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Illustrated Works of Shakespeare, The (1990)(Animated Pixels)[!][CDTV-PC].iso
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02_02
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1991-04-10
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A Room in the Castle.
Flourish.
Enter KING and QUEEN, ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN, with OTHERS.
King Welcome, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
Moreover that we much did long to see you,
The need we have to use you did provoke
Our hasty sending. Something have you heard
Of Hamlet's transformation; so I call it,
Since nor th' exterior nor the inward man
Resembles that it was. What it should be,
More than his father's death, that thus hath put him
So much from th' understanding of himself,
I cannot dream of. I entreat you both
That, being of so young days brought up with him
And since so neighboured to his youth and haviour,
That you vouchsafe your rest here in our court
Some little time, so by your companies
To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather,
So much as from occasion you may glean,
Whether aught to us unknown afflicts him thus
That, opened, lies within our remedy.
Queen Good gentlemen, he hath much talked of you,
And sure I am two men there is not living
To whom he more adheres. If it will please you
To show us so much gentry and good will
As to expend your time with us a while
For the supply and profit of our hope,
Your visitation shall receive such thanks
As fits a king's remembrance.
Rosencrantz Both your majesties
Might, by the sovereign power you have of us,
Put your dread pleasures more into command
Than to entreaty.
Guildenstern But we both obey,
And here give up ourselves, in the full bent,
To lay our service freely at your feet
To be commanded.
King Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern.
Queen Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz.
And I beseech you instantly to visit
My too much changd son. Go, some of you,
And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is.
Guildenstern Heavens make our presence and our practices
Pleasant and helpful to him!
Queen Ay, amen!
[Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and some OTHERS.
Enter POLONIUS.
Polonius Th' ambassadors from Norway, my good lord,
Are joyfully returned.
King Thou still hast been the father of good news.
Polonius Have I, my lord? Assure you, my good liege,
I hold my duty as I hold my soul,
Both to my God and to my gracious king;
And I do think, or else this brain of mine
Hunts not the trail of policy so sure
As it hath used to do, that I have found
The very cause of Hamlet's lunacy.
King O speak of that; that do I long to hear.
Polonius Give first admittance to th' ambassadors;
My news shall be the fruit to that great feast.
King Thyself do grace to them, and bring them in.
[Exit POLONIUS.
He tells me, my dear Gertrude, he hath found
The head and source of all your son's distemper.
Queen I doubt it is no other but the main,
His father's death and our o'erhasty marriage.
King Well, we shall sift him.
Re-enter POLONIUS, with VOLTEMAND and CORNELIUS.
Welcome, my good friends.
Say, Voltemand, what from our brother Norway?
Voltemand Most fair return of greetings and desires.
Upon our first he sent out to suppress
His nephew's levies, which to him appeared
To be a preparation 'gainst the Polack;
But better looked into, he truly found
It was against your highness; whereat grieved
That so his sickness, age, and impotence
Was falsely borne in hand, sends out arrests
On Fortinbras, which he, in brief, obeys,
Receives rebuke from Norway, and, in fine,
Makes vow before his uncle never more
To give th' assay of arms against your majesty.
Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy,
Gives him three thousand crowns in annual fee
And his commission to employ those soldiers
So levied as before, against the Polack,
With an entreaty, herein further shown,
[Giving a paper.
That it might please you to give quiet pass
Through your dominions for this enterprise,
On such regards of safety and allowance
As therein are set down.
King It likes us well,
And at our more considered time we'll read,
Answer, and think upon this business.
Meantime, we thank you for your well-took labour.
Go to your rest, at night we'll feast together.
Most welcome home.
[Exeunt VOLTEMAND and CORNELIUS.
Polonius This business is well ended.
My liege, and madam, to expostulate
What majesty should be, what duty is,
Why day is day, night night, and time is time,
Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time.
Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief. Your noble son is mad.
Mad call I it, for, to define true madness,
What is't but to be nothing else but mad?
But let that go.
Queen More matter with less art.
