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Introduction to this scene.     Staging.      Criticism.

Act 3 scene 2

  ACT III SCENE II A hall in the castle.  
  [Enter HAMLET and Players]  
HAMLET








 Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced
it to you, trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth
it, as many of your players do, I had as lief the
town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air
too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently;
for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say,
the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and
beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. O,
it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious
periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very
rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the
most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable
dumbshows and noise: I would have such a fellow
whipped for o'erdoing Termagant; it out-herods
Herod: pray you, avoid it.



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15
First Player I warrant your honour.  
HAMLET










Be not too tame neither, but let your own
discretion be your tutor: suit the action to the
word, the word to the action; with this special
observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of
nature: for any thing so overdone is from the pur-
pose of playing, whose end, both at the first and
now, was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to
nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her
own image, and the very age and body of the time
his form and pressure. Now this overdone, or come
tardy off, though it make the unskilful laugh,
cannot but make the judicious grieve; the censure
of the which one must in your allowance o'erweigh
a whole theatre of others. O, there be players that I
have seen play, and heard others praise, and that
highly, not to speak it profanely, that, neither
having the accent of Christians nor the gait of
Christian, pagan, nor man, have so strutted and
bellowed that I have thought some of nature's
journeymen had made men and not made them
well, they imitated humanity so abominably.


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35
First Player I hope we have reformed that indifferently
with us, sir.		  
HAMLET O, reform it altogether. And let those that play
your clowns speak no more than is set down for
them; for there be of them that will themselves
laugh, to set on some quantity of barren spectators
to laugh too; though, in the mean time, some neces-
sary question of the play be then to be considered:
that's villanous, and shows a most pitiful ambition
in the fool that uses it. Go, make you ready.		 40




45
  [Exeunt Players]  
  [Enter POLONIUS, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN]  
  How now, my lord! I will the king hear this piece of
work?		  
LORD POLONIUS And the queen too, and that presently. 50
HAMLET Bid the players make haste.  
  [Exit POLONIUS]  
  Will you two help to hasten them?  
ROSENCRANTZ/
GUILDENSTERN		 We will, my lord.  
  [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN]  
HAMLET What ho! Horatio!  
  [Enter HORATIO]  
HORATIO Here, sweet lord, at your service. 55
HAMLET Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man
As e'er my conversation coped withal.		  
HORATIO O, my dear lord,--  
HAMLET






















 Nay, do not think I flatter;
For what advancement may I hope from thee
That no revenue hast but thy good spirits,
To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be
flatter'd?
No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp,
And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee
Where thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear?
Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice
And could of men distinguish, her election
Hath seal'd thee for herself; for thou hast been
As one, in suffering all, that suffers nothing,
A man that fortune's buffets and rewards
Hast ta'en with equal thanks: and blest are those
Whose blood and judgment are so well
commingled,
That they are not a pipe for fortune's finger
To sound what stop she please. Give me that man
That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him
In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart,
As I do thee.--Something too much of this.--
There is a play to-night before the king;
One scene of it comes near the circumstance
Which I have told thee of my father's death:
I prithee, when thou seest that act afoot,
Even with the very comment of thy soul
Observe mine uncle: if his occulted guilt
Do not itself unkennel in one speech,
It is a damned ghost that we have seen,
And my imaginations are as foul
As Vulcan's stithy. Give him heedful note;
For I mine eyes will rivet to his face,
And after we will both our judgments join
In censure of his seeming.
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85




90
HORATIO Well, my lord:
If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing,
And 'scape detecting, I will pay the theft.

