Oph.

You are as good as a chorus, my lord.

Hamlet.

I could interpret between you and your love-[Aside]

if I could see the puppets dallying.

leave thy damnable faces, and begin.

ing raven doth bellow for revenge.

Lucianus.

Begin, murderer; Come :- the croak

Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing;

Confederate season, else no creature seeing;

Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected,

With Hecate's ban thrice blasted, thrice infected,

Thy natural magic and dire property,

On wholesome life usurp immediately.

[Pours the poison into the sleeper's car.

Hamlet.

His

He poisons him i' the garden for his estate. name 's Gonzago: the story is extant, and written in very choice Italian. You shall see anon how the murderer

gets the love of Gonzago's wife.

King.

Give o'er the play! Away!

[General alarm and confusion. As the King rises, the players hurriedly quit the platform; Ophelia runs to Polonius; and the whole throng rushes out, after the King and Queen, leaving Hamlet and Horatio alone together.

Hamlet.

Why, let the strucken deer go weep,

The hart ungallèd play;

For some must watch, while some must sleep:

So runs the world away.

O, good Horatio, I'll take the ghost's word for a thousand pound. Didst perceive ?

Horatio.

Very well, my lord.

HAMLET.

Hamlet.

Upon the talk of the poisoning,

Horatio.

I did very well note him.

Hamlet.

Ah, ha! Come, some music! come, the recorders!

Come, some music!

[Exit Horatio R.

[Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern ..

Guil..

Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you.

Hamlet.

Your wisdom would show itself more richer to signify this to his doctor; for, for me to put him to his purgation might perhaps plunge him into more choler.

Guil.

Good my lord, put your discourse into some frame, and start not so wildly from my affair.

Hamlet.

:

I am tame, sir:-pronounce.

Guil.

The queen, your mother, in most great affliction of spirit,

hath sent me to you.

You are welcome.

Hamlet.

Guil.

Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the right breed. If it shall please you to make me a wholesome answer, I will do your mother's commandment: if not, your pardon and my return shall be the end of my business.

Make you a wholesome answer; my wit 's diseased: but, sir, such answer as I can make, you shall command; therefore no more, but to the matter: my mother, you say,

Ros.

Then thus she says; your behaviour hath struck her into amazement and admiration.

Hamlet.

O, wonderful son, that can so astonish a mother! -But is there no sequel at the heels of this mother's admiration? Impart.

Ros.

She desires to speak with you in her closet, ere you go to bed.

Hamlet.

We shall obey, were she ten times our mother. Have you any further trade with us?

HAMLET.

Ros.

My lord, you once did love me.

Hamlet.

So I do still, by these pickers and stealers.

Ros.

Good my lord, what is your cause of distemper? you do, surely, bar the door upon your own liberty, if you deny your griefs to your friend.

Hamlet.

Sir, I lack advancement.

Ros.

How can that be, when you have the voice of the king himself for your succession in Denmark ?

Hamlet.

Ay, sir, but "While the grass grows," -the proverb is something musty.

[Enter Horatio with two musicians.

O, the recorders : - let me see one.

[Hamlet takes one of the flutes.

Guildenstern

passes to the R. of Hamlet, as if to overhear what

may pass between him and Horatio.

To withdraw with you.

[Exeunt Horatio and the musicians r..

Why do you go about to recover the wind of me, as if you would drive me into a toil?

Guil.

O, my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is too unmannerly.

Hamlet.

I do not well understand that. Will you play upon this

pipe?

My lord, I cannot.

Guil.

'Tis as easy as lying: govern these ventages with your fingers and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music. Look you, these are the stops.

Guil.

But these cannot I command to any utterance of har mony; I have not the skill.

Hamlet.

Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me! You would play upon me; you would seem to know my stops; you would pluck out the heart of my mystery; you would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass: and there is much music, excellent voice, in this little organ; yet cannot you make it speak. 'Sdeath, do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you may fret me, you cannot play upon me.

[Enter Polonius L.

My lord, the queen would speak with you, and presently.

Hamlet.

Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel?