Ham.
‘By and by’ is easily said. Leave me, friends. [Exeunt ^note all but Hamlet.
'Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn, and hell itself breathes ^note out
Contagion to this ^note world: now could I drink hot blood,
And do such bitter business as the day ^note

Would quake to look on. Soft! now ^note to my mother.
O heart, lose ^note not thy nature; let not ever
The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom:
Let me be cruel, not ^note unnatural:
I will speak daggers ^note to her, but use none;
My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites;
How in my words soever ^note she be shent,
To give them seals never, my soul, consent ^note! ^note [Exit. ^{note note} Scene III. [Footnote: A room in the castle. ^note Enter King, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern.

King.
I like him not, nor stands it safe with us
To let his madness range ^note. Therefore prepare you;
I your commission will forthwith dispatch,
And he to England shall along with you:
The terms of our estate may ^note not endure
Hazard so near us ^note as doth hourly grow
Out of his lunacies ^note.

Guil.
We will ourselves provide ^note:
Most holy and religious fear it is

To keep those many many ^note bodies safe
That live ^note and feed upon your majesty.

Ros.
The single and peculiar life is bound ^note
With all the strength and armour of the mind
To keep itself from noyance ^note; but much more
That spirit upon ^note whose weal ^note depends and rests ^note
The lives of many. The ^note cease ^note of ^note majesty
Dies not alone, but like a gulf doth draw
What's near it with it: it is ^note a massy wheel,
Fix'd on the summit ^note of the highest mount,
To whose huge ^note spokes ten thousand lesser things
Are mortised ^note and adjoin'd; which, when it falls,
Each small annexment, petty consequence,
Attends the boisterous ruin ^note. Never ^note alone
Did the king sigh, but with ^note a general groan ^note.

King.
Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy voyage ^note,
For we will fetters put about ^note this fear,
Which now goes too free-footed.

Ros. Guil. ^note
We will haste us ^note. [Exeunt ^note Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Enter Polonius.

Pol.
My lord, he's going to his mother's closet:

Behind the arras I'll convey myself,
To hear the process; I'll warrant ^note she'll tax him home:
And, as you said, and wisely was it said,
'Tis meet that some more audience than a mother,
Since nature makes them partial, should o'erhear
The speech, of vantage ^note. Fare you well, my liege:
I'll call upon you ere you go to bed,
And tell you what I know ^note.

King.
Thanks, dear my lord. [Exit Polonius. ^note
O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven;
It hath the primal eldest curse upon't ^note,
A ^note brother's murder ^note. Pray can I not ^note,
Though inclination be as sharp as will ^note: ^note
My stronger guilt defeats ^note my strong intent,
And like a man to double business bound,
I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
And both neglect. What ^note 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 pardon'd ^note being down? Then I'll look up;
My fault is ^note past. But O, what form of prayer
Can serve my turn? ‘Forgive me my foul murder? ^note’

That cannot be, since I am still possess'd
Of those effects ^note for which I did the murder,
My crown, mine own ambition and my queen.
May one be pardon'd ^note and retain the offence ^note?
In the corrupted currents ^note of this world ^note
Offence's gilded ^note hand may shove ^note by justice,
And oft 'tis seen the wicked prize ^note itself
Buys out the law: but 'tis not so above;
There is no shuffling, there the action lies
In his ^note true nature, and ^note we ourselves compell'd
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 ^note when one can not ^note repent?
O wretched state! O bosom black as death!
O limed soul, that struggling to be free
Art more engaged! Help, angels ^note! make assay!
Bow, stubborn knees, and, heart ^note with strings of steel ^note,
Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe!
All may be well. [Retires ^note and kneels. Enter Hamlet. ^note

Ham.
Now might I do it pat, now he is ^note praying ^note;

And now I'll do't: and so he goes ^note to heaven:
And so am I revenged. ^note That would be scann'd:
A villain kills my father; and for that,
I, his sole ^note son, do this same villain send
To heaven. ^note
O, ^note this is hire and salary ^note, not revenge.
He ^note took my father grossly, full of bread ^note,
With all his crimes broad blown, as flush ^note as May;
And how his audit stands who knows save heaven?
But in our circumstance and course of thought,
'Tis heavy with him: and ^note am I then revenged,
To take him in the purging of his soul,
When he is fit and season'd ^note for his passage?
No. ^note
Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent ^note:
When he is drunk asleep ^note, or in his rage,
Or in the incestuous ^note pleasure ^note of his bed;
At game, a-swearing ^note, or about some act
That has no relish of salvation in't;
Then trip him, that his heels may ^note kick at heaven
And that his soul may be as damn'd and black
As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays:

This physic but prolongs thy sickly days. [Exit.

