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https://github.com/fluencelabs/wasmer
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1154 lines
30 KiB
Plaintext
1154 lines
30 KiB
Plaintext
SCENE II. A room in the castle.
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Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and Attendants
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KING CLAUDIUS
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Welcome, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern!
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Moreover that we much did long to see you,
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The need we have to use you did provoke
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Our hasty sending. Something have you heard
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Of Hamlet's transformation; so call it,
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Sith nor the exterior nor the inward man
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Resembles that it was. What it should be,
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More than his father's death, that thus hath put him
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So much from the understanding of himself,
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I cannot dream of: I entreat you both,
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That, being of so young days brought up with him,
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And sith so neighbour'd to his youth and havior,
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That you vouchsafe your rest here in our court
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Some little time: so by your companies
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To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather,
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So much as from occasion you may glean,
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Whether aught, to us unknown, afflicts him thus,
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That, open'd, lies within our remedy.
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QUEEN GERTRUDE
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Good gentlemen, he hath much talk'd of you;
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And sure I am two men there are not living
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To whom he more adheres. If it will please you
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To show us so much gentry and good will
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As to expend your time with us awhile,
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For the supply and profit of our hope,
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Your visitation shall receive such thanks
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As fits a king's remembrance.
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ROSENCRANTZ
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Both your majesties
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Might, by the sovereign power you have of us,
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Put your dread pleasures more into command
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Than to entreaty.
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GUILDENSTERN
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But we both obey,
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And here give up ourselves, in the full bent
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To lay our service freely at your feet,
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To be commanded.
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KING CLAUDIUS
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Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern.
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QUEEN GERTRUDE
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Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz:
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And I beseech you instantly to visit
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My too much changed son. Go, some of you,
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And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is.
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GUILDENSTERN
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Heavens make our presence and our practises
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Pleasant and helpful to him!
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QUEEN GERTRUDE
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Ay, amen!
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Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and some Attendants
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Enter POLONIUS
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LORD POLONIUS
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The ambassadors from Norway, my good lord,
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Are joyfully return'd.
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KING CLAUDIUS
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Thou still hast been the father of good news.
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LORD POLONIUS
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Have I, my lord? I assure my good liege,
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I hold my duty, as I hold my soul,
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Both to my God and to my gracious king:
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And I do think, or else this brain of mine
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Hunts not the trail of policy so sure
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As it hath used to do, that I have found
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The very cause of Hamlet's lunacy.
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KING CLAUDIUS
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O, speak of that; that do I long to hear.
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LORD POLONIUS
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Give first admittance to the ambassadors;
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My news shall be the fruit to that great feast.
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KING CLAUDIUS
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Thyself do grace to them, and bring them in.
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Exit POLONIUS
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He tells me, my dear Gertrude, he hath found
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The head and source of all your son's distemper.
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QUEEN GERTRUDE
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I doubt it is no other but the main;
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His father's death, and our o'erhasty marriage.
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KING CLAUDIUS
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Well, we shall sift him.
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Re-enter POLONIUS, with VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS
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Welcome, my good friends!
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Say, Voltimand, what from our brother Norway?
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VOLTIMAND
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Most fair return of greetings and desires.
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Upon our first, he sent out to suppress
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His nephew's levies; which to him appear'd
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To be a preparation 'gainst the Polack;
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But, better look'd into, he truly found
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It was against your highness: whereat grieved,
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That so his sickness, age and impotence
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Was falsely borne in hand, sends out arrests
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On Fortinbras; which he, in brief, obeys;
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Receives rebuke from Norway, and in fine
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Makes vow before his uncle never more
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To give the assay of arms against your majesty.
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Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy,
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Gives him three thousand crowns in annual fee,
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And his commission to employ those soldiers,
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So levied as before, against the Polack:
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With an entreaty, herein further shown,
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Giving a paper
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That it might please you to give quiet pass
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Through your dominions for this enterprise,
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On such regards of safety and allowance
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As therein are set down.
