A Hall in the Castle.
 Enter HAMLET and THREE of the PLAYERS.

Hamlet	Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, 
	trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of 
	your players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my 
	lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand thus, 
	but use all gently, for in the very torrent, tempest, and, 
	as I may say, whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire 
	and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it 
	offends me to the soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated 
	fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split 
	the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are 
	capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb-shows and noise. I 
	would have such a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant. 
	It out-herods Herod: pray you, avoid it.

1st Player	I warrant your honour.

Hamlet	Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be 
	your tutor. Suit the action to the word, the word to the 
	action, with this special observance, that you o'erstep not 
	the modesty of nature; for anything so o'erdone is from the 
	purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, 
	was and is to hold as 'twere the mirror up to nature, to 
	show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the 
	very age and body of the time his form and pressure. Now, 
	this overdone or come tardy off, though it make the 
	unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve, the 
	censure of which one must in your allowance o'erweigh a 
	whole theatre of others. O, there be players that I have 
	seen play, and heard others praise, and that highly, not to 
	speak it profanely, that neither having th' accent of 
	Christians, nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have 
	so strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of 
	nature's journeymen had made men, and not made them well, 
	they imitated humanity so abominably.

1st Player	I hope we have reformed that indifferently with us, sir.

Hamlet	O, reform it altogether; and let those that play your 
	clowns speak no more than is set down for them; for there 
	be of them that will themselves laugh to set on some 
	quantity of barren spectators to laugh too, though in the 
	meantime some necessary question of the play be then to be 
	considered. That's villainous, and shows a most pitiful 
	ambition in the fool that uses it. Go, make you ready.
												[Exeunt PLAYERS.

              Enter POLONIUS, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN.

	How now, my lord. Will the king hear this piece of work?

Polonius	And the queen too, and that presently.

Hamlet	Bid the players make haste.
												[Exit POLONIUS.
	Will you two help to hasten them?

Rosencrantz	Ay, my lord.
						   [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.

Hamlet	What ho, Horatio!

                              Enter HORATIO.

Horatio	Here, sweet lord, at your service.

Hamlet	Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man
	As e'er my conversation coped withal.

Horatio	O, my dear lord. 

Hamlet						Nay, do not think I flatter,
	For what advancement may I hope from thee
	That no revenue hast but thy good spirits
	To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be flattered?
	No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp,
	And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee
	Where thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear?
	Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice,
	And could of men distinguish her election,
	Sh'ath sealed thee for herself, for thou hast been
	As one, in suff'ring all, that suffers nothing,
	A man that fortune's buffets and rewards
	Hast ta'en with equal thanks; and blest are those
	Whose blood and judgement are so well commeddled
	That they are not a pipe for fortune's finger
	To sound what stop she please. Give me that man
	That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him
	In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart,
	As I do thee. Something too much of this.
	There is a play tonight before the king;
	One scene of it comes near the circumstance
	Which I have told thee of my father's death.
	I prithee, when thou seest that act afoot,
	Even with the very comment of thy soul
	Observe my uncle. If his occulted guilt
	Do not itself unkennel in one speech,
	It is a damnd ghost that we have seen,
	And my imaginations are as foul
	As Vulcan's stithy. Give him heedful note;
	For I mine eyes will rivet to his face,
	And after we will both our judgements join
	In censure of his seeming.

Horatio										Well, my lord.
	If a' steal aught the whilst this play is playing,
	And 'scape detecting, I will pay the theft.
												[Sound a flourish.

Hamlet	They are coming to the play. I must be idle.
	Get you a place.

                              Danish march.
     Enter KING, QUEEN, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN,
       and other LORDS attending, with the GUARD carrying torches.

King	How fares our cousin Hamlet?

Hamlet	Excellent, i'faith, of the chameleon's dish. I eat the air, 
	promise-crammed. You cannot feed capons so.

King	I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet; these words are 
	not mine.

Hamlet	No, nor mine now. [To POLONIUS.] My lord, you played once 
	i'th' university, you say?

Polonius	That did I, my lord, and was accounted a good actor.

Hamlet	What did you enact?

Polonius	I did enact Julius Caesar. I was killed i'th' Capitol; 
	Brutus killed me.

Hamlet	It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf there. 
	Be the players ready?

Rosencrantz	Ay, my lord, they stay upon your patience.

Queen	Come hither, my good Hamlet, sit by me.

Hamlet	No, good mother, here's metal more attractive.
												[Indicating OPHELIA.

Polonius	[Aside to the KING.] O ho, do you mark that?

Hamlet	Lady, shall I lie in your lap?
											[Sitting at OPHELIA's feet.
Ophelia	No, my lord.

Hamlet	I mean my head upon your lap?

Ophelia	Ay, my lord.

Hamlet	Do you think I meant country matters?

Ophelia	I think nothing, my lord.

Hamlet	That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs.

Ophelia	What is, my lord?

Hamlet	Nothing.

Ophelia	You are merry, my lord.

Hamlet	Who, I?

Ophelia	Ay, my lord.

Hamlet	O God, your only jig-maker! What should a man do but be 
	merry? For look you how cheerfully my mother looks, and my 
	father died within's two hours.