Polonius Madam, I swear I use no art at all.
That he is mad 'tis true; 'tis true 'tis pity,
And pity 'tis 'tis true. A foolish figure;
But farewell it, for I will use no art.
Mad let us grant him then; and now remains
That we find out the cause of this effect,
Or rather say the cause of this defect,
For this effect defective comes by cause.
Thus it remains, and the remainder thus.
Perpend.
I have a daughter, have while she is mine,
Who in her duty and obedience, mark,
Hath given me this. Now gather and surmise.
[Reads.] "To the celestial and my soul's idol, the most
beautified Ophelia"-
That's an ill phrase, a vile phrase, 'beautified' is a vile
phrase. But you shall hear-
"These in her excellent white bosom, these".
Queen Came this from Hamlet to her?
Polonius Good madam, stay awhile, I will be faithful.
[Reads.]"Doubt thou the stars are fire,
Doubt that the sun doth move,
Doubt truth to be a liar,
But never doubt I love."
"O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers. I have
not art to reckon my groans; but that I love thee
best, O most best, believe it. Adieu.
Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this
machine is to him,
HAMLET."
This in obedience hath my daughter shown me,
And, more above, hath his solicitings,
As they fell out by time, by means, and place,
All given to mine ear.
King But how hath she
Received his love?
Polonius What do you think of me?
King As of a man faithful and honourable.
Polonius I would fain prove so; but what might you think,
When I had seen this hot love on the wing,
As I perceived it, I must tell you that,
Before my daughter told me, what might you,
Or my dear majesty your queen here, think,
If I had played the desk or table-book,
Or given my heart a winking, mute and dumb,
Or looked upon this love with idle sight,
What might you think? No, I went round to work,
And my young mistress thus I did bespeak:
'Lord Hamlet is a prince out of thy star;
This must not be'. And then I precepts gave her,
That she should lock herself from his resort,
Admit no messengers, receive no tokens;
Which done, she took the fruits of my advice,
And he, repelled - a short tale to make-
Fell into a sadness, then into a fast,
Thence to a watch, thence into a weakness,
Thence to a lightness; and by this declension
Into the madness wherein now he raves,
And all we mourn for.
King Do you think 'tis this?
Queen It may be; very like.
Polonius Hath there been such a time - I'd fain know that-
That I have positively said "'Tis so"
When it proved otherwise?
King Not that I know.
Polonius Take this from this [Indicating his head and shoulder.]
if this be otherwise.
If circumstances lead me, I will find
Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed
Within the centre.
King How may we try it further?
Polonius You know sometimes he walks for hours together
Here in the lobby.
Queen So he does indeed.
Polonius At such a time I'll loose my daughter to him.
Be you and I behind an arras then;
Mark the encounter. If he love her not,
And be not from his reason fall'n thereon,
Let me be no assistant for a state,
But keep a farm and carters.
King We will try it.
Enter HAMLET, reading a book.
Queen But look, where sadly the poor wretch comes reading.
Polonius Away, I do beseech you both, away.
I'll board him presently. O, give me leave.
[Exeunt KING and QUEEN.
How does my good Lord Hamlet?
Hamlet Well, God-a-mercy.
Polonius Do you know me, my lord?
Hamlet Excellent well, you are a fishmonger.
Polonius Not I, my lord.
Hamlet Then I would you were so honest a man.
Polonius Honest, my lord?
Hamlet Ay, sir; to be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man
picked out of ten thousand.
Polonius That's very true, my lord.
Hamlet For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a good
kissing carrion - Have you a daughter?
Polonius I have, my lord.
Hamlet Let her not walk i'th' sun. Conception is a blessing, but
as your daughter may conceive - friend, look to't.
Polonius [Aside.] How say you by that? Still harping on my daughter.
Yet he knew me not at first, a' said I was a fishmonger. A'
is far gone, far gone; and truly, in my youth I suffered
much extremity for love; very near this. I'll speak to him
again. What do you read, my lord?
Hamlet Words, words, words.
