That thus hath cozened you at hoodman blind?1
[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.2]

O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell,
If thou canst mutine 3 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 ardor gives the charge;
Since frost itself as actively doth burn,

And reason panders will.

Queen.

O Hamlet, speak no more. Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul; And there I see such black and grained 5 spots As will not leave their tinct.

Ham.

Nay, but to live In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed;

Stewed in corruption; honeying, and making love

Over the nasty sty;

Queen.

O, speak to me no more;

These words, like daggers, enter in mine ears.
No more, sweet Hamlet.

Ham. A murderer, and a villain;

A slave, that is not twentieth part the tithe

Of

your precedent lord ;-a vice' of kings;

1 "The hoodwinke play, or hoodman blind, in some place, called blindmanbuf."-Baret. It is hob-man-blind in the quarto of 1603.

2 i. e. could not be so dull and stupid.

3 Mutine for mutiny. This is the old form of the verb.

4 Thus in the quarto of 1603:

"Why, appetite with you is in the wane,

Your blood runs backward now from whence it came;
Who'll chide hot blood within a virgin's heart,

When lust shall dwell within a matron's breast?"

5" Grained spots;" that is, dyed in grain, deeply imbued.

6 i. e. greasy, rank, gross. It is a term borrowed from falconry. The seam of any animal was the fat or tallow; and a hawk was said to be enseamed when she was too fat or gross for flight. It should be remarked, that the quarto of 1603 reads incestuous, as does that of 1611.

7 i. e. "the low mimic, the counterfeit, a dizard, or common vice and jester, counterfeiting the gestures of any man."-Fleming. Shakspeare afterwards calls him a king of shreds and patches, alluding to the particolored habit of the vice or fool in a play.

I'll call upon you ere you go to bed,
And tell you what I know.

King.

Thanks, dear my lord.
[Exit POLONIUS

O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven;
It hath the primal, eldest curse upon't,
A brother's murder!-Pray can I not,
Though inclination be as sharp as will ;1
My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent;
And, like a man to double business bound,
I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
And both neglect. What if this cursed hand
Were thicker than itself with brother's blood?
Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens,
To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy,
But to confront the visage of offence?

And what's in prayer, but this twofold force,—
To be forestalled, ere we come to fall,

Or pardoned, being down? Then I'll look up;
My fault is past. But, O, what form of prayer
Can serve my turn? Forgive me my foul murder!-
That cannot be; since I am still possessed
Of those effects for which I did the murder,
My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.
May one be pardoned, and retain the offence?
In the corrupted currents of this world,
Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice;
And oft 'tis seen, the wicked prize itself
Buys out the law. But 'tis not so above;
There is no shuffling, there the action lies
In his true nature; and we ourselves compelled,
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,
To give in evidence. What then? what rests?
Try what repentance can. What can it not?
Yet what can it, when one cannot repent?
O wretched state! O bosom, black as death!
O limed soul; that, struggling to be free,

1 i. e. "though I am not only willing, but strongly inclined to pray

my guilt prevents me."

2

i. e. caught as with birdlime.

Art more engaged! Help, angels, make assay!
Bow, stubborn knees! and, heart, with strings of steel,
Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe;

All may be well!

Enter HAMLET.

[Retires and kneels.

Ham. Now might I do it, pat, now he is praying; And now I'll do 't; and so he goes to heaven: And so am I revenged? That would be scanned.1 A villain kills my father; and, for that,

I, his sole son, do this same villain send

To heaven.

Why, this is hire and salary, not revenge.

He took my father grossly, full of bread;

With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May;
And, how his audit stands, who knows, save Heaven?
But, in our circumstance and course of thought,
'Tis heavy with him. And am I then revenged,
To take him in the purging of his soul,
When he is fit and seasoned for his passage?
No.

Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent.3
When he is drunk, asleep, or in his rage;
Or in the incestuous pleasures of his bed;
At gaming, swearing; or about some act
That has no relish of salvation in't:

Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven;
And that his soul may be as damned, and black,
As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays;
This physic but prolongs thy sickly days.