Ophelia	Nay, 'tis twice two months, my lord.

Hamlet	So long? Nay then, let the devil wear black, for I'll have 
	a suit of sables. O heavens! - die two months ago, and not 
	forgotten yet? Then there's hope a great man's memory may 
	outlive his life half a year. But, by'rlady, a' must build 
	churches then, or else shall a' suffer not thinking on, 
	with the hobby-horse, whose epitaph is 'For O, for O, the 
	hobby-horse is forgot.'

                   Hautboys play. The dumb-show enters.

    Enter a KING and a QUEEN, very lovingly, the QUEEN embracing him.
           She kneels, and makes show of protestation unto him.
          He takes her up, and declines his head upon her neck.
                 He lies him down upon a bank of flowers.
                   She, seeing him asleep, leaves him.

        Anon comes in another MAN, takes off his crown, kisses it,
           pours poison in the sleeper's ears, and leaves him.

   The QUEEN returns, finds the KING dead, and makes passionate action.
       The POISONER, with some two or three MUTES, comes in again,
                       seeming to condole with her.

                      The dead body is carried away.

                 The POISONER woos the QUEEN with gifts.
         She seems harsh awhile, but in the end accepts his love.
												[Exeunt.

Ophelia	What means this, my lord?

Hamlet	Marry, this is miching mallecho; it means mischief.

Ophelia	Belike this show imports the argument of the play.

                             Enter PROLOGUE.

Hamlet	We shall know by this fellow. The players cannot keep 
	counsel; they'll tell all.

Ophelia	Will a' tell us what this show meant?

Hamlet	Ay, or any show that you will show him. Be not you ashamed 
	to show, he'll not shame to tell you what it means.

Ophelia	You are naught, you are naught. I'll mark the play.

Prologue			For us and for our tragedy,
			Here stooping to your clemency,
			We beg your hearing patiently.
												[Exit.
Hamlet	Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring?

Ophelia	'Tis brief, my lord.

Hamlet	As woman's love.

                     Enter the PLAYER KING and QUEEN.

Player King	Full thirty times hath Phoebus' cart gone round
	Neptune's salt wash and Tellus' orbd ground,
	And thirty dozen moons with borrowed sheen
	About the world have times twelve thirties been
	Since love our hearts and Hymen did our hands
	Unite commutual in most sacred bands.

Player Queen	So many journeys may the sun and moon
	Make us again count o'er ere love be done.
	But, woe is me, you are so sick of late,
	So far from cheer and from your former state,
	That I distrust you. Yet, though I distrust,
	Discomfort you, my lord, it nothing must;
	For women fear too much, even as they love,
	And women's fear and love hold quantity,
	In neither aught, or in extremity.
	Now, what my love is, proof hath made you know,
	And as my love is sized, my fear is so.
	Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear;
	Where little fears grow great, great love grows there.

Player King	Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly too.
	My operant powers their functions leave to do;
	And thou shalt live in this fair world behind,
	Honoured, beloved; and haply one as kind
	For husband shalt thou-

Player Queen								O confound the rest!
	Such love must needs be treason in my breast.
	In second husband let me be accurst;
	None wed the second but who killed the first.

Hamlet	[Aside.] Wormwood, wormwood.

Player Queen	The instances that second marriage move
	Are base respects of thrift, but none of love.
	A second time I kill my husband dead,
	When second husband kisses me in bed.

Player King	I do believe you think what now you speak,
	But what we do determine, oft we break.
	Purpose is but the slave to memory,
	Of violent birth, but poor validity;
	Which now, the fruit unripe, sticks on the tree,
	But fall unshaken when they mellow be.
	Most necessary 'tis that we forget
	To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt.
	What to ourselves in passion we propose,
	The passion ending, doth the purpose lose.
	The violence of either grief or joy
	Their own enactures with themselves destroy.
	Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament;
	Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident.
	This world is not for aye, nor 'tis not strange
	That even our loves should with our fortunes change:
	For 'tis a question left us yet to prove,
	Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love.
	The great man down, you mark his favourite flies;
	The poor advanced makes friends of enemies.
	And hitherto doth love on fortune tend;
	For who not needs shall never lack a friend,
	And who in want a hollow friend doth try
	Directly seasons him his enemy.
	But, orderly to end where I begun,
	Our wills and fates do so contrary run
	That our devices still are overthrown;
	Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own.
	So think thou wilt no second husband wed;
	But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead.

Player Queen	Nor earth to me give food, nor heaven light,
	Sport and repose lock from me day and night,
	To desperation turn my trust and hope,
	An anchor's cheer in prison be my scope,
	Each opposite that blanks the face of joy
	Meet what I would have well, and it destroy,
	Both here and hence pursue me lasting strife,
	If, once a widow, ever I be a wife!

Hamlet	If she should break it now!

Player King	'Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here a while;
	My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile
	The tedious day with sleep.
												[Sleeps.

Player Queen										Sleep rock thy brain,
	And never come mischance between us twain.
												[Exit.
Hamlet	[To QUEEN.] Madam, how like you this play?

