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Posted to commits@beam.apache.org by ke...@apache.org on 2018/03/07 20:11:34 UTC
[beam] 01/01: Revert "Merge master into go-sdk"
This is an automated email from the ASF dual-hosted git repository.
kenn pushed a commit to branch revert-4805-go-sdk
in repository https://gitbox.apache.org/repos/asf/beam.git
commit 56515fadc6a9ee433b2f243a75fb4ed036124fc6
Author: Kenn Knowles <ke...@kennknowles.com>
AuthorDate: Tue Mar 6 14:27:07 2018 -0800
Revert "Merge master into go-sdk"
---
pom.xml | 5 +-
sdks/go/README.md | 98 -
sdks/go/cmd/specialize/main.go | 240 -
sdks/go/cmd/symtab/main.go | 101 -
sdks/go/container/Dockerfile | 30 -
sdks/go/container/boot.go | 127 -
sdks/go/container/pom.xml | 154 -
sdks/go/data/haiku/old_pond.txt | 3 -
sdks/go/data/shakespeare/hamlet.txt | 6045 ------
sdks/go/data/shakespeare/kinglear-hashtag.txt | 5525 -----
sdks/go/data/shakespeare/kinglear.txt | 5525 -----
sdks/go/data/shakespeare/romeoandjuliet.txt | 4766 -----
.../examples/complete/autocomplete/autocomplete.go | 71 -
sdks/go/examples/contains/contains.go | 99 -
sdks/go/examples/cookbook/combine/combine.go | 106 -
sdks/go/examples/cookbook/filter/filter.go | 106 -
sdks/go/examples/cookbook/join/join.go | 111 -
sdks/go/examples/cookbook/max/max.go | 88 -
sdks/go/examples/cookbook/tornadoes/tornadoes.go | 119 -
.../debugging_wordcount/debugging_wordcount.go | 163 -
sdks/go/examples/forest/forest.go | 81 -
sdks/go/examples/grades/grades.go | 105 -
.../minimal_wordcount/minimal_wordcount.go | 101 -
sdks/go/examples/pingpong/pingpong.go | 131 -
sdks/go/examples/wordcap/wordcap.go | 75 -
sdks/go/examples/wordcount/wordcount.go | 168 -
sdks/go/examples/yatzy/yatzy.go | 139 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/coder.go | 180 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/coder_test.go | 43 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/combine.go | 78 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/funcx/doc.go | 22 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/funcx/fn.go | 427 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/funcx/fn_test.go | 224 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/funcx/output.go | 76 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/funcx/output_test.go | 48 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/funcx/sideinput.go | 100 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/funcx/sideinput_test.go | 70 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/funcx/signature.go | 212 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/funcx/signature_test.go | 212 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/graph/bind.go | 325 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/graph/bind_test.go | 207 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/graph/coder/coder.go | 298 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/graph/coder/int.go | 71 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/graph/coder/int_test.go | 88 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/graph/coder/time.go | 44 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/graph/coder/varint.go | 98 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/graph/coder/varint_test.go | 94 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/graph/doc.go | 22 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/graph/edge.go | 397 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/graph/fn.go | 304 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/graph/graph.go | 126 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/graph/graph_test.go | 68 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/graph/node.go | 70 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/graph/scope.go | 39 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/graph/window/window.go | 71 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/coderx/int.go | 98 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/coderx/varint.go | 139 -
.../go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/coderx/varint_test.go | 84 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/exec/coder.go | 319 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/exec/cogbk.go | 171 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/exec/combine.go | 257 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/exec/combine_test.go | 67 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/exec/datasink.go | 90 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/exec/datasource.go | 203 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/exec/decode.go | 102 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/exec/discard.go | 53 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/exec/emit.go | 126 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/exec/encode.go | 102 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/exec/flatten.go | 75 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/exec/flatten_test.go | 49 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/exec/fn.go | 201 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/exec/fn_test.go | 256 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/exec/fullvalue.go | 145 -
.../pkg/beam/core/runtime/exec/fullvalue_test.go | 72 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/exec/input.go | 188 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/exec/multiplex.go | 62 -
.../pkg/beam/core/runtime/exec/multiplex_test.go | 55 -
.../beam/core/runtime/exec/optimized/callers.go | 632 -
.../beam/core/runtime/exec/optimized/callers.tmpl | 69 -
.../beam/core/runtime/exec/optimized/decoders.go | 2407 ---
.../beam/core/runtime/exec/optimized/decoders.tmpl | 146 -
.../beam/core/runtime/exec/optimized/emitters.go | 14215 -------------
.../beam/core/runtime/exec/optimized/emitters.tmpl | 112 -
.../beam/core/runtime/exec/optimized/encoders.go | 2299 --
.../beam/core/runtime/exec/optimized/encoders.tmpl | 146 -
.../go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/exec/optimized/gen.go | 27 -
.../pkg/beam/core/runtime/exec/optimized/inputs.go | 21272 -------------------
.../beam/core/runtime/exec/optimized/inputs.tmpl | 181 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/exec/pardo.go | 193 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/exec/pardo_test.go | 97 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/exec/plan.go | 153 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/exec/status.go | 27 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/exec/translate.go | 433 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/exec/unit.go | 75 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/exec/unit_test.go | 111 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/exec/util.go | 72 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/graphx/coder.go | 415 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/graphx/coder_test.go | 107 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/graphx/cogbk.go | 108 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/graphx/doc.go | 29 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/graphx/serialize.go | 962 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/graphx/translate.go | 402 -
.../pkg/beam/core/runtime/graphx/translate_test.go | 90 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/graphx/tree.go | 121 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/graphx/user.go | 110 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/graphx/v1/gen.go | 18 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/graphx/v1/v1.pb.go | 821 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/graphx/v1/v1.proto | 232 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/harness/datamgr.go | 308 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/harness/gen.go | 18 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/harness/harness.go | 291 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/harness/init/init.go | 116 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/harness/logging.go | 151 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/harness/session.go | 215 -
.../go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/harness/session.proto | 69 -
