Hamlet: II, Scene 2

Claudius

1 - 18

Welcome, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern!
Moreover that we much did long to see you,
The need we have to use you did provoke
Our hasty sending. Something have you heard
Of Hamlet’s transformation; so call it,
Sith nor th’ exterior nor the inward man
Resembles that it was. What it should be,
More than his father’s death, that thus hath put him
So much from th’ understanding of himself,
I cannot dream of. I entreat you both
That, being of so young days brought up with him,
And sith so neighbored to his youth and havior,
That you vouchsafe your rest here in our court
Some little time, so by your companies
To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather
So much as from occasion you may glean,
Whether aught to us unknown afflicts him thus,
That, open’d, lies within our remedy.

Gertrude

19 - 26

Good gentlemen, he hath much talk’d of you,
And sure I am two men there is not living
To whom he more adheres. If it will please you
To show us so much gentry and good will
As to expend your time with us a while
For the supply and profit of our hope,
Your visitation shall receive such thanks
As fits a king’s remembrance.

Rosencrantz

27 - 30

Both your Majesties
Might, by the sovereign power you have of us,
Put your dread pleasures more into command
Than to entreaty.

Guildenstern

31 - 34

But we both obey,
And here give up ourselves, in the full bent,
To lay our service freely at your feet,
To be commanded.

Claudius

35

Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern.

Gertrude

36 - 39

Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz.
And I beseech you instantly to visit
My too much changed son. Go some of you
And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is.

Guildenstern

40 - 41

Heavens make our presence and our practices
Pleasant and helpful to him!

Gertrude

42

Ay, amen!

Polonius

43 - 44

Th’ ambassadors from Norway, my good lord,
Are joyfully return’d.

Claudius

45

Thou still hast been the father of good news.

Polonius

46 - 52

Have I, my lord? I assure my good liege
I hold my duty as I hold my soul,
Both to my God and to my gracious king;
And I do think, or else this brain of mine
Hunts not the trail of policy so sure
As it hath us’d to do, that I have found
The very cause of Hamlet’s lunacy.

Claudius

53

O, speak of that, that do I long to hear.

Polonius

54 - 55

Give first admittance to th’ ambassadors;
My news shall be the fruit to that great feast.

Claudius

56 - 58

Thyself do grace to them, and bring them in.
Exit Polonius.
He tells me, my dear Gertrude, he hath found
The head and source of all your son’s distemper.

Gertrude

59 - 60

I doubt it is no other but the main,
His father’s death and our o’erhasty marriage.

Claudius

61 - 62

Well, we shall sift him.—Welcome, my good friends!
Say, Voltemand, what from our brother Norway?

Voltemand

63 - 83

Most fair return of greetings and desires.
Upon our first, he sent out to suppress
His nephew’s levies, which to him appear’d
To be a preparation ’gainst the Polack;
But better look’d into, he truly found
It was against your Highness. Whereat griev’d,
That so his sickness, age, and impotence
Was falsely borne in hand, sends out arrests
On Fortinbras, which he, in brief, obeys,
Receives rebuke from Norway, and in fine,
Makes vow before his uncle never more
To give th’ assay of arms against your Majesty.
Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy,
Gives him threescore thousand crowns in annual fee,
And his commission to employ those soldiers,
So levied, as before, against the Polack,
With an entreaty, herein further shown,
Giving a paper.
That it might please you to give quiet pass
Through your dominions for this enterprise,
On such regards of safety and allowance
As therein are set down.

Claudius

84 - 89

It likes us well,
And at our more considered time we’ll read,
Answer, and think upon this business.
Mean time, we thank you for your well-took labor.
Go to your rest, at night we’ll feast together.
Most welcome home!

Polonius

90 - 100

This business is well ended.
My liege, and madam, to expostulate
What majesty should be, what duty is,
Why day is day, night night, and time is time,
Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time;
Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief. Your noble son is mad:
Mad call I it, for to define true madness,
What is’t but to be nothing else but mad?
But let that go.

Gertrude

101

More matter with less art.