Polonius What is the matter, my lord?
Hamlet Between who?
Polonius I mean, the matter that you read, my lord.
Hamlet Slanders, sir; for the satirical rogue says here that old
men have grey beards, that their faces are wrinkled, their
eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree gum, and that they
have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams.
All which, sir, though I most powerfully and potently
believe, yet I hold it not honesty to have it thus set
down; for yourself, sir, shall be old as I am, if, like a
crab, you could go backward.
Polonius [Aside.] Though this be madness, yet there is method in't.
[To HAMLET.] Will you walk out of the air, my lord?
Hamlet Into my grave.
Polonius Indeed, that's out of the air.
[Aside.] How pregnant sometimes his replies are! A
happiness that often madness hits on, which reason and
sanity could not so prosperously be delivered of. I will
leave him, and suddenly contrive the means of meeting
between him and my daughter.
[To HAMLET.] My lord, I will take my leave of you.
Hamlet You cannot, sir, take from me anything that I will not more
willingly part withal-except my life, except my life, my
life.
Polonius Fare you well, my lord.
[Going.
Hamlet These tedious old fools!
Re-enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.
Polonius You go to seek the Lord Hamlet; there he is.
Rosencrantz [To POLONIUS.] God save you, sir.
[Exit POLONIUS.
Guildenstern Mine honoured lord!
Rosencrantz My most dear lord!
Hamlet My excellent good friends. How dost thou, Guildenstern? Ah,
Rosencrantz.-Good lads, how do you both?
Rosencrantz As the indifferent children of the earth.
Guildenstern Happy, in that we are not overhappy;
On Fortune's cap we are not the very button.
Hamlet Nor the soles of her shoe?
Rosencrantz Neither, my lord.
Hamlet Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of her
favours.
Guildenstern Faith, her privates we.
Hamlet In the secret parts of Fortune? O, most true, she is a
strumpet. What news?
Rosencrantz None, my lord, but the world's grown honest.
Hamlet Then is doomsday near. But your news is not true. Let me
question more in particular. What have you, my good
friends, deserved at the hands of Fortune, that she sends
you to prison hither?
Guildenstern Prison, my lord?
Hamlet Denmark's a prison.
Rosencrantz Then is the world one.
Hamlet A goodly one, in which there are many confines, wards, and
dungeons; Denmark being one o'th' worst.
Rosencrantz We think not so, my lord.
Hamlet Why, then 'tis none to you, for there is nothing either
good or bad but thinking makes it so. To me it is a prison.
Rosencrantz Why, then your ambition makes it one; 'tis too narrow for
your mind.
Hamlet O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a
king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.
Guildenstern Which dreams indeed are ambition; for the very substance of
the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.
Hamlet A dream itself is but a shadow.
Rosencrantz Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality
that it is but a shadow's shadow.
Hamlet Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and
outstretched heroes the beggars' shadows. Shall we to th'
court? For, by my fay, I cannot reason.
Rosencrantz &
Guildenstern We'll wait upon you.
Hamlet No such matter. I will not sort you with the rest of my
servants, for, to speak to you like an honest man, I am
most dreadfully attended. But, in the beaten way of
friendship, what make you at Elsinore?
Rosencrantz To visit you, my lord; no other occasion.
Hamlet Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks, but I thank
you; and sure, dear friends, my thanks are too dear a
halfpenny. Were you not sent for? Is it your own inclining?
Is it a free visitation? Come, come, deal justly with me.
Come, come. Nay, speak.
Guildenstern What should we say, my lord?
Hamlet Why, anything-but to th' purpose. You were sent for, and
there is a kind of confession in your looks which your
modesties have not craft enough to colour. I know the good
king and queen have sent for you.
Rosencrantz To what end, my lord?
Hamlet That you must teach me. But let me conjure you by the
rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy of our youth,
by the obligation of our ever-preserved love, and by what
more dear a better proposer could charge you withal, be
even and direct with me, whether you were sent for or no.
Rosencrantz [Aside to GUILDENSTERN.] What say you?