.../core/runtime/harness/session/session.pb.go | 444 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/init.go | 44 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/options.go | 91 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/options_test.go | 49 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/symbols.go | 93 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/types.go | 62 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/runtime/types_test.go | 74 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/typex/class.go | 174 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/typex/class_test.go | 104 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/typex/fulltype.go | 400 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/typex/fulltype_test.go | 125 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/typex/special.go | 74 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/util/dot/dot.go | 130 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/util/ioutilx/read.go | 42 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/util/protox/any.go | 101 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/util/protox/any_test.go | 83 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/util/protox/base64.go | 50 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/util/protox/protox.go | 28 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/util/protox/query.go | 45 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/util/reflectx/call.go | 120 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/util/reflectx/calls.go | 1341 --
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/util/reflectx/calls.tmpl | 72 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/util/reflectx/functions.go | 45 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/util/reflectx/json.go | 32 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/util/reflectx/tags.go | 74 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/util/reflectx/types.go | 111 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/util/symtab/symtab.go | 127 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/create.go | 108 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/create_test.go | 47 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/doc.go | 67 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/encoding.go | 148 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/external.go | 64 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/flatten.go | 72 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/forward.go | 94 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/gbk.go | 104 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/impulse.go | 46 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/io/bigqueryio/bigquery.go | 241 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/io/bigqueryio/bigquery_test.go | 38 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/io/textio/filesystem.go | 49 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/io/textio/gcs/gcs.go | 130 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/io/textio/local/local.go | 55 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/io/textio/textio.go | 207 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/log/log.go | 183 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/log/standard.go | 37 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/option.go | 72 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/options/gcpopts/options.go | 38 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/pardo.go | 314 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/partition.go | 124 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/partition_test.go | 155 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/pcollection.go | 90 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/pipeline.go | 87 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/runner.go | 51 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/runners/dataflow/dataflow.go | 367 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/runners/dataflow/messages.go | 174 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/runners/dataflow/translate.go | 448 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/runners/direct/buffer.go | 165 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/runners/direct/direct.go | 274 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/runners/direct/gbk.go | 135 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/runners/direct/impulse.go | 61 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/runners/dot/dot.go | 55 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/runners/session/session.go | 337 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/testing/passert/passert.go | 214 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/testing/ptest/ptest.go | 59 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/transforms/filter/distinct.go | 44 -
.../go/pkg/beam/transforms/filter/distinct_test.go | 70 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/transforms/filter/filter.go | 95 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/transforms/filter/filter_test.go | 90 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/transforms/stats/count.go | 34 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/transforms/stats/count_test.go | 69 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/transforms/stats/max.go | 44 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/transforms/stats/max_switch.go | 138 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/transforms/stats/max_switch.tmpl | 40 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/transforms/stats/max_test.go | 134 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/transforms/stats/mean.go | 91 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/transforms/stats/mean_test.go | 121 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/transforms/stats/min.go | 44 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/transforms/stats/min_switch.go | 138 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/transforms/stats/min_switch.tmpl | 40 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/transforms/stats/min_test.go | 121 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/transforms/stats/sum.go | 44 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/transforms/stats/sum_switch.go | 102 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/transforms/stats/sum_switch.tmpl | 37 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/transforms/stats/sum_test.go | 117 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/transforms/stats/util.go | 48 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/transforms/top/top.go | 180 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/transforms/top/top_test.go | 126 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/util.go | 117 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/util/gcsx/gcs.go | 40 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/util/grpcx/dial.go | 12 +-
sdks/go/pkg/beam/util/syscallx/syscall.go | 6 +-
sdks/go/pkg/beam/util/syscallx/syscall_default.go | 4 +-
sdks/go/pkg/beam/validate.go | 79 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/x/beamx/run.go | 41 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/x/debug/head.go | 68 -
sdks/go/pkg/beam/x/debug/print.go | 97 -
sdks/go/pom.xml | 8 -
211 files changed, 10 insertions(+), 89934 deletions(-)
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 42ac08a..a2d034f 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -1725,10 +1725,7 @@
<!-- proto/grpc generated wrappers -->
<exclude>**/apache_beam/portability/api/*_pb2*.py</exclude>
- <exclude>**/go/pkg/beam/**/*.pb.go</exclude>
-
- <!-- Ignore Go test data files-->
- <exclude>**/go/data/**</exclude>
+ <exclude>**/go/pkg/beam/model/**/*.pb.go</exclude>
<!-- VCF test files -->
<exclude>**/apache_beam/testing/data/vcf/*</exclude>
diff --git a/sdks/go/README.md b/sdks/go/README.md
deleted file mode 100644
index ed0a669..0000000
--- a/sdks/go/README.md
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,98 +0,0 @@
-<!--
- Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
- or more contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file
- distributed with this work for additional information
- regarding copyright ownership. The ASF licenses this file
- to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
- "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
- with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
-
- http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
-
- Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
- software distributed under the License is distributed on an
- "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
- KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the
- specific language governing permissions and limitations
- under the License.
--->
-
-# Go SDK (experimental)
-
-The Go SDK is currently an experimental feature of Apache Beam and
-not suitable for production use. It is based on the following initial
-[design](https://s.apache.org/beam-go-sdk-design-rfc).
-
-## How to run the examples
-
-**Prerequisites**: to use Google Cloud sources and sinks (default for
-most examples), follow the setup
-[here](https://beam.apache.org/documentation/runners/dataflow/). You can
-verify that it works by running the corresponding Java example.