Polonius

102 - 119

Madam, I swear I use no art at all.
That he’s mad, ’tis true, ’tis true ’tis pity,
And pity ’tis ’tis true—a foolish figure,
But farewell it, for I will use no art.
Mad let us grant him then, and now remains
That we find out the cause of this effect,
Or rather say, the cause of this defect,
For this effect defective comes by cause:
Thus it remains, and the remainder thus.
Perpend.
I have a daughter—have while she is mine—
Who in her duty and obedience, mark,
Hath given me this. Now gather, and surmise.
Reads the salutation of the letter.
“To the celestial and my soul’s idol, the most beautified
Ophelia”—
That’s an ill phrase, a vile phrase, “beautified” is a vile
phrase. But you shall hear. Thus:
“In her excellent white bosom, these, etc.”

Gertrude

120

Came this from Hamlet to her?

Polonius

121 - 134

Good madam, stay awhile. I will be faithful.
Reads the letter.
“Doubt thou the stars are fire,
Doubt that the sun doth move,
Doubt truth to be a liar,
But never doubt I love.
O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers. I have not art to
reckon my groans, but that I love thee best, O most best,
believe it. Adieu.
Thine evermore, most dear lady,
whilst this machine is to him, Hamlet.”
This in obedience hath my daughter shown me,
And more above, hath his solicitings,
As they fell out by time, by means, and place,
All given to mine ear.

Claudius

135 - 136

But how hath she
Receiv’d his love?

Polonius

137

What do you think of me?

Claudius

138

As of a man faithful and honorable.

Polonius

139 - 159

I would fain prove so. But what might you think,
When I had seen this hot love on the wing—
As I perceiv’d it (I must tell you that)
Before my daughter told me—what might you,
Or my dear Majesty your queen here, think,
If I had play’d the desk or table-book,
Or given my heart a winking, mute and dumb,
Or look’d upon this love with idle sight,
What might you think? No, I went round to work,
And my young mistress thus I did bespeak:
“Lord Hamlet is a prince out of thy star;
This must not be”; and then I prescripts gave her,
That she should lock herself from his resort,
Admit no messengers, receive no tokens.
Which done, she took the fruits of my advice;
And he repell’d, a short tale to make,
Fell into a sadness, then into a fast,
Thence to a watch, thence into a weakness,
Thence to a lightness, and by this declension,
Into the madness wherein now he raves,
And all we mourn for.

Claudius

160

Do you think ’tis this?

Gertrude

161

It may be, very like.

Polonius

162 - 164

Hath there been such a time—I would fain know that—
That I have positively said, “’Tis so,”
When it prov’d otherwise?

Claudius

165

Not that I know.

Polonius

166 - 169

Points to his head and shoulder.
Take this from this, if this be otherwise.
If circumstances lead me, I will find
Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed
Within the center.

Claudius

170

How may we try it further?

Polonius

171 - 172

You know sometimes he walks four hours together
Here in the lobby.

Gertrude

173

So he does indeed.

Polonius

174 - 179

At such a time I’ll loose my daughter to him.
Be you and I behind an arras then,
Mark the encounter: if he love her not,
And be not from his reason fall’n thereon,
Let me be no assistant for a state,
But keep a farm and carters.

Claudius

180

We will try it.
Enter Hamlet reading on a book.

Gertrude

181

But look where sadly the poor wretch comes reading.

Polonius

182 - 185

Away, I do beseech you, both away.
I’ll board him presently.
Exeunt King and Queen.
O, give me leave,
How does my good Lord Hamlet?

Hamlet

186

Well, God-a-mercy.

Polonius

187

Do you know me, my lord?

Hamlet

188

Excellent well, you are a fishmonger.

Polonius

189

Not I, my lord.

Hamlet

190

Then I would you were so honest a man.

Polonius

191

Honest, my lord?

Hamlet

192 - 193

Ay, sir, to be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man
pick’d out of ten thousand.

Polonius

194

That’s very true, my lord.

Hamlet

195 - 196

For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a good
kissing carrion—Have you a daughter?

Polonius

197

I have, my lord.

Hamlet

198 - 199

Let her not walk i’ th’ sun. Conception is a blessing, but
as your daughter may conceive, friend, look to’t.

Polonius

200 - 204

Aside.
How say you by that? Still harping on my daughter. Yet he
knew me not at first, ’a said I was a fishmonger. ’A is far
gone. And truly in my youth I suff’red much extremity for
love—very near this. I’ll speak to him again.—What do you
read, my lord?