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KING CLAUDIUS
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It likes us well;
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And at our more consider'd time well read,
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Answer, and think upon this business.
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Meantime we thank you for your well-took labour:
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Go to your rest; at night we'll feast together:
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Most welcome home!
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Exeunt VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS
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LORD POLONIUS
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This business is well ended.
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My liege, and madam, to expostulate
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What majesty should be, what duty is,
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Why day is day, night night, and time is time,
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Were nothing but to waste night, day and time.
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Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
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And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
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I will be brief: your noble son is mad:
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Mad call I it; for, to define true madness,
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What is't but to be nothing else but mad?
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But let that go.
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QUEEN GERTRUDE
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More matter, with less art.
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LORD POLONIUS
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Madam, I swear I use no art at all.
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That he is mad, 'tis true: 'tis true 'tis pity;
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And pity 'tis 'tis true: a foolish figure;
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But farewell it, for I will use no art.
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Mad let us grant him, then: and now remains
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That we find out the cause of this effect,
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Or rather say, the cause of this defect,
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For this effect defective comes by cause:
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Thus it remains, and the remainder thus. Perpend.
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I have a daughter--have while she is mine--
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Who, in her duty and obedience, mark,
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Hath given me this: now gather, and surmise.
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Reads
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'To the celestial and my soul's idol, the most
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beautified Ophelia,'--
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That's an ill phrase, a vile phrase; 'beautified' is
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a vile phrase: but you shall hear. Thus:
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Reads
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'In her excellent white bosom, these, & c.'
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QUEEN GERTRUDE
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Came this from Hamlet to her?
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LORD POLONIUS
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Good madam, stay awhile; I will be faithful.
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Reads
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'Doubt thou the stars are fire;
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Doubt that the sun doth move;
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Doubt truth to be a liar;
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But never doubt I love.
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'O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers;
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I have not art to reckon my groans: but that
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I love thee best, O most best, believe it. Adieu.
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'Thine evermore most dear lady, whilst
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this machine is to him, HAMLET.'
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This, in obedience, hath my daughter shown me,
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And more above, hath his solicitings,
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As they fell out by time, by means and place,
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All given to mine ear.
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KING CLAUDIUS
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But how hath she
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Received his love?
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LORD POLONIUS
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What do you think of me?
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KING CLAUDIUS
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As of a man faithful and honourable.
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LORD POLONIUS
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I would fain prove so. But what might you think,
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When I had seen this hot love on the wing--
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As I perceived it, I must tell you that,
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Before my daughter told me--what might you,
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Or my dear majesty your queen here, think,
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If I had play'd the desk or table-book,
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Or given my heart a winking, mute and dumb,
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Or look'd upon this love with idle sight;
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What might you think? No, I went round to work,
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And my young mistress thus I did bespeak:
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'Lord Hamlet is a prince, out of thy star;
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This must not be:' and then I precepts gave her,
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That she should lock herself from his resort,
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Admit no messengers, receive no tokens.
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Which done, she took the fruits of my advice;
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And he, repulsed--a short tale to make--
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Fell into a sadness, then into a fast,
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Thence to a watch, thence into a weakness,
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Thence to a lightness, and, by this declension,
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Into the madness wherein now he raves,
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And all we mourn for.
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KING CLAUDIUS
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Do you think 'tis this?
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QUEEN GERTRUDE
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It may be, very likely.
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LORD POLONIUS
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Hath there been such a time--I'd fain know that--
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That I have positively said 'Tis so,'
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When it proved otherwise?
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KING CLAUDIUS
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Not that I know.
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LORD POLONIUS
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[Pointing to his head and shoulder]
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Take this from this, if this be otherwise:
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If circumstances lead me, I will find
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Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed
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Within the centre.
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KING CLAUDIUS
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How may we try it further?
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LORD POLONIUS
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You know, sometimes he walks four hours together
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Here in the lobby.
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QUEEN GERTRUDE
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So he does indeed.