-
-The examples are normal Go programs and are most easily run directly. They
-are parameterized by Go flags. For example, to run wordcount do:
-
-```
-$ pwd
-[...]/sdks/go
-$ go run examples/wordcount/wordcount.go --output=/tmp/result.txt
-2017/12/05 10:46:37 Pipeline:
-2017/12/05 10:46:37 Nodes: {1: W<[]uint8>/GW/W<bytes>!GW}
-{2: W<string>/GW/W<bytes>!GW}
-{3: W<string>/GW/W<bytes>!GW}
-{4: W<string>/GW/W<bytes>!GW}
-{5: W<string>/GW/W<bytes>!GW}
-{6: W<KV<string,int>>/GW/W<KV<bytes,int[json]>>!GW}
-{7: W<GBK<string,int>>/GW/W<GBK<bytes,int[json]>>!GW}
-{8: W<KV<string,int>>/GW/W<KV<bytes,int[json]>>!GW}
-{9: W<string>/GW/W<bytes>!GW}
-Edges: 1: Impulse [] -> [Out: W<[]uint8> -> {1: W<[]uint8>/GW/W<bytes>!GW}]
-2: ParDo [In(Main): W<[]uint8> <- {1: W<[]uint8>/GW/W<bytes>!GW}] -> [Out: W<T> -> {2: W<string>/GW/W<bytes>!GW}]
-3: ParDo [In(Main): W<string> <- {2: W<string>/GW/W<bytes>!GW}] -> [Out: W<string> -> {3: W<string>/GW/W<bytes>!GW}]
-4: ParDo [In(Main): W<string> <- {3: W<string>/GW/W<bytes>!GW}] -> [Out: W<string> -> {4: W<string>/GW/W<bytes>!GW}]
-5: ParDo [In(Main): W<string> <- {4: W<string>/GW/W<bytes>!GW}] -> [Out: W<string> -> {5: W<string>/GW/W<bytes>!GW}]
-6: ParDo [In(Main): W<T> <- {5: W<string>/GW/W<bytes>!GW}] -> [Out: W<KV<T,int>> -> {6: W<KV<string,int>>/GW/W<KV<bytes,int[json]>>!GW}]
-7: GBK [In(Main): KV<T,U> <- {6: W<KV<string,int>>/GW/W<KV<bytes,int[json]>>!GW}] -> [Out: GBK<T,U> -> {7: W<GBK<string,int>>/GW/W<GBK<bytes,int[json]>>!GW}]
-8: Combine [In(Main): W<int> <- {7: W<GBK<string,int>>/GW/W<GBK<bytes,int[json]>>!GW}] -> [Out: W<KV<string,int>> -> {8: W<KV<string,int>>/GW/W<KV<bytes,int[json]>>!GW}]
-9: ParDo [In(Main): W<KV<string,int>> <- {8: W<KV<string,int>>/GW/W<KV<bytes,int[json]>>!GW}] -> [Out: W<string> -> {9: W<string>/GW/W<bytes>!GW}]
-10: ParDo [In(Main): W<string> <- {9: W<string>/GW/W<bytes>!GW}] -> []
-2017/12/05 10:46:37 Execution units:
-2017/12/05 10:46:37 1: Impulse[0]
-2017/12/05 10:46:37 2: ParDo[beam.createFn] Out:[3]
-2017/12/05 10:46:37 3: ParDo[textio.expandFn] Out:[4]
-2017/12/05 10:46:37 4: ParDo[textio.readFn] Out:[5]
-2017/12/05 10:46:37 5: ParDo[main.extractFn] Out:[6]
-2017/12/05 10:46:37 6: ParDo[stats.mapFn] Out:[7]
-2017/12/05 10:46:37 7: GBK. Out:8
-2017/12/05 10:46:37 8: Combine[stats.sumIntFn] Keyed:true (Use:false) Out:[9]
-2017/12/05 10:46:37 9: ParDo[main.formatFn] Out:[10]
-2017/12/05 10:46:37 10: ParDo[textio.writeFileFn] Out:[]
-2017/12/05 10:46:37 Reading from gs://apache-beam-samples/shakespeare/kinglear.txt
-2017/12/05 10:46:38 Writing to /tmp/result.txt
-```
-
-The debugging output is currently quite verbose and likely to change. The output is a local
-file in this case:
-
-```
-$ head /tmp/result.txt
-while: 2
-darkling: 1
-rail'd: 1
-ford: 1
-bleed's: 1
-hath: 52
-Remain: 1
-disclaim: 1
-sentence: 1
-purse: 6
-```
-
-See [BUILD.md](./BUILD.md) for how to build Go code in general. See
-[CONTAINERS.md](../CONTAINERS.md) for how to build and push the Go
-SDK harness container image.
-
-## Issues
-
-Please use the `sdk-go` component for any bugs or feature requests.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/sdks/go/cmd/specialize/main.go b/sdks/go/cmd/specialize/main.go
deleted file mode 100644
index 6ee82b5..0000000
--- a/sdks/go/cmd/specialize/main.go
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,240 +0,0 @@
-// Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
-// contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
-// this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
-// The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
-// (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
-// the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
-//
-// http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
-//
-// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
-// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
-// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
-// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
-// limitations under the License.
-
-// specialize is a low-level tool to generate type-specialized code. It is a
-// convenience wrapper over text/template suitable for go generate. Unlike
-// many other template tools, it does not parse Go code and allows use of
-// text/template control within the template itself.
-package main
-
-import (
- "bytes"
- "flag"
- "fmt"
- "io/ioutil"
- "log"
- "os"
- "path/filepath"
- "strings"
- "text/template"
-)
-
-var (
- noheader = flag.Bool("noheader", false, "Omit auto-generated header")
- pack = flag.String("package", "", "Package name (optional)")
- imports = flag.String("imports", "", "Comma-separated list of extra imports (optional)")
-
- x = flag.String("x", "", "Comma-separated list of X types (optional)")
- y = flag.String("y", "", "Comma-separated list of Y types (optional)")
- z = flag.String("z", "", "Comma-separated list of Z types (optional)")
-
- input = flag.String("input", "", "Template file.")
- output = flag.String("output", "", "Filename for generated code. If not provided, a file next to the input is generated.")
-)
-
-// Top is the top-level struct to be passed to the template.
-type Top struct {
- // Name is the base form of the filename: "foo/bar.tmpl" -> "bar".
- Name string
- // Package is the package name.
