my mystery; you would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass; and there is much music, excellent voice, in this little organ; yet cannot you make it speak. Sblood, do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, you cannot play upon me. God bless you, sir! Enter POLONIUS. Po. My lord, the queen would speak with you, and presently. Ham. Do you see yonder cloud, that 's almost in shape of a camel ? Po. By the mass, and 'tis like a camel, indeed. Ham. Methinks, it is like a weasel. Po. It is backed like a weasel. Ham. Or like a whale ? Po. Very like a whale. Ham. Then will I come to my mother by and by. -They fool me to the top of my bent.1-I will come by and by. Po. I will say so. [Exit Polonius. [Exeunt Ro. Guil. Ho. &c. Ham. By and by is easily said.-Leave me, friends. "Tis now the very witching time of night, 1 Utmost stretch. When churchyards yawn, and hell itself breathes out Contagion to this world: now could I drink hot blood, And do such business as the bitter day Would quake to look on. Soft; now to my mother. O, heart, lose not thy nature; let not ever I will speak daggers to her, but use none: [Exit, SCENE III. A room in the same. Enter KING, ROSENCRANTZ, and guildenstern. King. I like him not; nor stands it safe with us, To let his madness range: therefore, prepare you; I your commission will forthwith despatch, And he to England shall along with you: The terms of our estate may not endure Hazard so near us, as doth hourly grow Out of his lunacies. Guil. We will ourselves provide : Reproved. 2 i. e put them in execution. Most holy and religious fear it is, To keep those many many bodies safe, Ro. The single and peculiar life is bound, With all the strength and armour of the mind, To keep itself from 'noyance; but much more That spirit, upon whose weal depend and rest The lives of many. The cease of majesty Dies not alone; but, like a gulf, doth draw What's near it, with it: it is a massy wheel, Fix'd on the summit of the highest mount, To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things Are mortised and adjoin'd; which, when it falls, Each small annexment, petty consequence, Attends the boisterous ruin. Never alone Did the king sigh, but with a general groan. King. Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy voyage; For we will fetters put upon this fear, Which now goes too free-footed. Ro. Guil. We will haste us. [Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Enter POLONIUS. Po. My lord, he's going to his mother's closet. Behind the arras I'll convey myself, To hear the process; I'll warrant, she 'll tax him home : And, as you said, and wisely was it said, 'Tis meet, that some more audience than a mother, |