95
HAMLET They are coming to the play; I must be idle:
Get you a place.		  
  [Danish march. A flourish. Enter KING CLAUDIUS,
QUEEN GERTRUDE, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ,
GUILDENSTERN, and others]		  
KING CLAUDIUS How fares our cousin Hamlet?  
HAMLET Excellent, i' faith; of the chameleon's dish: I
eat the air, promise-crammed: you cannot feed
capons so.
100
KING CLAUDIUS I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet; these
words are not mine.		  
HAMLET No, nor mine now. [To POLONIUS] My lord, you
played once i' the university, you say?
105
LORD POLONIUS That did I, my lord; and was accounted a
good actor.		  
HAMLET What did you enact?  
LORD POLONIUS I did enact Julius Caesar: I was killed i' the
Capitol; Brutus killed me.
110
HAMLET It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a
calf there. Be the players ready?		  
ROSENCRANTZ Ay, my lord; they stay upon your pa-
tience.		  
QUEEN GERTRUDE Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me. 115
HAMLET No, good mother, here's metal more
attractive.		  
LORD POLONIUS [To KING CLAUDIUS] O, ho! do you mark that?  
HAMLET Lady, shall I lie in your lap?  
  [Lying down at OPHELIA's feet]  
OPHELIA No, my lord. 120
HAMLET I mean, my head upon your lap?  
OPHELIA Ay, my lord.  
HAMLET Do you think I meant country matters?  
OPHELIA I think nothing, my lord.  
HAMLET That's a fair thought to lie between maids'
legs.		 125
OPHELIA What is, my lord?  
HAMLET Nothing.  
OPHELIA You are merry, my lord  
HAMLET Who, I? 130
OPHELIA Ay, my lord.  
HAMLET O God, your only jig-maker. What should a
man do but be merry? for, look you, how cheerfully
my mother looks, and my father died within these two
hours.


135
OPHELIA Nay, 'tis twice two months, my lord.  
HAMLET



 So long? Nay then, let the devil wear black,
for I'll have a suit of sables. O heavens! die two
months ago, and not forgotten yet? Then there's
hope a great man's memory may outlive his life half
a year: but, by'r lady, he must build churches, then;
or else shall he suffer not thinking on, with the
hobby-horse, whose epitaph is 'For, O, for, O, the
hobby-horse is forgot.'


140
  [Hautboys play. The dumb-show enters]  
  [Enter a King and a Queen very lovingly; the Queen
embracing him, and he her. She kneels, and makes show of
protestation unto him. He takes her up, and declines his
head upon her neck: lays him down upon a bank of
flowers: she, seeing him asleep, leaves him. Anon
comes in a fellow, takes off his crown, kisses it, and pours
poison in the King's ears, and exit. The Queen
returns; finds the King dead, and makes passionate action. The Poisoner, with some two or three Mutes, comes in again, seeming to
lament with her. The dead body is carried away. The
Poisoner wooes the Queen with gifts: she seems loath
and unwilling awhile, but in the end accepts his love]		 145




150




155
  [Exeunt]  
OPHELIA What means this, my lord?  
HAMLET Marry, this is miching mallecho; it means
mischief.		  
OPHELIA Belike this show imports the argument of the
play.		 160
  [Enter Prologue]  
HAMLET We shall know by this fellow: the players
cannot keep counsel; they'll tell all.		  
OPHELIA Will he tell us what this show meant?  
HAMLET Ay, or any show that you'll show him: be
not you ashamed to show, he'll not shame to tell you
what it means.		 165
OPHELIA You are naught, you are naught: I'll mark the
play.		  
Prologue For us, and for our tragedy,
Here stooping to your clemency,
We beg your hearing patiently.		 170
  [Exit]  
HAMLET Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring?  
OPHELIA 'Tis brief, my lord.  
HAMLET As woman's love. 175
  [Enter two Players, King and Queen]  
Player King Full thirty times hath Phoebus' cart gone round
Neptune's salt wash and Tellus' orbed ground,
And thirty dozen moons with borrow'd sheen
About the world have times twelve thirties been,
Since love our hearts and Hymen did our hands
Unite commutual in most sacred bands.



180
Player Queen





 So many journeys may the sun and moon
Make us again count o'er ere love be done!
But, woe is me, you are so sick of late,
So far from cheer and from your former state,
That I distrust you. Yet, though I distrust,
Discomfort you, my lord, it nothing must:
[For women fear too much, even as they love]
For women's fear and love holds quantity;
In neither aught, or in extremity.
Now, what my love is, proof hath made you know;
And as my love is sized, my fear is so:
Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear;
Where little fears grow great, great love grows there.



