SCENE I. A room in the castle.

Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN KING CLAUDIUS And can you, by no drift of circumstance, Get from him why he puts on this confusion, Grating so harshly all his days of quiet With turbulent and dangerous lunacy? ROSENCRANTZ He does confess he feels himself distracted; But from what cause he will by no means speak GUILDENSTERN !or do we find him forward to be sounded, But, with a crafty madness, keeps aloof, When we would bring him on to some confession "f his true state QUEEN GERTRUDE #id he recei$e you well? ROSENCRANTZ %ost like a gentleman GUILDENSTERN But with much forcing of his disposition ROSENCRANTZ !iggard of question; but, of our demands, %ost free in his reply QUEEN GERTRUDE #id you assay him? &o any pastime? ROSENCRANTZ %adam, it so fell out, that certain players We o'er(raught on the way) of these we told him; And there did seem in him a kind of *oy &o hear of it) they are about the court, And, as + think, they ha$e already order &his night to play before him LORD POLONIUS '&is most true) And he beseech'd me to entreat your ma*esties &o hear and see the matter KING CLAUDIUS With all my heart; and it doth much content me &o hear him so inclined Good gentlemen, gi$e him a further edge, And dri$e his purpose on to these delights ROSENCRANTZ

We shall, my lord Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN KING CLAUDIUS ,weet Gertrude, lea$e us too; -or we ha$e closely sent for Hamlet hither, &hat he, as 'twere by accident, may here Affront "phelia) Her father and myself, lawful espials, Will so bestow oursel$es that, seeing, unseen, We may of their encounter frankly *udge, And gather by him, as he is beha$ed, +f 't be the affliction of his lo$e or no &hat thus he suffers for QUEEN GERTRUDE + shall obey you And for your part, "phelia, + do wish &hat your good beauties be the happy cause "f Hamlet's wildness) so shall + hope your $irtues Will bring him to his wonted way again, &o both your honours OP ELIA %adam, + wish it may Exit QUEEN GERTRUDE LORD POLONIUS "phelia, walk you here Gracious, so please you, We will bestow oursel$es To OPHELIA .ead on this book; &hat show of such an e/ercise may colour 0our loneliness We are oft to blame in this,(( '&is too much pro$ed((that with de$otion's $isage And pious action we do sugar o'er &he de$il himself KING CLAUDIUS 1Aside2 ", 'tis too true3 How smart a lash that speech doth gi$e my conscience3 &he harlot's cheek, beautied with plastering art, +s not more ugly to the thing that helps it &han is my deed to my most painted word) " hea$y burthen3

LORD POLONIUS + hear him coming) let's withdraw, my lord Exeunt KING CLAUDIUS and POLONIUS Enter HAMLET A!LET &o be, or not to be) that is the question) Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer &he slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, "r to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? &o die) to sleep; !o more; and by a sleep to say we end &he heart(ache and the thousand natural shocks &hat flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation #e$outly to be wish'd &o die, to sleep; &o sleep) perchance to dream) ay, there's the rub; -or in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we ha$e shuffled off this mortal coil, %ust gi$e us pause) there's the respect &hat makes calamity of so long life; -or who would bear the whips and scorns of time, &he oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, &he pangs of despised lo$e, the law's delay, &he insolence of office and the spurns &hat patient merit of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear, &o grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, &he undisco$er'd country from whose bourn !o tra$eller returns, pu44les the will And makes us rather bear those ills we ha$e &han fly to others that we know not of? &hus conscience does make cowards of us all; And thus the nati$e hue of resolution +s sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pith and moment With this regard their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action ((,oft you now3 &he fair "phelia3 !ymph, in thy orisons Be all my sins remember'd OP ELIA Good my lord, How does your honour for this many a day?

A!LET + humbly thank you; well, well, well OP ELIA %y lord, + ha$e remembrances of yours, &hat + ha$e longed long to re(deli$er; + pray you, now recei$e them A!LET !o, not +; + ne$er ga$e you aught OP ELIA %y honour'd lord, you know right well you did; And, with them, words of so sweet breath composed As made the things more rich) their perfume lost, &ake these again; for to the noble mind .ich gifts wa/ poor when gi$ers pro$e unkind &here, my lord A!LET Ha, ha3 are you honest? OP ELIA %y lord? A!LET Are you fair? OP ELIA What means your lordship? A!LET &hat if you be honest and fair, your honesty should admit no discourse to your beauty OP ELIA 5ould beauty, my lord, ha$e better commerce than with honesty? A!LET Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness) this was sometime a parado/, but now the time gi$es it proof + did lo$e you once OP ELIA +ndeed, my lord, you made me belie$e so A!LET 0ou should not ha$e belie$ed me; for $irtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it) + lo$ed you not OP ELIA + was the more decei$ed A!LET

Get thee to a nunnery) why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? + am myself indifferent honest; but yet + could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me) + am $ery proud, re$engeful, ambitious, with more offences at my beck than + ha$e thoughts to put them in, imagination to gi$e them shape, or time to act them in What should such fellows as + do crawling between earth and hea$en? We are arrant kna$es, all; belie$e none of us Go thy ways to a nunnery Where's your father? OP ELIA At home, my lord A!LET 6et the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the fool no where but in's own house -arewell OP ELIA ", help him, you sweet hea$ens3 A!LET +f thou dost marry, +'ll gi$e thee this plague for thy dowry) be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny Get thee to a nunnery, go) farewell "r, if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them &o a nunnery, go, and quickly too -arewell OP ELIA " hea$enly powers, restore him3 A!LET + ha$e heard of your paintings too, well enough; God has gi$en you one face, and you make yoursel$es another) you *ig, you amble, and you lisp, and nick(name God's creatures, and make your wantonness your ignorance Go to, +'ll no more on't; it hath made me mad + say, we will ha$e no more marriages) those that are married already, all but one, shall li$e; the rest shall keep as they are &o a nunnery, go Exit OP ELIA ", what a noble mind is here o'erthrown3 &he courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue, sword; &he e/pectancy and rose of the fair state, &he glass of fashion and the mould of form,

&he obser$ed of all obser$ers, quite, quite down3 And +, of ladies most de*ect and wretched, &hat suck'd the honey of his music $ows, !ow see that noble and most so$ereign reason, 6ike sweet bells *angled, out of tune and harsh; &hat unmatch'd form and feature of blown youth Blasted with ecstasy) ", woe is me, &o ha$e seen what + ha$e seen, see what + see3 Re enter KING CLAUDIUS and POLONIUS KING CLAUDIUS 6o$e3 his affections do not that way tend; !or what he spake, though it lack'd form a little, Was not like madness &here's something in his soul, "'er which his melancholy sits on brood; And + do doubt the hatch and the disclose Will be some danger) which for to pre$ent, + ha$e in quick determination &hus set it down) he shall with speed to 7ngland, -or the demand of our neglected tribute Haply the seas and countries different With $ariable ob*ects shall e/pel &his something(settled matter in his heart, Whereon his brains still beating puts him thus -rom fashion of himself What think you on't? LORD POLONIUS +t shall do well) but yet do + belie$e &he origin and commencement of his grief ,prung from neglected lo$e How now, "phelia3 0ou need not tell us what 6ord Hamlet said; We heard it all %y lord, do as you please; But, if you hold it fit, after the play 6et his queen mother all alone entreat him &o show his grief) let her be round with him; And +'ll be placed, so please you, in the ear "f all their conference +f she find him not, &o 7ngland send him, or confine him where 0our wisdom best shall think KING CLAUDIUS +t shall be so) %adness in great ones must not unwatch'd go Exeunt