- Package string
- // Imports is a list of custom imports, if provided.
- Imports []string
- // X is the list of X type values.
- X []*X
-}
-
-// X is the concrete type to be iterated over in the user template.
-type X struct {
- // Name is the name of X for use as identifier: "int" -> "Int", "[]byte" -> "ByteSlice".
- Name string
- // Type is the textual type of X: "int", "float32", "foo.Baz".
- Type string
- // Y is the list of Y type values for this X.
- Y []*Y
-}
-
-// Y is the concrete type to be iterated over in the user template for each X.
-// Each combination of X and Y will be present.
-type Y struct {
- // Name is the name of Y for use as identifier: "int" -> "Int", "[]byte" -> "ByteSlice".
- Name string
- // Type is the textual type of Y: "int", "float32", "foo.Baz".
- Type string
- // Z is the list of Z type values for this Y.
- Z []*Z
-}
-
-// Z is the concrete type to be iterated over in the user template for each Y.
-// Each combination of X, Y and Z will be present.
-type Z struct {
- // Name is the name of Z for use as identifier: "int" -> "Int", "[]byte" -> "ByteSlice".
- Name string
- // Type is the textual type of Z: "int", "float32", "foo.Baz".
- Type string
-}
-
-var (
- integers = []string{"int", "int8", "int16", "int32", "int64", "uint", "uint8", "uint16", "uint32", "uint64"}
- floats = []string{"float32", "float64"}
- primitives = append(append([]string{"bool", "string"}, integers...), floats...)
-
- macros = map[string][]string{
- "integers": integers,
- "floats": floats,
- "primitives": primitives,
- "data": append([]string{"[]byte"}, primitives...),
- "universals": {"typex.T", "typex.U", "typex.V", "typex.W", "typex.X", "typex.Y", "typex.Z"},
- }
-
- packageMacros = map[string][]string{
- "typex": {"github.com/apache/beam/sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/typex"},
- }
-)
-
-func usage() {
- fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "Usage: %v [options] --input=<filename.tmpl --x=<types>\n", filepath.Base(os.Args[0]))
- flag.PrintDefaults()
-}
-
-func main() {
- flag.Usage = usage
- flag.Parse()
-
- log.SetFlags(0)
- log.SetPrefix("specialize: ")
-
- if *input == "" {
- flag.Usage()
- log.Fatalf("no template file")
- }
-
- name := filepath.Base(*input)
- if index := strings.Index(name, "."); index > 0 {
- name = name[:index]
- }
- if *output == "" {
- *output = filepath.Join(filepath.Dir(*input), name+".go")
- }
-
- top := Top{Name: name, Package: *pack, Imports: expand(packageMacros, *imports)}
- var ys []*Y
- if *y != "" {
- var zs []*Z
- if *z != "" {
- for _, zt := range expand(macros, *z) {
- zs = append(zs, &Z{Name: makeName(zt), Type: zt})
- }
- }
- for _, yt := range expand(macros, *y) {
- ys = append(ys, &Y{Name: makeName(yt), Type: yt, Z: zs})
- }
- }
- for _, xt := range expand(macros, *x) {
- top.X = append(top.X, &X{Name: makeName(xt), Type: xt, Y: ys})
- }
-
- tmpl, err := template.New(*input).Funcs(funcMap).ParseFiles(*input)
- if err != nil {
- log.Fatalf("template parse failed: %v", err)
- }
- var buf bytes.Buffer
- if !*noheader {
- buf.WriteString("// File generated by specialize. Do not edit.\n\n")
- }
- if err := tmpl.Funcs(funcMap).Execute(&buf, top); err != nil {
- log.Fatalf("specialization failed: %v", err)
- }
- if err := ioutil.WriteFile(*output, buf.Bytes(), 0644); err != nil {
- log.Fatalf("write failed: %v", err)
- }
-}
-
-// expand parses, cleans up and expands macros for a comma-separated list.
-func expand(subst map[string][]string, list string) []string {
- var ret []string
- for _, xt := range strings.Split(list, ",") {
- xt = strings.TrimSpace(xt)
- if xt == "" {
- continue
- }
- if exp, ok := subst[strings.ToLower(xt)]; ok {
- for _, t := range exp {
- ret = append(ret, t)
- }
- continue
- }
- ret = append(ret, xt)
- }
- return ret
-}
-
-// makeName creates a capitalized identifier from a type.
-func makeName(t string) string {
- if strings.HasPrefix(t, "[]") {
- return makeName(t[2:] + "Slice")
- }
-
- t = strings.Replace(t, ".", "_", -1)
- t = strings.Replace(t, "[", "_", -1)
- t = strings.Replace(t, "]", "_", -1)
- return strings.Title(t)
-}
-
-// Useful template functions
-
-var funcMap template.FuncMap = map[string]interface{}{
- "join": strings.Join,
- "upto": upto,
- "mkargs": mkargs,
- "mktuple": mktuple,
- "mktuplef": mktuplef,
-}
-
-// mkargs(n, type) returns "<fmt.Sprintf(format, 0)>, .., <fmt.Sprintf(format, n-1)> type".
-// If n is 0, it returns the empty string.
-func mkargs(n int, format, typ string) string {
- if n == 0 {
- return ""
- }
- return fmt.Sprintf("%v %v", mktuplef(n, format), typ)
-}
-
-// mktuple(n, v) returns "v, v, ..., v".
-func mktuple(n int, v string) string {
- var ret []string
- for i := 0; i < n; i++ {
- ret = append(ret, v)
- }
- return strings.Join(ret, ", ")
-}
-
-// mktuplef(n, format) returns "<fmt.Sprintf(format, 0)>, .., <fmt.Sprintf(format, n-1)>"
-func mktuplef(n int, format string) string {
- var ret []string
- for i := 0; i < n; i++ {
- ret = append(ret, fmt.Sprintf(format, i))
- }
- return strings.Join(ret, ", ")
-}
-
-// upto(n) returns []int{0, 1, .., n-1}.