Queen	The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

Hamlet	O, but she'll keep her word.

King	Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in't?

Hamlet	No, no, they do but jest, poison in jest; no offence i'th' 
	world.

King	What do you call the play?

Hamlet	The Mousetrap. Marry, how tropically! This play is the 
	image of a murder done in Vienna. Gonzago is the duke's 
	name, his wife, Baptista. You shall see anon. 'Tis a 
	knavish piece of work, but what o' that? Your majesty, and 
	we that have free souls, it touches us not. Let the galled 
	jade wince, our withers are unwrung.

                             Enter LUCIANUS.

	This is one Lucianus, nephew to the king.

Ophelia	You are as good as a chorus, my lord.

Hamlet	I could interpret between you and your love if I could see 
	the puppets dallying.

Ophelia	You are keen, my lord, you are keen.

Hamlet	It would cost you a groaning to take off my edge.

Ophelia	Still better, and worse.

Hamlet	So you mistake your husbands. [To LUCIANUS.] Begin, 
	murderer. Pox, leave thy damnable faces, and begin. Come, 
	the croaking raven doth bellow for revenge.

Lucianus	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 usurps immediately.
					   [Pours the poison into the sleeper's ear.

Hamlet	A' poisons him i'th' garden for's estate. His 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.

Ophelia	The king rises.

Hamlet	What, frighted with false fire?

Queen	How fares my lord?

Polonius	Give o'er the play.

King	Give me some light. Away!

Polonius	Lights, lights, lights!
							 [Exeunt all but HAMLET and HORATIO.

Hamlet	Why, let the strucken deer go weep,
		The hart ungalld play;
	For some must watch, while some must sleep;
		So runs the world away.

	Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers - if the rest 
	of my fortunes turn Turk with me - with two Provincial 
	roses on my razed shoes, get me a fellowship in a cry of 
	players?

Horatio	Half a share.

Hamlet	A whole one, I.

	For thou dost know, O Damon dear,
		This realm dismantled was
	Of Jove himself; and now reigns here
		A very, very - pacock.

Horatio	You might have rhymed.

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

Horatio	Very well, my lord.

Hamlet	Upon the talk of the poisoning?

Horatio	I did very well note him.

Hamlet	Ah, ha! Come, some music! Come, the recorders!
		For if the king like not the comedy,
		Why then, belike he likes it not, perdy.
	Come, some music!

                  Re-enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.

Guildenstern	Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you.

Hamlet	Sir, a whole history.

Guildenstern	The king, sir-

Hamlet	Ay, sir, what of him?

Guildenstern	Is in his retirement marvellous distempered.

Hamlet	With drink, sir?

Guildenstern	No, my lord, rather with choler.

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

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

Hamlet	I am tame, sir. Pronounce.

Guildenstern	The queen your mother, in most great affliction of spirit, 
	hath sent me to you.

Hamlet	You are welcome.

Guildenstern	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 business.

Hamlet	Sir, I cannot.

Guildenstern	What, my lord?

Hamlet	Make you a wholesome answer. My wit's diseased. But, sir, 
	such answer as I can make, you shall command, or rather, as 
	you say, my mother. Therefore no more, but to the matter. 
	My mother, you say? 

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

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

Rosencrantz	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?

Rosencrantz	My lord, you once did love me.

Hamlet	So I do still, by these pickers and stealers.

Rosencrantz	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.

Rosencrantz	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.

                    Re-enter PLAYERS, with recorders.

	O, the recorders! Let me see one.
	[Drawing ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN aside.] To withdraw 
	with you - why do you go about to recover the wind of me, 
	as if you would drive me into a toil?

Guildenstern	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?

Guildenstern	My lord, I cannot.

Hamlet	I pray you.

Guildenstern	Believe me, I cannot.

Hamlet	I do beseech you.

Guildenstern	I know no touch of it, my lord.

Hamlet	'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.

Guildenstern	But these cannot I command to any utterance of harmony; 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. 'Sblood, do you think I am easier 
	to be played on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you 
	will, though you can fret me, yet you cannot play upon me.

                            Re-enter POLONIUS.

	God bless you, sir!

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

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

Polonius	By th' mass and 'tis, like a camel indeed.

Hamlet	Methinks it is like a weasel.

Polonius	It is backed like a weasel.

Hamlet	Or like a whale.

Polonius	Very like a whale.

Hamlet	Then I will come to my mother by and by. [Aside.] They fool 
	me to the top of my bent. [To POLONIUS.] I will come by and 
	by.

Polonius	I will say so.
												[Exit.

Hamlet	'By and by' is easily said. Leave me, friends.
												[Exeunt all but HAMLET.
	'Tis now the very witching time of night,
	When churchyards yawn, and hell itself breathes out
	Contagion to this world. Now could I drink hot blood,
	And do such bitter business as the day
	Would quake to look on. Soft! - now to my mother.
	O heart, lose not thy nature; let not ever
	The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom.
	Let me be cruel, not unnatural:
	I will speak daggers to her, but use none.
	My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites:
	How in my words soever she be shent,
	To give them seals never my soul consent!
												[Exit.
