Hamlet

my 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 behavior 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. 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, but sir, “While the grass grows,”⁠—the proverb is something musty. Re-enter Players with recorders. O, the recorders! let me see one. 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. 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 the 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. They fool me to the top of my bent. I will come by and by. Polonius I will say so. Hamlet

By and by is easily said. Exit Polonius. 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.

Scene III

A room in the castle.

	Enter King, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern.
King	I like him not, nor stands it safe with us To let his madness range. Therefore prepare you; I your commission will forthwith dispatch, And he to England shall along with you: The terms of our estate may not endure Hazard so dangerous as doth hourly grow Out of his lunacies.
Guildenstern	We will ourselves provide: Most holy and religious fear it is To keep those many many bodies safe That live and feed upon your majesty.
Rosencrantz	The single and peculiar life is bound, With all the strength and armour of the mind, To keep itself from noyance; but much more That spirit upon whose weal depend and rest The lives of many. The cease of majesty Dies not alone; but, like a gulf, doth draw What’s near it with it: it is a massy wheel, Fix’d on the summit of the highest mount, To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things Are mortised and adjoin’d; which, when it falls, Each small annexment, petty consequence, Attends the boisterous ruin. Never alone Did the king sigh, but with a general groan.
King	Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy voyage; For we will fetters put upon this fear, Which now goes too free-footed.
Rosencrantz Guildenstern	We will haste us. Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
	Enter Polonius.
Polonius	My lord, he’s going to his mother’s closet: Behind the arras I’ll convey myself, To hear the process; and warrant 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. Fare you well, my liege: I’ll call upon you ere you go to bed, And tell you what I know.
King	Thanks, dear my lord. Exit Polonius. O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven; It hath the primal eldest curse upon’t, A brother’s murder. Pray can I not, Though inclination be as sharp as will: My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent; And, like a man to double business bound, I stand in pause where I shall first begin, And both neglect. What 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 two-fold force, To be forestalled ere we come to fall, Or pardon’d being down? Then I’ll look up; My fault