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LORD POLONIUS
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At such a time I'll loose my daughter to him:
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Be you and I behind an arras then;
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Mark the encounter: if he love her not
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And be not from his reason fall'n thereon,
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Let me be no assistant for a state,
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But keep a farm and carters.
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KING CLAUDIUS
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We will try it.
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QUEEN GERTRUDE
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But, look, where sadly the poor wretch comes reading.
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LORD POLONIUS
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Away, I do beseech you, both away:
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I'll board him presently.
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Exeunt KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, and Attendants
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Enter HAMLET, reading
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O, give me leave:
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How does my good Lord Hamlet?
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HAMLET
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Well, God-a-mercy.
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LORD POLONIUS
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Do you know me, my lord?
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HAMLET
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Excellent well; you are a fishmonger.
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LORD POLONIUS
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Not I, my lord.
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HAMLET
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Then I would you were so honest a man.
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LORD POLONIUS
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Honest, my lord!
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HAMLET
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Ay, sir; to be honest, as this world goes, is to be
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one man picked out of ten thousand.
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LORD POLONIUS
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That's very true, my lord.
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HAMLET
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For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a
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god kissing carrion,--Have you a daughter?
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LORD POLONIUS
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I have, my lord.
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HAMLET
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Let her not walk i' the sun: conception is a
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blessing: but not as your daughter may conceive.
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Friend, look to 't.
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LORD POLONIUS
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[Aside] How say you by that? Still harping on my
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daughter: yet he knew me not at first; he said I
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was a fishmonger: he is far gone, far gone: and
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truly in my youth I suffered much extremity for
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love; very near this. I'll speak to him again.
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What do you read, my lord?
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HAMLET
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Words, words, words.
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LORD POLONIUS
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What is the matter, my lord?
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HAMLET
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Between who?
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LORD POLONIUS
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I mean, the matter that you read, my lord.
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HAMLET
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Slanders, sir: for the satirical rogue says here
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that old men have grey beards, that their faces are
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wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and
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plum-tree gum and that they have a plentiful lack of
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wit, together with most weak hams: all which, sir,
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though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet
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I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down, for
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yourself, sir, should be old as I am, if like a crab
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you could go backward.
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LORD POLONIUS
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[Aside] Though this be madness, yet there is method
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in 't. Will you walk out of the air, my lord?
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HAMLET
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Into my grave.
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LORD POLONIUS
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Indeed, that is out o' the air.
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Aside
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How pregnant sometimes his replies are! a happiness
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that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity
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could not so prosperously be delivered of. I will
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leave him, and suddenly contrive the means of
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meeting between him and my daughter.--My honourable
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lord, I will most humbly take my leave of you.
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HAMLET
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You cannot, sir, take from me any thing that I will
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more willingly part withal: except my life, except
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my life, except my life.
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LORD POLONIUS
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Fare you well, my lord.
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HAMLET
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These tedious old fools!
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Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
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LORD POLONIUS
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You go to seek the Lord Hamlet; there he is.
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ROSENCRANTZ
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[To POLONIUS] God save you, sir!
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Exit POLONIUS
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GUILDENSTERN
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My honoured lord!
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ROSENCRANTZ
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My most dear lord!
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HAMLET
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My excellent good friends! How dost thou,
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Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do ye both?
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ROSENCRANTZ
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As the indifferent children of the earth.
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GUILDENSTERN
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Happy, in that we are not over-happy;
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On fortune's cap we are not the very button.
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HAMLET
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Nor the soles of her shoe?
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ROSENCRANTZ
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Neither, my lord.
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HAMLET
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Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of
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her favours?
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GUILDENSTERN
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'Faith, her privates we.
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HAMLET
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In the secret parts of fortune? O, most true; she
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is a strumpet. What's the news?
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ROSENCRANTZ
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None, my lord, but that the world's grown honest.
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HAMLET
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Then is doomsday near: but your news is not true.
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Let me question more in particular: what have you,
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my good friends, deserved at the hands of fortune,
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that she sends you to prison hither?
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GUILDENSTERN
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Prison, my lord!