Hamlet

205

Words, words, words.

Polonius

206

What is the matter, my lord?

Hamlet

207

Between who?

Polonius

208

I mean, the matter that you read, my lord.

Hamlet

209 - 216

Slanders, sir; for the satirical rogue says here that old
men have grey beards, that their faces are wrinkled, their
eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree gum, and that they
have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams;
all which, sir, though I most powerfully and potently
believe, yet I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down,
for yourself, sir, shall grow old as I am, if like a crab
you could go backward.

Polonius

217 - 218

Aside.
Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.—Will you
walk out of the air, my lord?

Hamlet

219

Into my grave.

Polonius

220 - 225

Indeed that’s out of the air.
Aside.
How pregnant sometimes his replies are! A happiness that
often madness hits on, which reason and sanity could not so
prosperously be deliver’d of. I will leave him, and suddenly
contrive the means of meeting between him and my
daughter.—My lord, I will take my leave of you.

Hamlet

226 - 228

You cannot take from me any thing that I will not more
willingly part withal—except my life, except my life, except
my life.

Polonius

229

Fare you well, my lord.

Hamlet

230

These tedious old fools!

Polonius

231

You go to seek the Lord Hamlet, there he is.

Rosencrantz

232

To Polonius.
God save you, sir!

Guildenstern

233

My honor’d lord!

Rosencrantz

234

My most dear lord!

Hamlet

235 - 236

My excellent good friends! How dost thou, Guildenstern? Ah,
Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do you both?

Rosencrantz

237

As the indifferent children of the earth.

Guildenstern

238 - 239

Happy, in that we are not over-happy, on Fortune’s cap we
are not the very button.

Hamlet

240

Nor the soles of her shoe?

Rosencrantz

241

Neither, my lord.

Hamlet

242 - 243

Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of her
favors?

Guildenstern

244

Faith, her privates we.

Hamlet

245 - 246

In the secret parts of Fortune? O, most true, she is a
strumpet. What news?

Rosencrantz

247

None, my lord, but the world’s grown honest.

Hamlet

248 - 251

Then is doomsday near. But your news is not true. Let me
question more in particular. What have you, my good friends,
deserv’d at the hands of Fortune, that she sends you to
prison hither?

Guildenstern

252

Prison, my lord?

Hamlet

253

Denmark’s a prison.

Rosencrantz

254

Then is the world one.

Hamlet

255 - 256

A goodly one, in which there are many confines, wards, and
dungeons, Denmark being one o’ th’ worst.

Rosencrantz

257

We think not so, my lord.

Hamlet

258 - 259

Why then ’tis none to you; for there is nothing either good
or bad, but thinking makes it so. To me it is a prison.

Rosencrantz

260 - 261

Why then your ambition makes it one. ’Tis too narrow for
your mind.

Hamlet

262 - 263

O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a
king of infinite space—were it not that I have bad dreams.

Guildenstern

264 - 265

Which dreams indeed are ambition, for the very substance of
the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.

Hamlet

266

A dream itself is but a shadow.

Rosencrantz

267 - 268

Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality
that it is but a shadow’s shadow.

Hamlet

269 - 271

Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and
outstretch’d heroes the beggars’ shadows. Shall we to th’
court? For, by my fay, I cannot reason.

Both Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

272

We’ll wait upon you.

Hamlet

273 - 276

No such matter. I will not sort you with the rest of my
servants; for to speak to you like an honest man, I am most
dreadfully attended. But in the beaten way of friendship,
what make you at Elsinore?

Rosencrantz

277

To visit you, my lord, no other occasion.

Hamlet

278 - 282

Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks—but I thank you,
and sure, dear friends, my thanks are too dear a halfpenny.
Were you not sent for? Is it your own inclining? Is it a
free visitation? Come, come, deal justly with me. Come,
come—nay, speak.

Guildenstern

283

What should we say, my lord?

Hamlet

284 - 287

Any thing but to th’ purpose. You were sent for, and there
is a kind of confession in your looks, which your modesties
have not craft enough to color. I know the good King and
Queen have sent for you.

Rosencrantz

288

To what end, my lord?

Hamlet

289 - 293

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-preserv’d love, and by what more
dear a better proposer can charge you withal, be even and
direct with me, whether you were sent for or no!

