HAMLET PRINCE OF DENMARK

Act AP Scene J

	0 [[Q2 has this more expansive version of the ending of 4.4:]]
l1l	Captain	 I will do ’t, my lord.
l2l	Fortinbras	Go softly on.
		(Exit with his army)
		 
		(Enter Prince Hamlet, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, etc.)
		 
	Hamlet	
		( to the Captain)
		  Good sir, whose powers are these?
l3l	Captain	They are of Norway, sir.
	Hamlet	How purposed, sir, I pray you?
l4l	Captain	Against some part of Poland.
	Hamlet	Who commands them, sir?
l5l	Captain	The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras.
l6l	Hamlet	Goes it against the main of Poland, sir,
l7l		Or for some frontier?
l8l	Captain	Truly to speak, and with no addition,
l9l		We go to gain a little patch of ground
l10l		That hath in it no profit but the name.
l11l		To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it,
l12l		Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole
l13l		A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee.
l14l	Hamlet	Why then, the Polack never will defend it.
l15l	Captain	Yes, it is already garrisoned.
l16l	Hamlet	Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats
l17l		Will now debate the question of this straw.
l18l		This is th’ imposthume of much wealth and peace,
l19l		That inward breaks and shows no cause without
l20l		Why the man dies. I humbly thank you, sir.
l21l	Captain	God buy you, sir.
		(Exit)
		
	Rosencrantz	 Will ’t please you go, my lord?
l22l	Hamlet	I’ll be with you straight. Go a little before. 
		( 22 Exeunt all but Hamlet)
l23l		How all occasions do inform against me
l24l		And spur my dull revenge! What is a man
l25l		If his chief good and market of his time
l26l		Be but to sleep and feed?—a beast, no more.
l27l		Sure, he that made us with such large discourse,
l28l		Looking before and after, gave us not
l29l		That capability and god-like reason
l30l		To fust in us unused. Now whether it be
l31l		Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple
l32l		Of thinking too precisely on th’ event—
l33l		A thought which, quartered, hath but one part wisdom
l34l		And ever three parts coward—I do not know
l35l		Why yet I live to say “This thing’s to do”,
l36l		Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means,
l37l		To do ’t. Examples gross as earth exhort me,
l38l		Witness this army of such mass and charge,
l39l		Led by a delicate and tender prince,
l40l		Whose spirit with divine ambition puffed
l41l		Makes mouths at the invisible event,
l42l		Exposing what is mortal and unsure
l43l		To all that fortune, death, and danger dare,
l44l		Even for an eggshell. Rightly to be great
l45l		Is not to stir without great argument,
l46l		But greatly to find quarrel in a straw
l47l		When honour’s at the stake. How stand I, then,
l48l		That have a father killed, a mother stained,
l49l		Excitements of my reason and my blood,
l50l		And let all sleep while, to my shame, I see
l51l		The imminent death of twenty thousand men
l52l		That, for a fantasy and trick of fame,
l53l		Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot
l54l		Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
l55l		Which is not tomb enough and continent
l56l		To hide the slain. O, from this time forth
l57l		My thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth! 
		(Exit)