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HAMLET
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Denmark's a prison.
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ROSENCRANTZ
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Then is the world one.
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HAMLET
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A goodly one; in which there are many confines,
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wards and dungeons, Denmark being one o' the worst.
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ROSENCRANTZ
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We think not so, my lord.
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HAMLET
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Why, then, 'tis none to you; for there is nothing
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either good or bad, but thinking makes it so: to me
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it is a prison.
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ROSENCRANTZ
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Why then, your ambition makes it one; 'tis too
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narrow for your mind.
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HAMLET
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O God, I could be bounded in a nut shell and count
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myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I
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have bad dreams.
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GUILDENSTERN
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Which dreams indeed are ambition, for the very
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substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.
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HAMLET
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A dream itself is but a shadow.
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ROSENCRANTZ
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Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a
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quality that it is but a shadow's shadow.
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HAMLET
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Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and
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outstretched heroes the beggars' shadows. Shall we
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to the court? for, by my fay, I cannot reason.
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ROSENCRANTZ GUILDENSTERN
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We'll wait upon you.
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HAMLET
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No such matter: I will not sort you with the rest
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of my servants, for, to speak to you like an honest
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man, I am most dreadfully attended. But, in the
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beaten way of friendship, what make you at Elsinore?
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ROSENCRANTZ
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To visit you, my lord; no other occasion.
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HAMLET
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Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks; but I
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thank you: and sure, dear friends, my thanks are
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too dear a halfpenny. Were you not sent for? Is it
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your own inclining? Is it a free visitation? Come,
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deal justly with me: come, come; nay, speak.
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GUILDENSTERN
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What should we say, my lord?
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HAMLET
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Why, any thing, but to the purpose. You were sent
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for; and there is a kind of confession in your looks
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which your modesties have not craft enough to colour:
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I know the good king and queen have sent for you.
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ROSENCRANTZ
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To what end, my lord?
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HAMLET
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That you must teach me. But let me conjure you, by
|
|
the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy of
|
|
our youth, by the obligation of our ever-preserved
|
|
love, and by what more dear a better proposer could
|
|
charge you withal, be even and direct with me,
|
|
whether you were sent for, or no?
|
|
|
|
ROSENCRANTZ
|
|
|
|
[Aside to GUILDENSTERN] What say you?
|
|
|
|
HAMLET
|
|
|
|
[Aside] Nay, then, I have an eye of you.--If you
|
|
love me, hold not off.
|
|
|
|
GUILDENSTERN
|
|
|
|
My lord, we were sent for.
|
|
|
|
HAMLET
|
|
|
|
I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation
|
|
prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the king
|
|
and queen moult no feather. I have of late--but
|
|
wherefore I know not--lost all my mirth, forgone all
|
|
custom of exercises; and indeed it goes so heavily
|
|
with my disposition that this goodly frame, the
|
|
earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this most
|
|
excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave
|
|
o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted
|
|
with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to
|
|
me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours.
|
|
What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason!
|
|
how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how
|
|
express and admirable! in action how like an angel!
|
|
in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the
|
|
world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me,
|
|
what is this quintessence of dust? man delights not
|
|
me: no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling
|
|
you seem to say so.
|
|
|
|
ROSENCRANTZ
|
|
|
|
My lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts.
|
|
|
|
HAMLET
|
|
|
|
Why did you laugh then, when I said 'man delights not me'?
|
|
|
|
ROSENCRANTZ
|
|
|
|
To think, my lord, if you delight not in man, what
|
|
lenten entertainment the players shall receive from
|
|
you: we coted them on the way; and hither are they
|
|
coming, to offer you service.
|
|
|
|
HAMLET
|
|
|
|
He that plays the king shall be welcome; his majesty
|
|
shall have tribute of me; the adventurous knight
|
|
shall use his foil and target; the lover shall not
|
|
sigh gratis; the humourous man shall end his part
|
|
in peace; the clown shall make those laugh whose
|
|
lungs are tickled o' the sere; and the lady shall
|
|
say her mind freely, or the blank verse shall halt
|
|
for't. What players are they?