Rosencrantz

294

Aside to Guildenstern.
What say you?

Hamlet

295

Aside.
Nay then I have an eye of you!—If you love me, hold not off.

Guildenstern

296

My lord, we were sent for.

Hamlet

297 - 312

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
appeareth nothing to me but a foul and pestilent
congregation of vapors. What a piece of work is a man, how
noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, 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—nor women neither,
though by your smiling you seem to say so.

Rosencrantz

313

My lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts.

Hamlet

314

Why did ye laugh then, when I said, “Man delights not me”?

Rosencrantz

315 - 318

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

319 - 325

He that plays the king shall be welcome—his Majesty shall
have tribute on me, the adventurous knight shall use his
foil and target, the lover shall not sigh gratis, the
humorous man shall end his part in peace, the clown shall
make those laugh whose lungs are tickle a’ th’ sere, and the
lady shall say her mind freely, or the blank verse shall
halt for’t. What players are they?

Rosencrantz

326 - 327

Even those you were wont to take such delight in, the
tragedians of the city.

Hamlet

328 - 329

How chances it they travel? Their residence, both in
reputation and profit, was better both ways.

Rosencrantz

330 - 331

I think their inhibition comes by the means of the late
innovation.

Hamlet

332 - 333

Do they hold the same estimation they did when I was in the
city? Are they so follow’d?

Rosencrantz

334

No indeed are they not.

Hamlet

335

How comes it? Do they grow rusty?

Rosencrantz

336 - 341

Ay, their endeavor 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 clapp’d 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

342 - 347

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

348 - 351

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

352

Is’t possible?

Guildenstern

353

O, there has been much throwing about of brains.

Hamlet

354

Do the boys carry it away?

Rosencrantz

355

Ay, that they do, my lord—Hercules and his load too.

Hamlet

356 - 360

It is not very strange, for my uncle is King of Denmark, and
those that would make mouths at him while my father liv’d,
give twenty, forty, fifty, a hundred ducats a-piece for his
picture in little. ’Sblood, there is something in this more
than natural, if philosophy could find it out.

Guildenstern

361

There are the players.

Hamlet

362 - 367

Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands, come
then: th’ 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 outwards,
should more appear like entertainment than yours. You are
welcome; but my uncle-father and aunt-mother are deceiv’d.

Guildenstern

368

In what, my dear lord?

Hamlet

369 - 370

I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly I
know a hawk from a hand-saw.

Polonius

371

Well be with you, gentlemen!

Hamlet

372 - 374

Aside to them.
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

375 - 376

Happily he is the second time come to them, for they say an
old man is twice a child.

Hamlet

377 - 379

I will prophesy, he comes to tell me of the players, mark
it.
Aloud.
You say right, sir, a’ Monday morning, ’twas then indeed.

Polonius

380

My lord, I have news to tell you.

Hamlet

381 - 382

My lord, I have news to tell you. When Roscius was an actor
in Rome—

Polonius

383

The actors are come hither, my lord.

Hamlet

384

Buzz, buzz!

Polonius

385

Upon my honor—

Hamlet

386

“Then came each actor on his ass”—

Polonius

387 - 392

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

393

O Jephthah, judge of Israel, what a treasure hadst thou!

Polonius

394

What a treasure had he, my lord?

Hamlet

395 - 397

Why—
“One fair daughter, and no more,
The which he loved passing well.”

Polonius

398

Aside.
Still on my daughter.

Hamlet

399

Am I not i’ th’ right, old Jephthah?

Polonius

400 - 401

If you call me Jephthah, my lord, I have a daughter that I
love passing well.

Hamlet

402

Nay, that follows not.

Polonius

403

What follows then, my lord?

Hamlet

404 - 420

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 the Players, four or five.
You are welcome, masters, welcome all. I am glad to see thee
well. Welcome, good friends. O, old friend! Why, thy face is
valanc’d since I saw thee last; com’st thou to beard me in
Denmark? What, my young lady and mistress! By’ lady, your
ladyship is nearer to heaven than when I saw you last, by
the altitude of a chopine. Pray God your voice, like a piece
of uncurrent gold, be not crack’d within the ring. Masters,
you are all welcome. We’ll e’en to’t like French
falc’ners—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 (Player King)

421

What speech, my good lord?