-func upto(i int) []int {
- var ret []int
- for k := 0; k < i; k++ {
- ret = append(ret, k)
- }
- return ret
-}
diff --git a/sdks/go/cmd/symtab/main.go b/sdks/go/cmd/symtab/main.go
deleted file mode 100644
index f4454b2..0000000
--- a/sdks/go/cmd/symtab/main.go
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,101 +0,0 @@
-// Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
-// contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
-// this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
-// The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
-// (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
-// the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
-//
-// http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
-//
-// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
-// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
-// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
-// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
-// limitations under the License.
-
-// Package verifies that functions sym2addr and addr2sym work correctly.
-package main
-
-import (
- "log"
- "os"
- "reflect"
-
- "github.com/apache/beam/sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/funcx"
- "github.com/apache/beam/sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/util/reflectx"
- "github.com/apache/beam/sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/util/symtab"
-)
-
-const (
- name = "main.Increment"
- arg = "calling increment function"
-)
-
-var symbolTable *symtab.SymbolTable
-var counter int64
-var t reflect.Type
-
-// Increment is the function that will be executed by its address.
-// It increments a global var so we can check that it was indeed called.
-func Increment(str string) {
- log.Printf(str)
- counter++
-}
-
-func init() {
- // Registers function in symbol table.
- Increment("adding increment function to symbol table")
- t = reflect.FuncOf([]reflect.Type{reflect.TypeOf(arg)}, []reflect.Type{}, false)
-
- var err error
- // First try the Linux location, since it's the most reliable.
- symbolTable, err = symtab.New("/proc/self/exe")
- if err == nil {
- return
- }
- // For other OS's this works in most cases we need. If it doesn't, log
- // an error and keep going.
- symbolTable, err = symtab.New(os.Args[0])
- if err == nil {
- return
- }
- panic("Can't initialize symbol resolver.")
-}
-
-func main() {
- // Translates function symbol to address.
- addr, err := symbolTable.Sym2Addr(name)
- if err != nil {
- log.Fatalf("error translating function name to address: %v", err)
- return
- }
-
- // Restarts counter and calls increment function by its address.
- counter = 0
- ret, err := funcx.New(reflectx.MakeFunc(reflectx.LoadFunction(addr, t)))
- if err != nil {
- log.Fatalf("error creating function out of address")
- return
- }
- ret.Fn.Call([]interface{}{arg})
-
- // Checks that function was executed.
- if counter != 1 {
- log.Fatalf("error running function 'increment' through its address")
- return
- }
-
- // Translates address back to function symbol.
- symbol, err := symbolTable.Addr2Sym(addr)
- if err != nil {
- log.Fatalf("error translating address to function name")
- return
- }
-
- // Checks that function name is correct.
- if symbol != name {
- log.Fatalf("error verifying translation from address to name")
- return
- }
- log.Printf("success!")
-}
diff --git a/sdks/go/container/Dockerfile b/sdks/go/container/Dockerfile
deleted file mode 100644
index 8fb9764..0000000
--- a/sdks/go/container/Dockerfile
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,30 +0,0 @@
-###############################################################################
-# Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
-# or more contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file
-# distributed with this work for additional information
-# regarding copyright ownership. The ASF licenses this file
-# to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
-# "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
-# with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
-#
-# http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
-#
-# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
-# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
-# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
-# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
-# limitations under the License.
-###############################################################################
-
-FROM debian:stretch
-MAINTAINER "Apache Beam <de...@beam.apache.org>"
-
-RUN apt-get update && \
- DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install -y \
- ca-certificates \
- && \
- rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
-
-ADD target/linux_amd64/boot /opt/apache/beam/
-
-ENTRYPOINT ["/opt/apache/beam/boot"]
diff --git a/sdks/go/container/boot.go b/sdks/go/container/boot.go
deleted file mode 100644
index 5259246..0000000
--- a/sdks/go/container/boot.go
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,127 +0,0 @@
-// Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
-// contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
-// this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
-// The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
-// (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
-// the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
-//
-// http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
-//
-// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
-// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
-// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
-// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
-// limitations under the License.
-
-package main
-
-import (
- "context"
- "flag"
- "io"
- "log"
- "os"
- "path/filepath"
- "strings"
-
- "github.com/apache/beam/sdks/go/pkg/beam/artifact"
- "github.com/apache/beam/sdks/go/pkg/beam/provision"
- "github.com/apache/beam/sdks/go/pkg/beam/util/execx"
- "github.com/apache/beam/sdks/go/pkg/beam/util/grpcx"
-)
-
-var (
- // Contract: https://s.apache.org/beam-fn-api-container-contract.
-
- id = flag.String("id", "", "Local identifier (required).")
- loggingEndpoint = flag.String("logging_endpoint", "", "Local logging endpoint for FnHarness (required).")
- artifactEndpoint = flag.String("artifact_endpoint", "", "Local artifact endpoint for FnHarness (required).")
- provisionEndpoint = flag.String("provision_endpoint", "", "Local provision endpoint for FnHarness (required).")
- controlEndpoint = flag.String("control_endpoint", "", "Local control endpoint for FnHarness (required).")
- semiPersistDir = flag.String("semi_persist_dir", "/tmp", "Local semi-persistent directory (optional).")
-)
-
-func main() {
- flag.Parse()
- if *id == "" {
- log.Fatal("No id provided.")
- }
- if *loggingEndpoint == "" {
- log.Fatal("No logging endpoint provided.")
- }
- if *artifactEndpoint == "" {
- log.Fatal("No artifact endpoint provided.")
- }
- if *provisionEndpoint == "" {
- log.Fatal("No provision endpoint provided.")
- }
- if *controlEndpoint == "" {
- log.Fatal("No control endpoint provided.")