|
|
|
|
ROSENCRANTZ
|
|
|
|
Even those you were wont to take delight in, the
|
|
tragedians of the city.
|
|
|
|
HAMLET
|
|
|
|
How chances it they travel? their residence, both
|
|
in reputation and profit, was better both ways.
|
|
|
|
ROSENCRANTZ
|
|
|
|
I think their inhibition comes by the means of the
|
|
late innovation.
|
|
|
|
HAMLET
|
|
|
|
Do they hold the same estimation they did when I was
|
|
in the city? are they so followed?
|
|
|
|
ROSENCRANTZ
|
|
|
|
No, indeed, are they not.
|
|
|
|
HAMLET
|
|
|
|
How comes it? do they grow rusty?
|
|
|
|
ROSENCRANTZ
|
|
|
|
Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace: but
|
|
there is, sir, an aery of children, little eyases,
|
|
that cry out on the top of question, and are most
|
|
tyrannically clapped for't: these are now the
|
|
fashion, and so berattle the common stages--so they
|
|
call them--that many wearing rapiers are afraid of
|
|
goose-quills and dare scarce come thither.
|
|
|
|
HAMLET
|
|
|
|
What, are they children? who maintains 'em? how are
|
|
they escoted? Will they pursue the quality no
|
|
longer than they can sing? will they not say
|
|
afterwards, if they should grow themselves to common
|
|
players--as it is most like, if their means are no
|
|
better--their writers do them wrong, to make them
|
|
exclaim against their own succession?
|
|
|
|
ROSENCRANTZ
|
|
|
|
'Faith, there has been much to do on both sides; and
|
|
the nation holds it no sin to tarre them to
|
|
controversy: there was, for a while, no money bid
|
|
for argument, unless the poet and the player went to
|
|
cuffs in the question.
|
|
|
|
HAMLET
|
|
|
|
Is't possible?
|
|
|
|
GUILDENSTERN
|
|
|
|
O, there has been much throwing about of brains.
|
|
|
|
HAMLET
|
|
|
|
Do the boys carry it away?
|
|
|
|
ROSENCRANTZ
|
|
|
|
Ay, that they do, my lord; Hercules and his load too.
|
|
|
|
HAMLET
|
|
|
|
It is not very strange; for mine uncle is king of
|
|
Denmark, and those that would make mows at him while
|
|
my father lived, give twenty, forty, fifty, an
|
|
hundred ducats a-piece for his picture in little.
|
|
'Sblood, there is something in this more than
|
|
natural, if philosophy could find it out.
|
|
|
|
Flourish of trumpets within
|
|
|
|
GUILDENSTERN
|
|
|
|
There are the players.
|
|
|
|
HAMLET
|
|
|
|
Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands,
|
|
come then: the appurtenance of welcome is fashion
|
|
and ceremony: let me comply with you in this garb,
|
|
lest my extent to the players, which, I tell you,
|
|
must show fairly outward, should more appear like
|
|
entertainment than yours. You are welcome: but my
|
|
uncle-father and aunt-mother are deceived.
|
|
|
|
GUILDENSTERN
|
|
|
|
In what, my dear lord?
|
|
|
|
HAMLET
|
|
|
|
I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is
|
|
southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw.
|
|
|
|
Enter POLONIUS
|
|
|
|
LORD POLONIUS
|
|
|
|
Well be with you, gentlemen!
|
|
|
|
HAMLET
|
|
|
|
Hark you, Guildenstern; and you too: at each ear a
|
|
hearer: that great baby you see there is not yet
|
|
out of his swaddling-clouts.
|
|
|
|
ROSENCRANTZ
|
|
|
|
Happily he's the second time come to them; for they
|
|
say an old man is twice a child.
|
|
|
|
HAMLET
|
|
|
|
I will prophesy he comes to tell me of the players;
|
|
mark it. You say right, sir: o' Monday morning;
|
|
'twas so indeed.