King. [Rising ^note]
My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:
Words without thoughts never to heaven go. [Exit. ^note Scene IV. [Footnote: The Queen's closet. ^note Enter Queen ^note and Polonius.

Pol.
He ^note will come straight. Look you lay home to him: ^note
Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear ^note with,
And that your grace hath screen'd ^note and stood between
Much heat and him. I'll sconce me even ^note here.
Pray you, be round with him ^note.

Ham.[Within]
Mother, mother, mother! ^note

Queen. ^note

I'll warrant ^note you; fear me not. Withdraw ^note, I hear him coming. ^note

Ham.
Now, mother, what's the matter?

Queen.
Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.

Ham.
Mother, you have my father much offended.

Queen.
Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.

Ham.
Go, go, you question with a wicked ^note tongue.

Queen.
Why, how now, Hamlet!

Ham.
What's the matter now? ^note

Queen.
Have you forgot me?

Ham.
No, by the rood, not so:
You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife;
And—would it were not so!—you ^note are my mother.

Queen.
Nay, then, I'll set ^note those to you that can speak.

Ham.
Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge ^note;
You go not ^note till I set you up ^note a glass
Where you may see the inmost ^note part of you. ^note

Queen.
What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder me?
Help, help, ho! ^note

Pol. [Behind] ^note
What, ho! help, help, help! ^note

Ham. [Drawing] ^note
How now! a rat? ^note Dead, for a ducat, dead! [Makes a pass through the arras. ^note

Pol. [Behind] ^note
O, I am slain! [Falls and dies. ^note

Queen.
O me, what hast ^note thou done?

Ham.
Nay, I know not: is it the king? ^note

Queen.
O, what a rash and bloody deed is ^note this!

Ham.
A bloody deed! almost as bad, good mother,
As kill a king, and marry with his brother.

Queen.
As kill ^note a king! ^note

Ham.
Ay, lady, 'twas ^note my word. [Lifts up the arras and discovers ^note Polonius. ^note
Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!
I took thee for thy better ^note: take thy fortune;
Thou find'st to be too busy is some danger.
Leave wringing of your hands: peace! sit you down,
And let me wring your heart: for so I shall,
If it be made of penetrable stuff;
If damned custom have not brass'd ^note it so,
That it be ^note proof and bulwark against sense ^note.

Queen.
What have I done, that thou darest wag thy tongue
In noise so rude against me?

Ham.
Such an act
That blurs the grace and blush of modesty,
Calls virtue hypocrite ^note, takes off ^note the rose
From the fair forehead of an innocent love,
And sets ^note a blister there; makes marriage vows
As false as dicers' oaths: O, such a deed
As from the body of contraction plucks
The very soul, and sweet religion makes
A rhapsody ^note of words: heaven's face doth ^note glow;

Yea, ^note this solidity ^note and compound mass,
With tristful ^note visage, as against ^note the doom,
Is thought-sick at the act. ^note

Queen.
Ay me, what act,
That roars so loud and thunders in the index? ^note

Ham.
Look here, upon this picture, and on this,
The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.
See what a grace was ^note seated on this ^note brow;
Hyperion's curls, the front of Jove himself,
An eye like Mars, to threaten and ^note command;
A station like the herald Mercury
New-lighted ^note on a heaven-kissing ^note hill;
A combination and a ^note form indeed,
Where every god did seem to set his seal
To give the world assurance of a man:
This was your husband. Look you now, what follows:
Here is your husband; like a mildew'd ^note ear ^note,
Blasting his wholesome brother ^note. Have you eyes?
Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed,
And batten ^note on this moor? Ha! have you eyes?
You cannot call it love, for at your age
The hey-day in the ^note blood is tame, it's ^note humble,
And waits upon the judgement: and what judgement
Would step ^note from this to this? Sense sure you have,
Else could you not have motion ^note: but sure that sense

Is apoplex'd: for madness would not err,
Nor sense to ecstasy was ne'er so thrall'd
But it reserved some quantity of choice,
To serve in such a difference. ^note What devil was 't
That thus hath cozen'd ^note you at hoodman ^note-blind ^note?
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. ^note
O shame! where is thy blush? ^note Rebellious hell ^note,
If thou canst mutine ^note 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 ardour ^note gives the charge,
Since frost itself as actively doth burn,
And ^note reason panders ^note will.

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

Ham.
Nay, but to live
In the rank sweat of an enseamed ^note bed,
Stew'd in corruption, honeying and making love
Over the nasty sty,— ^note

Queen.
O, speak to me ^note no ^note more;
These words like daggers enter in ^note my ^note ears;

No more, sweet Hamlet!