- }
-
- log.Printf("Initializing Go harness: %v", strings.Join(os.Args, " "))
-
- ctx := grpcx.WriteWorkerID(context.Background(), *id)
-
- // (1) Obtain the pipeline options
-
- info, err := provision.Info(ctx, *provisionEndpoint)
- if err != nil {
- log.Fatalf("Failed to obtain provisioning information: %v", err)
- }
- options, err := provision.ProtoToJSON(info.GetPipelineOptions())
- if err != nil {
- log.Fatalf("Failed to convert pipeline options: %v", err)
- }
-
- // (2) Retrieve the staged files.
- //
- // The Go SDK harness downloads the worker binary and invokes
- // it. For now, we assume that the first (and only) package
- // is the binary.
-
- dir := filepath.Join(*semiPersistDir, "staged")
- artifacts, err := artifact.Materialize(ctx, *artifactEndpoint, dir)
- if err != nil {
- log.Fatalf("Failed to retrieve staged files: %v", err)
- }
- if len(artifacts) == 0 {
- log.Fatal("No binaries staged")
- }
-
- // (3) The persist dir may be on a noexec volume, so we must
- // copy the binary to a different location to execute.
-
- prog := filepath.Join("/bin", artifacts[0].Name)
- if err := copyExe(filepath.Join(dir, artifacts[0].Name), prog); err != nil {
- log.Fatalf("Failed to copy binary: %v", err)
- }
-
- args := []string{
- "--worker=true",
- "--id=" + *id,
- "--logging_endpoint=" + *loggingEndpoint,
- "--control_endpoint=" + *controlEndpoint,
- "--semi_persist_dir=" + *semiPersistDir,
- "--options=" + options,
- }
- log.Fatalf("User program exited: %v", execx.Execute(prog, args...))
-}
-
-func copyExe(from, to string) error {
- src, err := os.Open(from)
- if err != nil {
- return err
- }
- defer src.Close()
-
- dst, err := os.OpenFile(to, os.O_WRONLY|os.O_CREATE, 0755)
- if err != nil {
- return err
- }
-
- if _, err := io.Copy(dst, src); err != nil {
- return err
- }
- return dst.Close()
-}
diff --git a/sdks/go/container/pom.xml b/sdks/go/container/pom.xml
deleted file mode 100644
index c70aa63..0000000
--- a/sdks/go/container/pom.xml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,154 +0,0 @@
-<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
-<!--
- Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
- contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
- this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
- The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
- (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
- the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
-
- http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
-
- Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
- distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
- WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
- See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
- limitations under the License.
--->
-<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
- <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
-
- <parent>
- <groupId>org.apache.beam</groupId>
- <artifactId>beam-sdks-go</artifactId>
- <version>2.5.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
- <relativePath>../pom.xml</relativePath>
- </parent>
-
- <artifactId>beam-sdks-go-container</artifactId>
-
- <packaging>pom</packaging>
-
- <name>Apache Beam :: SDKs :: Go :: Container</name>
-
- <properties>
- <!-- Add full path directory structure for 'go get' compatibility -->
- <go.source.base>${project.basedir}/target/src</go.source.base>
- <go.source.dir>${go.source.base}/github.com/apache/beam/sdks/go</go.source.dir>
- </properties>
-
- <build>
- <sourceDirectory>${go.source.base}</sourceDirectory>
- <plugins>
- <plugin>
- <artifactId>maven-resources-plugin</artifactId>
- <executions>
- <execution>
- <id>copy-go-cmd-source</id>
- <phase>generate-sources</phase>
- <goals>
- <goal>copy-resources</goal>
- </goals>
- <configuration>
- <outputDirectory>${go.source.base}/github.com/apache/beam/cmd/boot</outputDirectory>
- <resources>
- <resource>
- <directory>.</directory>
- <includes>
- <include>*.go</include>
- </includes>
- <filtering>false</filtering>
- </resource>
- </resources>
- </configuration>
- </execution>
- </executions>
- </plugin>
-
- <!-- CAVEAT: for latest shared files, run mvn install in sdks/go -->
- <plugin>
- <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
- <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
- <executions>
- <execution>
- <id>copy-dependency</id>
- <phase>generate-sources</phase>
- <goals>
- <goal>unpack</goal>
- </goals>
- <configuration>
- <artifactItems>
- <artifactItem>
- <groupId>org.apache.beam</groupId>
- <artifactId>beam-sdks-go</artifactId>
- <version>${project.version}</version>
- <type>zip</type>
- <classifier>pkg-sources</classifier>
- <overWrite>true</overWrite>
- <outputDirectory>${go.source.dir}</outputDirectory>
- </artifactItem>
- </artifactItems>
- </configuration>
- </execution>
- </executions>
- </plugin>
-
- <plugin>
- <groupId>com.igormaznitsa</groupId>
- <artifactId>mvn-golang-wrapper</artifactId>
- <executions>
- <execution>
- <id>go-get-imports</id>
- <goals>
- <goal>get</goal>
- </goals>
- <phase>compile</phase>
- <configuration>
- <packages>
- <package>google.golang.org/grpc</package>
- <package>golang.org/x/oauth2/google</package>
- <package>google.golang.org/api/storage/v1</package>
- </packages>
- </configuration>
- </execution>
- <execution>
- <id>go-build</id>
- <goals>
- <goal>build</goal>
- </goals>
- <phase>compile</phase>
- <configuration>
- <packages>
- <package>github.com/apache/beam/cmd/boot</package>
- </packages>
- <resultName>boot</resultName>
- </configuration>
- </execution>
- <execution>
- <id>go-build-linux-amd64</id>
- <goals>
- <goal>build</goal>
- </goals>
- <phase>compile</phase>
- <configuration>
- <packages>
- <package>github.com/apache/beam/cmd/boot</package>
- </packages>
- <resultName>linux_amd64/boot</resultName>
- <targetArch>amd64</targetArch>
- <targetOs>linux</targetOs>
- </configuration>
- </execution>
- </executions>
- </plugin>
-
- <plugin>
- <groupId>com.spotify</groupId>
- <artifactId>dockerfile-maven-plugin</artifactId>
- <configuration>
- <repository>${docker-repository-root}/go</repository>
- </configuration>
- </plugin>
- </plugins>
- </build>
-</project>
diff --git a/sdks/go/data/haiku/old_pond.txt b/sdks/go/data/haiku/old_pond.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index edf2e71..0000000
--- a/sdks/go/data/haiku/old_pond.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-old pond
-a frog leaps in
-water's sound
diff --git a/sdks/go/data/shakespeare/hamlet.txt b/sdks/go/data/shakespeare/hamlet.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index b97cab0..0000000
--- a/sdks/go/data/shakespeare/hamlet.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,6045 +0,0 @@
- HAMLET
-
-
- DRAMATIS PERSONAE
-
-
-CLAUDIUS king of Denmark. (KING CLAUDIUS:)
-
-HAMLET son to the late, and nephew to the present king.