|
|
|
|
LORD POLONIUS
|
|
|
|
My lord, I have news to tell you.
|
|
|
|
HAMLET
|
|
|
|
My lord, I have news to tell you.
|
|
When Roscius was an actor in Rome,--
|
|
|
|
LORD POLONIUS
|
|
|
|
The actors are come hither, my lord.
|
|
|
|
HAMLET
|
|
|
|
Buz, buz!
|
|
|
|
LORD POLONIUS
|
|
|
|
Upon mine honour,--
|
|
|
|
HAMLET
|
|
|
|
Then came each actor on his ass,--
|
|
|
|
LORD POLONIUS
|
|
|
|
The best actors in the world, either for tragedy,
|
|
comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical,
|
|
historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-
|
|
comical-historical-pastoral, scene individable, or
|
|
poem unlimited: Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor
|
|
Plautus too light. For the law of writ and the
|
|
liberty, these are the only men.
|
|
|
|
HAMLET
|
|
|
|
O Jephthah, judge of Israel, what a treasure hadst thou!
|
|
|
|
LORD POLONIUS
|
|
|
|
What a treasure had he, my lord?
|
|
|
|
HAMLET
|
|
|
|
Why,
|
|
'One fair daughter and no more,
|
|
The which he loved passing well.'
|
|
|
|
LORD POLONIUS
|
|
|
|
[Aside] Still on my daughter.
|
|
|
|
HAMLET
|
|
|
|
Am I not i' the right, old Jephthah?
|
|
|
|
LORD POLONIUS
|
|
|
|
If you call me Jephthah, my lord, I have a daughter
|
|
that I love passing well.
|
|
|
|
HAMLET
|
|
|
|
Nay, that follows not.
|
|
|
|
LORD POLONIUS
|
|
|
|
What follows, then, my lord?
|
|
|
|
HAMLET
|
|
|
|
Why,
|
|
'As by lot, God wot,'
|
|
and then, you know,
|
|
'It came to pass, as most like it was,'--
|
|
the first row of the pious chanson will show you
|
|
more; for look, where my abridgement comes.
|
|
|
|
Enter four or five Players
|
|
You are welcome, masters; welcome, all. I am glad
|
|
to see thee well. Welcome, good friends. O, my old
|
|
friend! thy face is valenced since I saw thee last:
|
|
comest thou to beard me in Denmark? What, my young
|
|
lady and mistress! By'r lady, your ladyship is
|
|
nearer to heaven than when I saw you last, by the
|
|
altitude of a chopine. Pray God, your voice, like
|
|
apiece of uncurrent gold, be not cracked within the
|
|
ring. Masters, you are all welcome. We'll e'en
|
|
to't like French falconers, fly at any thing we see:
|
|
we'll have a speech straight: come, give us a taste
|
|
of your quality; come, a passionate speech.
|
|
|
|
First Player
|
|
|
|
What speech, my lord?
|
|
|
|
HAMLET
|
|
|
|
I heard thee speak me a speech once, but it was
|
|
never acted; or, if it was, not above once; for the
|
|
play, I remember, pleased not the million; 'twas
|
|
caviare to the general: but it was--as I received
|
|
it, and others, whose judgments in such matters
|
|
cried in the top of mine--an excellent play, well
|
|
digested in the scenes, set down with as much
|
|
modesty as cunning. I remember, one said there
|
|
were no sallets in the lines to make the matter
|
|
savoury, nor no matter in the phrase that might
|
|
indict the author of affectation; but called it an
|
|
honest method, as wholesome as sweet, and by very
|
|
much more handsome than fine. One speech in it I
|
|
chiefly loved: 'twas Aeneas' tale to Dido; and
|
|
thereabout of it especially, where he speaks of
|
|
Priam's slaughter: if it live in your memory, begin
|
|
at this line: let me see, let me see--
|
|
'The rugged Pyrrhus, like the Hyrcanian beast,'--
|
|
it is not so:--it begins with Pyrrhus:--
|
|
'The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms,
|
|
Black as his purpose, did the night resemble
|
|
When he lay couched in the ominous horse,
|
|
Hath now this dread and black complexion smear'd
|
|
With heraldry more dismal; head to foot
|
|
Now is he total gules; horridly trick'd
|
|
With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons,
|
|
Baked and impasted with the parching streets,
|
|
That lend a tyrannous and damned light
|
|
To their lord's murder: roasted in wrath and fire,
|
|
And thus o'er-sized with coagulate gore,
|
|
With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus
|
|
Old grandsire Priam seeks.'