Hamlet [Aside.] Nay then, I have an eye of you. If you love me,
hold not off.
Guildenstern My lord, we were sent for.
Hamlet I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation prevent your
discovery, and your secrecy to the king and queen moult no
feather. I have of late - but wherefore I know not - lost
all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises; and indeed
it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly
frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this
most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave
o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with
golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me but a
foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What piece of
work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in
faculty, in form and moving how express and admirable, in
action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god -
the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals! And yet,
to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not
me, no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem
to say so.
Rosencrantz My lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts.
Hamlet Why did ye laugh then, when I said 'man delights not me'?
Rosencrantz To think, my lord, if you delight not in man what lenten
entertainment the players shall receive from you. We coted
them on the way; and hither are they coming to offer you
service.
Hamlet He that plays the king shall be welcome; his majesty shall
have tribute of me; the adventurous knight shall use his
foil and target; the lover shall not sigh gratis; the
humorous man shall end his part in peace; the clown shall
make those laugh whose lungs are tickle a'th' sere; and the
lady shall say her mind freely, or the blank verse shall
halt for't. What players are they?
Rosencrantz Even those you were wont to take such delight in, the
tragedians of the city.
Hamlet How chances it they travel? Their residence, both in
reputation and profit, was better both ways.
Rosencrantz I think their inhibition comes by the means of the late
innovation.
Hamlet Do they hold the same estimation they did when I was in the
city? Are they so followed?
Rosencrantz No, indeed, are they not.
Hamlet How comes it? Do they grow rusty?
Rosencrantz Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace; but there
is, sir, an eyrie of children, little eyases, that cry out
on the top of question and are most tyrannically clapped
for't. These are now the fashion, and so berattle the
common stages - so they call them - that many wearing
rapiers are afraid of goose-quills, and dare scarce come
thither.
Hamlet What, are they children? Who maintains 'em? How are they
escoted? Will they pursue the quality no longer than they
can sing? Will they not say afterwards, if they should grow
themselves to common players - as it is most like, if their
means are no better - their writers do them wrong to make
them exclaim against their own succession?
Rosencrantz Faith, there has been much to-do on both sides, and the
nation holds it no sin to tarre them to controversy. There
was for a while no money bid for argument unless the poet
and the player went to cuffs in the question.
Hamlet Is't possible?
Guildenstern O, there has been much throwing about of brains.
Hamlet Do the boys carry it away?
Rosencrantz Ay, that they do, my lord; Hercules and his load too.
Hamlet It is not very strange; for my uncle is King of Denmark,
and those that would make mouths at him while my father
lived give twenty, forty, fifty, a hundred ducats apiece
for his picture in little. 'Sblood, there is something in
this more than natural, if philosophy could find it out.
[Flourish of trumpets within.
Guildenstern There are the players.
Hamlet Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands, come
then. The appurtenance of welcome is fashion and ceremony.
Let me comply with you in this garb, lest my extent to the
players, which, I tell you, must show fairly outward,
should more appear like entertainment than yours. You are
welcome. But my uncle-father and aunt-mother are deceived.
Guildenstern In what, my dear lord?
Hamlet I am but mad north-north-west; when the wind is southerly I
know a hawk from a handsaw.
Re-enter POLONIUS.
Polonius Well be with you, gentlemen.
Hamlet Hark you, Guildenstern, and you too - at each ear a hearer
- that great baby you see there is not yet out of his
swaddling clouts.
Rosencrantz Haply he's the second time come to them, for they say an
old man is twice a child.
Hamlet I will prophesy he comes to tell me of the players; mark
it. - You say right, sir, a' Monday morning; 'twas then
indeed.
Polonius My lord, I have news to tell you.
Hamlet My lord, I have news to tell you. When Roscius was an actor
in Rome-
Polonius The actors are come hither, my lord.
Hamlet Buzz, buzz.
Polonius Upon my honour.
Hamlet Then came each actor on his ass.