Hamlet

422 - 451

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,
pleas’d not the million, ’twas caviary to the general, but
it was—as I receiv’d 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 savory, nor no matter in the phrase
that might indict the author of affection, but call’d it an
honest method, as wholesome as sweet, and by very much more
handsome than fine. One speech in’t I chiefly lov’d, ’twas
Aeneas’ tale to Dido, and thereabout of it especially when
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 th’ Hyrcanian beast—”
’Tis 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 th’ 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,
Bak’d and impasted with the parching streets,
That lend a tyrannous and a 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.

Polonius

452 - 453

’Fore God, my lord, well spoken, with good accent and good
discretion.

First Player (Player King)

454 - 483

“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
Th’ 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 reverent Priam, seem’d i’ th’ 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,
A roused vengeance sets him new a-work,
And never did the Cyclops’ hammers fall
On Mars’s armor forg’d 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!”

Polonius

484

This is too long.

Hamlet

485 - 487

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 (Player King)

488

“But who, ah woe, had seen the mobled queen“—

Hamlet

489

“The mobled queen“?

Polonius

490

That’s good, “mobled queen” is good.

First Player (Player King)

491 - 504

“Run barefoot up and down, threat’ning 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 pronounc’d.
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 clamor 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.”

Polonius

505 - 506

Look whe’er he has not turn’d his color and has tears in ’s
eyes. Prithee no more.

Hamlet

507 - 512

’Tis well, I’ll have thee speak out the rest of this soon.
Good my lord, will you see the players well bestow’d? Do you
hear, let them be well us’d, 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.

Polonius

513

My lord, I will use them according to their desert.

Hamlet

514 - 517

God’s bodkin, man, much better: use every man after his
desert, and who shall scape whipping? Use them after your
own honor and dignity—the less they deserve, the more merit
is in your bounty. Take them in.

Polonius

518

Come, sirs.

Hamlet

519 - 521

Follow him, friends, we’ll hear a play tomorrow.
Exeunt all the Players but the First.
Dost thou hear me, old friend? Can you play “The Murder of
Gonzago”?

First Player (Player King)

522

Ay, my lord.

Hamlet

523 - 525

We’ll ha’t tomorrow night. You could for need study a speech
of some dozen lines, or sixteen lines, which I would set
down and insert in’t, could you not?

First Player (Player King)

526

Ay, my lord.

Hamlet

527 - 529

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

530

Good my lord!

Hamlet

531 - 588

Ay so, God buy to you.
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 the visage wann’d,
Tears in his eyes, distraction in his aspect,
A broken voice, an’ 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 appall 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’ th’ throat
As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this?
Hah, ’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 ’a’ fatted all the region kites
With this slave’s offal. Bloody, bawdy villain!
Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!
Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave,
That I, the son of a dear father murdered,
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 stallion. Fie upon’t, foh!
About, my brains! Hum—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 ’a do blench,
I know my course. The spirit that I have seen
May be a dev’l, and the dev’l hath power
T’ 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.

HamletAct II, Scene 2

Elsinore. A room in Elsinore castle.

Claudius

Gertrude

Rosencrantz

Guildenstern

Claudius

Gertrude

Guildenstern

Gertrude

Polonius

Claudius

Polonius

Claudius

Polonius

Claudius

Gertrude

Claudius

Voltemand

Claudius

Polonius

Gertrude

Polonius

Gertrude

Polonius

Claudius

Polonius

Claudius

Polonius

Claudius

Gertrude

Polonius

Claudius

Polonius

Claudius

Polonius

Gertrude

Polonius

Claudius

Gertrude

Polonius

Hamlet

Polonius

Hamlet

Polonius

Hamlet

Polonius

Hamlet

Polonius

Hamlet

Polonius

Hamlet

Polonius

Hamlet

Polonius

Hamlet

Polonius

Hamlet

Polonius

Hamlet

Polonius

Hamlet

Polonius

Hamlet

Polonius

Rosencrantz

Guildenstern

Rosencrantz

Hamlet

Rosencrantz

Guildenstern

Hamlet

Rosencrantz

Hamlet

Guildenstern

Hamlet

Rosencrantz

Hamlet

Guildenstern

Hamlet

Hamlet
Act II, Scene 2