|
|
So, proceed you.
|
|
|
|
LORD POLONIUS
|
|
|
|
'Fore God, my lord, well spoken, with good accent and
|
|
good discretion.
|
|
|
|
First Player
|
|
|
|
'Anon he finds him
|
|
Striking too short at Greeks; his antique sword,
|
|
Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls,
|
|
Repugnant to command: unequal match'd,
|
|
Pyrrhus at Priam drives; in rage strikes wide;
|
|
But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword
|
|
The unnerved father falls. Then senseless Ilium,
|
|
Seeming to feel this blow, with flaming top
|
|
Stoops to his base, and with a hideous crash
|
|
Takes prisoner Pyrrhus' ear: for, lo! his sword,
|
|
Which was declining on the milky head
|
|
Of reverend Priam, seem'd i' the air to stick:
|
|
So, as a painted tyrant, Pyrrhus stood,
|
|
And like a neutral to his will and matter,
|
|
Did nothing.
|
|
But, as we often see, against some storm,
|
|
A silence in the heavens, the rack stand still,
|
|
The bold winds speechless and the orb below
|
|
As hush as death, anon the dreadful thunder
|
|
Doth rend the region, so, after Pyrrhus' pause,
|
|
Aroused vengeance sets him new a-work;
|
|
And never did the Cyclops' hammers fall
|
|
On Mars's armour forged for proof eterne
|
|
With less remorse than Pyrrhus' bleeding sword
|
|
Now falls on Priam.
|
|
Out, out, thou strumpet, Fortune! All you gods,
|
|
In general synod 'take away her power;
|
|
Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel,
|
|
And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven,
|
|
As low as to the fiends!'
|
|
|
|
LORD POLONIUS
|
|
|
|
This is too long.
|
|
|
|
HAMLET
|
|
|
|
It shall to the barber's, with your beard. Prithee,
|
|
say on: he's for a jig or a tale of bawdry, or he
|
|
sleeps: say on: come to Hecuba.
|
|
|
|
First Player
|
|
|
|
'But who, O, who had seen the mobled queen--'
|
|
|
|
HAMLET
|
|
|
|
'The mobled queen?'
|
|
|
|
LORD POLONIUS
|
|
|
|
That's good; 'mobled queen' is good.
|
|
|
|
First Player
|
|
|
|
'Run barefoot up and down, threatening the flames
|
|
With bisson rheum; a clout upon that head
|
|
Where late the diadem stood, and for a robe,
|
|
About her lank and all o'er-teemed loins,
|
|
A blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up;
|
|
Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steep'd,
|
|
'Gainst Fortune's state would treason have
|
|
pronounced:
|
|
But if the gods themselves did see her then
|
|
When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport
|
|
In mincing with his sword her husband's limbs,
|
|
The instant burst of clamour that she made,
|
|
Unless things mortal move them not at all,
|
|
Would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven,
|
|
And passion in the gods.'
|
|
|
|
LORD POLONIUS
|
|
|
|
Look, whether he has not turned his colour and has
|
|
tears in's eyes. Pray you, no more.
|
|
|
|
HAMLET
|
|
|
|
'Tis well: I'll have thee speak out the rest soon.
|
|
Good my lord, will you see the players well
|
|
bestowed? Do you hear, let them be well used; for
|
|
they are the abstract and brief chronicles of the
|
|
time: after your death you were better have a bad
|
|
epitaph than their ill report while you live.