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190
Player King 'Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly too;
My operant powers their functions leave to do:
And thou shalt live in this fair world behind,
Honour'd, beloved; and haply one as kind
For husband shalt thou--		 195
Player Queen O, confound the rest!
Such love must needs be treason in my breast:
In second husband let me be accurst!
None wed the second but who kill'd the first.		 200
HAMLET [Aside] Wormwood, wormwood.  
Player Queen The instances that second marriage move
Are base respects of thrift, but none of love:
A second time I kill my husband dead,
When second husband kisses me in bed.		 205
Player King




















 I do believe you think what now you speak;
But what we do determine oft we break.
Purpose is but the slave to memory,
Of violent birth, but poor validity;
Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree;
But fall, unshaken, when they mellow be.
Most necessary 'tis that we forget
To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt:
What to ourselves in passion we propose,
The passion ending, doth the purpose lose.
The violence of either grief or joy
Their own enactures with themselves destroy:
Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament;
Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident.
This world is not for aye, nor 'tis not strange
That even our loves should with our fortunes change;
For 'tis a question left us yet to prove,
Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love.
The great man down, you mark his favourite flies;
The poor advanced makes friends of enemies.
And hitherto doth love on fortune tend;
For who not needs shall never lack a friend,
And who in want a hollow friend doth try,
Directly seasons him his enemy.
But, orderly to end where I begun,
Our wills and fates do so contrary run
That our devices still are overthrown;
Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own:
So think thou wilt no second husband wed;
But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead.
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235
Player Queen

 Nor earth to me give food, nor heaven light!
Sport and repose lock from me day and night!
To desperation turn my trust and hope!
An anchor's cheer in prison be my scope!
Each opposite that blanks the face of joy
Meet what I would have well and it destroy!
Both here and hence pursue me lasting strife,
If, once a widow, ever I be wife!
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245
HAMLET If she should break it now!  
Player King 'Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here awhile;
My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile
The tedious day with sleep.

250
  [Sleeps]  
Player Queen Sleep rock thy brain,
And never come mischance between us twain!		  
  [Exit]  
HAMLET Madam, how like you this play?  
QUEEN GERTRUDE The lady protests too much, methinks.  
HAMLET O, but she'll keep her word. 255
KING CLAUDIUS Have you heard the argument? Is there no
offence in 't?		  
HAMLET No, no, they do but jest, poison in jest; no
offence i' the world.		  
KING CLAUDIUS What do you call the play? 260
HAMLET


 The Mouse-trap. Marry, how? Tropically.
This play is the image of a murder done in Vienna:
Gonzago is the duke's name; his wife, Baptista: you
shall see anon; 'tis a knavish piece of work: but
what o' that? your majesty and we that have free
souls, it touches us not: let the galled jade wince,
our withers are unwrung.



265
  [Enter LUCIANUS]  
  This is one Lucianus, nephew to the king.  
OPHELIA You are as good as a chorus, my lord.  
HAMLET I could interpret between you and your love,
if I could see the puppets dallying.		 270
OPHELIA You are keen, my lord, you are keen.  
HAMLET It would cost you a groaning to take off my
edge.		  
OPHELIA Still better, and worse. 275
HAMLET So you must take your husbands. Begin,
murderer; pox, leave thy damnable faces, and
begin. Come: 'the croaking raven doth bellow for
revenge.'		  
LUCIANUS Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time
agreeing;
Confederate season, else no creature seeing;
Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected,
With Hecate's ban thrice blasted, thrice infected,
Thy natural magic and dire property,
On wholesome life usurp immediately.		 280




285
  [Pours the poison into the sleeper's ears]  
HAMLET He poisons him i' the garden for's estate. His
name's Gonzago: the story is extant, and writ in
choice Italian: you shall see anon how the
murderer gets the love of Gonzago's wife.


290
OPHELIA The king rises.  
HAMLET What, frighted with false fire!  
QUEEN GERTRUDE How fares my lord?  
LORD POLONIUS Give o'er the play.  
KING CLAUDIUS Give me some light: away!
All Lights, lights, lights!		 295
  [Exeunt all but HAMLET and HORATIO]  
HAMLET


 Why, let the stricken deer go weep,
The hart ungalled play;
For some must watch, while some must sleep:
So runs the world away.
Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers-- if the
rest of my fortunes turn Turk with me--with two
Provincial roses on my razed shoes, get me a
fellowship in a cry of players, sir?

300
HORATIO Half a share. 305
HAMLET A whole one, I.
For thou dost know, O Damon dear,
This realm dismantled was
Of Jove himself; and now reigns here
A very, very--pajock.