Ham.
A murderer and a villain;
A slave that is not ^note twentieth part the tithe ^note
Of your precedent lord; a vice of kings;
A cutpurse of the empire and the rule, ^note
That from a shelf the precious diadem stole
And put it in his pocket! ^note

Queen.
No ^note more! ^note

Ham.
A king of shreds and patches— ^note Enter Ghost. ^{note note}
Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings,
You heavenly guards! What would your ^note gracious figure?

Queen.
Alas, he's ^note mad! ^note

Ham.
Do you not come your tardy son to chide,
That, lapsed in time ^note and passion, lets go by
The important acting of your dread command?
O, say! ^note

Ghost.
Do not forget: this visitation
Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.
But look, amazement on thy mother sits:
O, step between her and her fighting ^note soul:
Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works:
Speak to her, Hamlet.

Ham.
How is it with you, lady?

Queen.
Alas, how is't with you,

That you do ^note bend your eye on vacancy
And with the incorporal ^note air do hold discourse?
Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep;
And, as the sleeping soldiers in the alarm,
Your bedded ^note hairs ^note, like life in excrements ^note,
Start up and stand ^note an end ^note. O gentle son,
Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper
Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look?

Ham.
On him, on him! Look you, how pale he glares ^note!
His form and cause conjoin'd ^note, preaching to stones,
Would make them capable. Do not look upon ^note me,
Lest with this piteous action you convert
My stern effects ^note: then what I have ^note to do
Will want true colour; tears perchance for blood.

Queen. ^note
To whom ^note do you speak this?

Ham.
Do you see nothing there?

Queen.
Nothing at all; yet all that is ^{note note} I see.

Ham.
Nor did you nothing hear?

Queen.
No, nothing but ourselves.

Ham.
Why, look you there! look, how it steals ^note away!
My father, in his habit as ^note he lived ^note!
Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal! [Exit Ghost. ^note

Queen.
This is the very coinage of your brain:
This bodiless creation ecstasy
Is very cunning in. ^note

Ham.
Ecstasy! ^note
My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time,
And makes as healthful music: it is not madness
That I have utter'd ^note: bring me to the test,
And I the ^note matter will re-word ^note, which madness
Would gambol from. Mother, ^note for love of grace,
Lay not that ^note flattering unction to your soul,
That not your trespass but my madness speaks:
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place,
Whiles ^note rank corruption, mining ^note all within,
Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven;
Repent what's past, avoid what is ^note to come,
And do not spread the compost on ^note the weeds,
To make them ranker ^note. Forgive me ^note this my virtue,
For in the fatness of these ^note pursy times
Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg,
Yea, curb ^note and woo for leave to do him ^note good. ^note

Queen.
O Hamlet ^note, thou hast cleft my heart in twain ^note.

Ham.
O ^note, throw away the worser part of it,
And live ^note the purer with the other half.
Good night: but go not to my ^note uncle's bed;
Assume a virtue, if you have it not.
That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat,

Of habits devil, ^note 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. ^note Refrain to-night ^{note note},
And that shall lend a kind of easiness
To the next abstinence; the next more easy;
For use almost can ^note change the stamp of nature,
And either......the ^note devil, or throw him out
With wondrous potency. ^note Once more, good night:
And when you are desirous to be blest,
I'll blessing beg of you. For this same lord, [Pointing to Polonius. ^note
I do repent: but heaven hath ^note pleased it so,
To punish me with this, and this with me ^note,
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 ^note bad begins, and worse remains behind. ^note
One word more, good lady. ^note

Queen.
What shall I do?

Ham.
Not this, by no means, that I bid you do:

Let the bloat ^note king tempt you again to bed ^note;
Pinch wanton on your cheek, call you his mouse;
And let him, for a pair of reechy kisses,
Or paddling in your neck with his damn'd fingers,
Make you to ravel ^note all this matter out,
That I essentially am not in madness,
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 ^note,
Such dear concernings ^note 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 ^note 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 ^note
What thou hast said to me.

Ham.
I must to England; you know that? ^note

Queen.
Alack, ^note
I had forgot: 'tis so concluded on ^note. ^note

Ham.
There's letters seal'd: and my two schoolfellows,
Whom I will trust as I will adders fang'd,
They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way,
And marshal me to knavery ^note. Let it work;
For 'tis the sport ^note to have the enginer ^note

Hoist with his own petar ^note: and't ^note shall go hard
But I will delve one yard below their mines,
And blow them at the moon: O, 'tis most sweet
When in one line two crafts directly meet. ^{note note}
This man shall ^note set me packing: ^note
I'll lug the guts into the neighbour room.
Mother, good night. Indeed ^note this counsellor
Is now most still, most secret and most grave,
Who was in life ^note a foolish ^note prating ^note knave.
Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you.
Good night, mother. [Exeunt ^note severally; Hamlet dragging in Polonius.

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