|
|
|
|
LORD POLONIUS
|
|
|
|
My lord, I will use them according to their desert.
|
|
|
|
HAMLET
|
|
|
|
God's bodykins, man, much better: use every man
|
|
after his desert, and who should 'scape whipping?
|
|
Use them after your own honour and dignity: the less
|
|
they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty.
|
|
Take them in.
|
|
|
|
LORD POLONIUS
|
|
|
|
Come, sirs.
|
|
|
|
HAMLET
|
|
|
|
Follow him, friends: we'll hear a play to-morrow.
|
|
|
|
Exit POLONIUS with all the Players but the First
|
|
Dost thou hear me, old friend; can you play the
|
|
Murder of Gonzago?
|
|
|
|
First Player
|
|
|
|
Ay, my lord.
|
|
|
|
HAMLET
|
|
|
|
We'll ha't to-morrow night. You could, for a need,
|
|
study a speech of some dozen or sixteen lines, which
|
|
I would set down and insert in't, could you not?
|
|
|
|
First Player
|
|
|
|
Ay, my lord.
|
|
|
|
HAMLET
|
|
|
|
Very well. Follow that lord; and look you mock him
|
|
not.
|
|
|
|
Exit First Player
|
|
My good friends, I'll leave you till night: you are
|
|
welcome to Elsinore.
|
|
|
|
ROSENCRANTZ
|
|
|
|
Good my lord!
|
|
|
|
HAMLET
|
|
|
|
Ay, so, God be wi' ye;
|
|
|
|
Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
|
|
Now I am alone.
|
|
O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!
|
|
Is it not monstrous that this player here,
|
|
But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
|
|
Could force his soul so to his own conceit
|
|
That from her working all his visage wann'd,
|
|
Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect,
|
|
A broken voice, and his whole function suiting
|
|
With forms to his conceit? and all for nothing!
|
|
For Hecuba!
|
|
What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,
|
|
That he should weep for her? What would he do,
|
|
Had he the motive and the cue for passion
|
|
That I have? He would drown the stage with tears
|
|
And cleave the general ear with horrid speech,
|
|
Make mad the guilty and appal the free,
|
|
Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed
|
|
The very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet I,
|
|
A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak,
|
|
Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause,
|
|
And can say nothing; no, not for a king,
|
|
Upon whose property and most dear life
|
|
A damn'd defeat was made. Am I a coward?
|
|
Who calls me villain? breaks my pate across?
|
|
Plucks off my beard, and blows it in my face?
|
|
Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i' the throat,
|
|
As deep as to the lungs? who does me this?
|
|
Ha!
|
|
'Swounds, I should take it: for it cannot be
|
|
But I am pigeon-liver'd and lack gall
|
|
To make oppression bitter, or ere this
|
|
I should have fatted all the region kites
|
|
With this slave's offal: bloody, bawdy villain!
|
|
Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!
|
|
O, vengeance!
|
|
Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave,
|
|
That I, the son of a dear father murder'd,
|
|
Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,
|
|
Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words,
|
|
And fall a-cursing, like a very drab,
|
|
A scullion!
|
|
Fie upon't! foh! About, my brain! I have heard
|
|
That guilty creatures sitting at a play
|
|
Have by the very cunning of the scene
|
|
Been struck so to the soul that presently
|
|
They have proclaim'd their malefactions;
|
|
For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
|
|
With most miraculous organ. I'll have these players
|
|
Play something like the murder of my father
|
|
Before mine uncle: I'll observe his looks;
|
|
I'll tent him to the quick: if he but blench,
|
|
I know my course. The spirit that I have seen
|
|
May be the devil: and the devil hath power
|
|
To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps
|
|
Out of my weakness and my melancholy,
|
|
As he is very potent with such spirits,
|
|
Abuses me to damn me: I'll have grounds
|
|
More relative than this: the play 's the thing
|
|
Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.
|
|
|
|
Exit
|