Polonius The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy,
history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral,
tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral,
scene individable, or poem unlimited. Seneca cannot be too
heavy, nor Plautus too light. For the law of writ and the
liberty, these are the only men.
Hamlet O Jephthah, judge of Israel, what a treasure hadst thou!
Polonius What a treasure had he, my lord?
Hamlet Why,
'One fair daughter, and no more,
The which he lovd passing well'.
Polonius [Aside.] Still on my daughter.
Hamlet Am I not i'th' right, old Jephthah?
Polonius If you call me Jephthah, my lord, I have a daughter that I
love passing well.
Hamlet Nay, that follows not.
Polonius What follows then, my lord?
Hamlet Why,
'As by lot, God wot,'
and then you know,
'It came to pass as most like it was'-
The first row of the pious chanson will show you more, for
look where my abridgement comes.
Enter THE PLAYERS.
You are welcome, masters, welcome all. I am glad to see
thee well. Welcome, good friends. O, my old friend! Thy
face is valanced since I saw thee last; com'st thou to
beard me in Denmark? What, my young lady and mistress!
By'rlady, your ladyship is nearer heaven than when I saw
you last by the altitude of a chopine. Pray God your voice,
like a piece of uncurrent gold, be not cracked within the
ring. Masters, you are all welcome. We'll e'en to't like
French falconers, fly at anything we see. We'll have a
speech straight. Come, give us a taste of your quality.
Come, a passionate speech.
1st Player What speech, my good lord?
Hamlet I heard thee speak me a speech once, but it was never
acted, or, if it was, not above once; for the play, I
remember, pleased not the million; 'twas caviare to the
general. But it was - as I received it, and others whose
judgements in such matters cried in the top of mine - an
excellent play, well digested in the scenes, set down with
as much modesty as cunning. I remember one said there were
no sallets in the lines to make the matter savoury, nor no
matter in the phrase that might indict the author of
affectation, but called it an honest method, as wholesome
as sweet, and by very much more handsome than fine. One
speech in it I chiefly loved - 'twas Aeneas' tale to Dido,
and thereabout of it especially when he speaks of Priam's
slaughter. If it live in your memory, begin at this line: -
let me see, let me see:
"The rugged Pyrrhus, like th' Hyrcanian beast"-
'tis not so; it begins with Pyrrhus-
"The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms,
Black as his purpose, did the night resemble
When he lay couchd in the ominous horse,
Hath now this dread and black complexion smeared
With heraldry more dismal; head to foot
Now is he total gules, horridly tricked
With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons,
Baked and impasted with the parching streets,
That lend a tyrannous and a damnd light
To their lord's murder. Roasted in wrath and fire,
And thus o'ersizd with coagulate gore,
With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus
Old grandsire Priam seeks."
So, proceed you.
Polonius Fore God, my lord, well spoken, with good accent and good
discretion.
1st Player "Anon he finds him
Striking too short at Greeks; his antique sword,
Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls,
Repugnant to command. Unequal matched,
Pyrrhus at Priam drives, in rage strikes wide;
But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword
Th' unnervd father falls. Then senseless Ilium,
Seeming to feel this blow, with flaming top
Stoops to his base, and with a hideous crash
Takes prisoner Pyrrhus' ear; for lo, his sword,
Which was declining on the milky head
Of reverend Priam, seemed i'th' air to stick;
So, as a painted tyrant, Pyrrhus stood,
And, like a neutral to his will and matter,
Did nothing.
But as we often see against some storm
A silence in the heavens, the rack stand still,
The bold winds speechless, and the orb below
As hush as death, anon the dreadful thunder
Doth rend the region; so, after Pyrrhus' pause,
A rousd vengeance sets him new a-work;
And never did the Cyclops' hammers fall
On Mars's armour, forged for proof eterne,
With less remorse than Pyrrhus' bleeding sword
Now falls on Priam.
Out, out, thou strumpet, Fortune! All you gods
In general synod take away her power,
Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel,
And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven
As low as to the fiends!"