-
-POLONIUS lord chamberlain. (LORD POLONIUS:)
-
-HORATIO friend to Hamlet.
-
-LAERTES son to Polonius.
-
-LUCIANUS nephew to the king.
-
-
-VOLTIMAND |
- |
-CORNELIUS |
- |
-ROSENCRANTZ | courtiers.
- |
-GUILDENSTERN |
- |
-OSRIC |
-
-
- A Gentleman, (Gentlemen:)
-
- A Priest. (First Priest:)
-
-
-MARCELLUS |
- | officers.
-BERNARDO |
-
-
-FRANCISCO a soldier.
-
-REYNALDO servant to Polonius.
- Players.
- (First Player:)
- (Player King:)
- (Player Queen:)
-
- Two Clowns, grave-diggers.
- (First Clown:)
- (Second Clown:)
-
-FORTINBRAS prince of Norway. (PRINCE FORTINBRAS:)
-
- A Captain.
-
- English Ambassadors. (First Ambassador:)
-
-GERTRUDE queen of Denmark, and mother to Hamlet.
- (QUEEN GERTRUDE:)
-
-OPHELIA daughter to Polonius.
-
- Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Sailors, Messengers,
- and other Attendants. (Lord:)
- (First Sailor:)
- (Messenger:)
-
- Ghost of Hamlet's Father. (Ghost:)
-
-
-
-SCENE Denmark.
-
-
-
-
- HAMLET
-
-
-ACT I
-
-
-
-SCENE I Elsinore. A platform before the castle.
-
-
- [FRANCISCO at his post. Enter to him BERNARDO]
-
-BERNARDO Who's there?
-
-FRANCISCO Nay, answer me: stand, and unfold yourself.
-
-BERNARDO Long live the king!
-
-FRANCISCO Bernardo?
-
-BERNARDO He.
-
-FRANCISCO You come most carefully upon your hour.
-
-BERNARDO 'Tis now struck twelve; get thee to bed, Francisco.
-
-FRANCISCO For this relief much thanks: 'tis bitter cold,
- And I am sick at heart.
-
-BERNARDO Have you had quiet guard?
-
-FRANCISCO Not a mouse stirring.
-
-BERNARDO Well, good night.
- If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,
- The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.
-
-FRANCISCO I think I hear them. Stand, ho! Who's there?
-
- [Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS]
-
-HORATIO Friends to this ground.
-
-MARCELLUS And liegemen to the Dane.
-
-FRANCISCO Give you good night.
-
-MARCELLUS O, farewell, honest soldier:
- Who hath relieved you?
-
-FRANCISCO Bernardo has my place.
- Give you good night.
-
- [Exit]
-
-MARCELLUS Holla! Bernardo!
-
-BERNARDO Say,
- What, is Horatio there?
-
-HORATIO A piece of him.
-
-BERNARDO Welcome, Horatio: welcome, good Marcellus.
-
-MARCELLUS What, has this thing appear'd again to-night?
-
-BERNARDO I have seen nothing.
-
-MARCELLUS Horatio says 'tis but our fantasy,
- And will not let belief take hold of him
- Touching this dreaded sight, twice seen of us:
- Therefore I have entreated him along
- With us to watch the minutes of this night;
- That if again this apparition come,
- He may approve our eyes and speak to it.
-
-HORATIO Tush, tush, 'twill not appear.
-
-BERNARDO Sit down awhile;
- And let us once again assail your ears,
- That are so fortified against our story
- What we have two nights seen.
-
-HORATIO Well, sit we down,
- And let us hear Bernardo speak of this.
-
-BERNARDO Last night of all,
- When yond same star that's westward from the pole
- Had made his course to illume that part of heaven
- Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself,
- The bell then beating one,--
-
- [Enter Ghost]
-
-MARCELLUS Peace, break thee off; look, where it comes again!
-
-BERNARDO In the same figure, like the king that's dead.
-
-MARCELLUS Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio.
-
-BERNARDO Looks it not like the king? mark it, Horatio.
-
-HORATIO Most like: it harrows me with fear and wonder.
-
-BERNARDO It would be spoke to.
-
-MARCELLUS Question it, Horatio.
-
-HORATIO What art thou that usurp'st this time of night,
- Together with that fair and warlike form
- In which the majesty of buried Denmark
- Did sometimes march? by heaven I charge thee, speak!
-
-MARCELLUS It is offended.
-
-BERNARDO See, it stalks away!
-
-HORATIO Stay! speak, speak! I charge thee, speak!
-
- [Exit Ghost]
-
-MARCELLUS 'Tis gone, and will not answer.
-
-BERNARDO How now, Horatio! you tremble and look pale:
- Is not this something more than fantasy?
- What think you on't?
-
-HORATIO Before my God, I might not this believe
- Without the sensible and true avouch
- Of mine own eyes.
-
-MARCELLUS Is it not like the king?
-
-HORATIO As thou art to thyself:
- Such was the very armour he had on
- When he the ambitious Norway combated;
- So frown'd he once, when, in an angry parle,
- He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice.
- 'Tis strange.
-
-MARCELLUS Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour,
- With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch.
-
-HORATIO In what particular thought to work I know not;
- But in the gross and scope of my opinion,
- This bodes some strange eruption to our state.
