The Illustrated Works of Shakespeare/Illustrated Works of Shakespeare, The (1990)(Animated Pixels)[!][CDTV-PC].iso/shakes/text/34/03_02

Text File | 1991-04-10 | 20KB | 579 lines

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.