310
HORATIO You might have rhymed.  
HAMLET O good Horatio, I'll take the ghost's word for
a thousand pound. Didst perceive?		  
HORATIO Very well, my lord.  
HAMLET Upon the talk of the poisoning? 315
HORATIO I did very well note him.  
HAMLET Ah, ha! Come, some music! come, the record-
ers!
For if the king like not the comedy,
Why then, belike, he likes it not, perdy.
Come, some music!


320
  [Re-enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN]  
GUILDENSTERN Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word
with you.		  
HAMLET Sir, a whole history.  
GUILDENSTERN The king, sir,-- 325
HAMLET Ay, sir, what of him?  
GUILDENSTERN Is in his retirement marvellous distem-
pered.		  
HAMLET With drink, sir?  
GUILDENSTERN No, my lord, rather with choler. 330
HAMLET Your wisdom should show itself more richer
to signify this to his doctor; for, for me to put him to
his purgation would perhaps plunge him into far more
choler.		  
GUILDENSTERN Good my lord, put your discourse into
some frame and start not so wildly from my
affair.		 335
HAMLET I am tame, sir: pronounce.  
GUILDENSTERN The queen, your mother, in most great
affliction of spirit, hath sent me to you.
340
HAMLET You are welcome.  
GUILDENSTERN 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.


345
HAMLET Sir, I cannot.  
GUILDENSTERN What, my lord?  
HAMLET 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,--
350
ROSENCRANTZ Then thus she says; your behavior hath
struck her into amazement and admiration.
355
HAMLET O wonderful son, that can so astonish a moth-
er! But is there no sequel at the heels of this
mother's admiration? Impart.		  
ROSENCRANTZ She desires to speak with you in her
closet, ere you go to bed.
360
HAMLET We shall obey, were she ten times our moth-
er. Have you any further trade with us?		  
ROSENCRANTZ My lord, you once did love me.  
HAMLET So I do still, by these pickers and stealers.  
ROSENCRANTZ Good my lord, what is your cause of
distemper? you do, surely, bar the door upon your
own liberty, if you deny your griefs to your friend.		 365
HAMLET Sir, I lack advancement.  
ROSENCRANTZ How can that be, when you have the
voice of the king himself for your succession in
Denmark?
370
HAMLET Ay, but sir, 'While the grass grows,'--the
proverb is something musty.		  
  [Re-enter Players with recorders]  
  O, the recorders! let me see one. [He takes a
recorder ans turns to Guildenstern] To withdraw
with you:--why do you go about to recover the wind
of me, as if you would drive me into a toil?
375
GUILDENSTERN O, my lord, if my duty be too bold, my
love is too unmannerly.		  
HAMLET I do not well understand that. Will you play
upon this pipe?		 380
GUILDENSTERN My lord, I cannot.  
HAMLET I pray you.  
GUILDENSTERN Believe me, I cannot.  
HAMLET I do beseech you. 385
GUILDENSTERN I know no touch of it, my lord.  
HAMLET 'Tis as easy as lying: govern these ventages
with your lingers and thumb, give it breath with
your mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent
music. Look you, these are the stops.


390
GUILDENSTERN But these cannot I command to any
utterance of harmony; I have not the skill.		  
HAMLET




 Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing
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, yet you cannot play upon me.

395




400
  [Enter POLONIUS]  
  God bless you, sir!  
LORD POLONIUS My lord, the queen would speak with you,
and presently.
405
HAMLET Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in
shape of a camel?		  
LORD POLONIUS By the mass, and 'tis like a camel, indeed.  
HAMLET Methinks it is like a weasel.  
LORD POLONIUS It is backed like a weasel. 410
HAMLET Or like a whale?  
LORD POLONIUS Very like a whale.  
HAMLET Then I will come to my mother by and by.
They fool me to the top of my bent. I will
come by and by.

415
LORD POLONIUS I will say so.  
HAMLET By and by is easily said. [Exit POLONIUS]Leave me,
friends.		  
  [Exeunt all but HAMLET]  
  Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes
out
Contagion to this world: now could I drink hot
blood,
And do such bitter business as the day
Would quake to look on. Soft! now to my mother.
O heart, lose not thy nature; let not ever
The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom:
Let me be cruel, not unnatural:
I will speak daggers to her, but use none;
My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites;
How in my words soever she be shent,
To give them seals never, my soul, consent!
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430
  [Exit]  

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