The King rises and advances.

[Exit.

King. My words fly up, my thoughts remain below; Words, without thoughts, never to heaven go. [Exit.

1 "That would be scanned"-that requires consideration.

2 The quarto reads, base and silly.

3 Shakspeare has used the verb to hent, to take, to lay hold on, elsewhere; but the word is here used as a substantive, for hold or opportunity. 4 First quarto:

"No king on earth is safe, if God's his foe."

Infects unseen. Confess yourself to Heaven;
Repent what's past; avoid what is to come;
And do not spread 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 woo, for leave to do him good.

Queen. O Hamlet! thou hast cleft my heart in twain. Ham. O,, throw away the worser part of it,

And live the purer with the other half.

Good night; but go not to my uncle's bed
Assume a virtue, if you have it not.

2

[That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat
Of habit's devil, is angel yet in this;
That to the use of actions fair and good
He likewise gives a frock, or livery,
That aptly is put on.] Refrain to-night; 3
And that shall lend a kind of easiness

To the next abstinence; [the next more easy;
For use almost can change the stamp of nature,
And either quell the devil or throw him out
With wondrous potency.] Once more, good night!
And when you are desirous to be blessed,
I'll blessing beg of you.-For this same lord,

[Pointing to POLONIUS. I do repent. But Heaven hath pleased it so,To punish me with this, and this with me; 5

1 i. e. bow. "Courber (Fr.), to bow."

2 Dr. Thirlby proposed to read, "Of habits evil." Steevens would read, "Or habits' devil." It is evident that there is an intended opposition between angel and devil; but the passage will, perhaps, bear explaining as it stands:"That monster custom, who devours all sense (feeling, or perception) of devilish habits, is angel yet in this," &c. This passage might, perhaps, have been as well omitted, after the example of the editors of the folio.

3 Here the quarto of 1603 has two remarkable lines :

"And, mother, but assist me in revenge,

And in his death your infamy shall die."

4 "The next more easy," &c. This passage, as far as potency, is also omitted in the folio. In the line

"And either quell the devil, or throw him out,"

the word quell is wanting in the old copy.

5" To punish me by making me the instrument of this man's death, and o punish this man by my hand."

That I must be their scourge and minister.
I will bestow him, and will answer well

The death I gave him. So, again, good night!—
I must be cruel, only to be kind;

Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.-
But one word more, good lady.

Queen.

What shall I do?

Ham. Not this, by no means, that I bid you do.
Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed;
Pinch wanton on your cheek; call his mouse;
And let him for a pair of reechy 2 kisses,

you

Or paddling in your neck with his damned fingers,
Make you to ravel all this matter out,

That I essentially am not in madness,

1

But mad in craft. Twere good, you let him know;
For who, that's but a queen, fair, sober, wise,
Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib,3

Such dear concernings hide? who would do so?
No, in despite of sense, and secrecy,

Unpeg the basket on the house's top,

Let the birds fly; and, like the famous ape,

To try conclusions, in the basket creep,

And break your own neck down.

Queen. Be thou assured, if words be made of

breath,

And breath of life, I have no life to breathe

What thou hast said to me."

Ham. I must to England; you know that?

1 Mouse, a term of endearment formerly.

2 i. e. reeky or fumant. Reeky and reechy are the same word, and always applied to any vaporous exhalation.

3 For paddock, a toad, see Macbeth, Act i. Sc. 1; and for gib, a cat, see

King Henry IV. Part I. Act. i. Sc. 2.

4 To try conclusions is to put to proof, or try experiments.

5 The quarto of 1603 has here another remarkable variation:—

"Hamlet, I vow by that Majesty

That knows our thoughts and looks into our hearts,

I will conceal, consent, and do my best,
What stratagem soe'er thou shalt devise."

6 The manner in which Hamlet came to know that he was to be sent to England is not developed. He expresses surprise when the king mentions it in a future scene; but his design of passing for a madman may account for this.