Polonius This is too long.
Hamlet It shall to th' barber's, with your beard. Prithee say on.
He's for a jig or a tale of bawdry, or he sleeps. Say on,
come to Hecuba.
1st Player "But who, O who had seen the mobled queen-"
Hamlet 'The mobled queen?'
Polonius That's good, 'mobled queen' is good.
1st Player "Run barefoot up and down, threat'ning the flames
With bisson rheum, a clout upon that head
Where late the diadem stood, and for a robe,
About her lank and all o'erteemd loins,
A blanket, in th' alarm of fear caught up:-
Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steeped
Gainst Fortune's state would treason have pronounced;
But if the gods themselves did see her then,
When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport
In mincing with his sword her husband's limbs,
The instant burst of clamour that she made,
Unless things mortal move them not at all,
Would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven,
And passion in the gods."
Polonius Look, whe'er he has not turned his colour, and has tears
in's eyes. Prithee no more.
Hamlet 'Tis well; I'll have thee speak out the rest of this soon.
[To POLONIUS.] Good my lord, will you see the players well
bestowed? Do you hear? - let them be well used, for they
are the abstract and brief chronicles of the time. After
your death you were better have a bad epitaph than their
ill report while you live.
Polonius My lord, I will use them according to their desert.
Hamlet God's bodykins, man, much better. Use every man after his
desert, and who should 'scape whipping? Use them after your
own honour and dignity; the less they deserve, the more
merit is in your bounty. Take them in.
Polonius Come, sirs.
[Exit.
Hamlet Follow him, friends. We'll hear a play tomorrow.
[To 1st PLAYER.] Dost thou hear me, old friend; can you
play the Murder of Gonzago?
1st Player Ay, my lord.
Hamlet We'll ha't tomorrow night. You could, for a need, study a
speech of some dozen or sixteen lines which I would set
down and insert in't, could you not?
1st Player Ay, my lord.
Hamlet Very well. Follow that lord, and look you mock him not.
[Exeunt PLAYERS.
My good friends, I'll leave you till night. You are welcome
to Elsinore.
Rosencrantz Good my lord!
[Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.
Hamlet Ay, so, God-buy to you. Now I am alone.
O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!
Is it not monstrous that this player here,
But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
Could force his soul so to his own conceit
That from her working all this visage wanned,
Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect,
A broken voice, and his whole function suiting
With forms to his conceit? And all for nothing!
For Hecuba!
What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,
That he should weep for her? What would he do
Had he the motive and the cue for passion
That I have? He would drown the stage with tears
And cleave the general ear with horrid speech,
Make mad the guilty, and appal the free,
Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed
The very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet I,
A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak
Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause,
And can say nothing - no, not for a king
Upon whose property and most dear life
A damned defeat was made. Am I a coward?
Who calls me villain, breaks my pate across,
Plucks off my beard and blows it in my face,
Tweaks me by th' nose, gives me the lie i'th' throat
As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this?
Ha! 'Swounds, I should take it; for it cannot be
But I am pigeon-livered, and lack gall
To make oppression bitter, or ere this
I should-a fatted all the region kites
With this slave's offal. Bloody, bawdy villain!
Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!
O, vengeance!
Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave,
That I, the son of a dear father murdered,
Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,
Must like a whore unpack my heart with words,
And fall a-cursing like a very drab,
A scullion! Fie upon't! Foh!
About, my brains. Hum, I have heard
That guilty creatures sitting at a play
Have, by the very cunning of the scene,
Been struck so to the soul that presently
They have proclaimed their malefactions;
For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
With most miraculous organ. I'll have these players
Play something like the murder of my father
Before mine uncle. I'll observe his looks,
I'll tent him to the quick. If he do blench,
I know my course. The spirit that I have seen
May be a devil, and the devil hath power
T' assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps
Out of my weakness and my melancholy,
As he is very potent with such spirits,
Abuses me to damn me. I'll have grounds
More relative than this. The play's the thing
Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.
[Exit.