-
-MARCELLUS Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that knows,
- Why this same strict and most observant watch
- So nightly toils the subject of the land,
- And why such daily cast of brazen cannon,
- And foreign mart for implements of war;
- Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task
- Does not divide the Sunday from the week;
- What might be toward, that this sweaty haste
- Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day:
- Who is't that can inform me?
-
-HORATIO That can I;
- At least, the whisper goes so. Our last king,
- Whose image even but now appear'd to us,
- Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,
- Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride,
- Dared to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet--
- For so this side of our known world esteem'd him--
- Did slay this Fortinbras; who by a seal'd compact,
- Well ratified by law and heraldry,
- Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands
- Which he stood seized of, to the conqueror:
- Against the which, a moiety competent
- Was gaged by our king; which had return'd
- To the inheritance of Fortinbras,
- Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same covenant,
- And carriage of the article design'd,
- His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras,
- Of unimproved mettle hot and full,
- Hath in the skirts of Norway here and there
- Shark'd up a list of lawless resolutes,
- For food and diet, to some enterprise
- That hath a stomach in't; which is no other--
- As it doth well appear unto our state--
- But to recover of us, by strong hand
- And terms compulsatory, those foresaid lands
- So by his father lost: and this, I take it,
- Is the main motive of our preparations,
- The source of this our watch and the chief head
- Of this post-haste and romage in the land.
-
-BERNARDO I think it be no other but e'en so:
- Well may it sort that this portentous figure
- Comes armed through our watch; so like the king
- That was and is the question of these wars.
-
-HORATIO A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye.
- In the most high and palmy state of Rome,
- A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,
- The graves stood tenantless and the sheeted dead
- Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets:
- As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,
- Disasters in the sun; and the moist star
- Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands
- Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse:
- And even the like precurse of fierce events,
- As harbingers preceding still the fates
- And prologue to the omen coming on,
- Have heaven and earth together demonstrated
- Unto our climatures and countrymen.--
- But soft, behold! lo, where it comes again!
-
- [Re-enter Ghost]
-
- I'll cross it, though it blast me. Stay, illusion!
- If thou hast any sound, or use of voice,
- Speak to me:
- If there be any good thing to be done,
- That may to thee do ease and grace to me,
- Speak to me:
-
- [Cock crows]
-
- If thou art privy to thy country's fate,
- Which, happily, foreknowing may avoid, O, speak!
- Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life
- Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,
- For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death,
- Speak of it: stay, and speak! Stop it, Marcellus.
-
-MARCELLUS Shall I strike at it with my partisan?
-
-HORATIO Do, if it will not stand.
-
-BERNARDO 'Tis here!
-
-HORATIO 'Tis here!
-
-MARCELLUS 'Tis gone!
-
- [Exit Ghost]
-
- We do it wrong, being so majestical,
- To offer it the show of violence;
- For it is, as the air, invulnerable,
- And our vain blows malicious mockery.
-
-BERNARDO It was about to speak, when the cock crew.
-
-HORATIO And then it started like a guilty thing
- Upon a fearful summons. I have heard,
- The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,
- Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat
- Awake the god of day; and, at his warning,
- Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,
- The extravagant and erring spirit hies
- To his confine: and of the truth herein
- This present object made probation.
-
-MARCELLUS It faded on the crowing of the cock.
- Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes
- Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
- The bird of dawning singeth all night long:
- And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad;
- The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
- No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
- So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.
-
-HORATIO So have I heard and do in part believe it.
- But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad,
- Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastward hill:
- Break we our watch up; and by my advice,
- Let us impart what we have seen to-night
- Unto young Hamlet; for, upon my life,
- This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him.
- Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it,
- As needful in our loves, fitting our duty?
-
-MARCELLUS Let's do't, I pray; and I this morning know
- Where we shall find him most conveniently.
-
- [Exeunt]
-
-
-
-
- HAMLET
-
-
-ACT I
-
-
-
-SCENE II A room of state in the castle.
-
-
- [Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, HAMLET,
- POLONIUS, LAERTES, VOLTIMAND, CORNELIUS, Lords,
- and Attendants]
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death
- The memory be green, and that it us befitted
- To bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdom
- To be contracted in one brow of woe,
- Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature
- That we with wisest sorrow think on him,
- Together with remembrance of ourselves.
- Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,
- The imperial jointress to this warlike state,
- Have we, as 'twere with a defeated joy,--
- With an auspicious and a dropping eye,
- With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage,
- In equal scale weighing delight and dole,--
- Taken to wife: nor have we herein barr'd
- Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone
- With this affair along. For all, our thanks.
- Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras,
- Holding a weak supposal of our worth,
- Or thinking by our late dear brother's death
- Our state to be disjoint and out of frame,
- Colleagued with the dream of his advantage,
- He hath not fail'd to pester us with message,
- Importing the surrender of those lands
- Lost by his father, with all bonds of law,
- To our most valiant brother. So much for him.
- Now for ourself and for this time of meeting:
- Thus much the business is: we have here writ
- To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,--
- Who, impotent and bed-rid, scarcely hears
- Of this his nephew's purpose,--to suppress
- His further gait herein; in that the levies,
- The lists and full proportions, are all made
- Out of his subject: and we here dispatch
- You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltimand,
- For bearers of this greeting to old Norway;
- Giving to you no further personal power
- To business with the king, more than the scope
- Of these delated articles allow.
- Farewell, and let your haste commend your duty.
-
-
-CORNELIUS |
- | In that and all things will we show our duty.
-VOLTIMAND |
-
-
-KING CLAUDIUS We doubt it nothing: heartily farewell.
-
- [Exeunt VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS]
-
- And now, Laertes, what's the news with you?
- You told us of some suit; what is't, Laertes?
- You cannot speak of reason to the Dane,
- And loose your voice: what wouldst thou beg, Laertes,
- That shall not be my offer, not thy asking?
- The head is not more native to the heart,
- The hand more instrumental to the mouth,
- Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father.
- What wouldst thou have, Laertes?
-
-LAERTES My dread lord,
- Your leave and favour to return to France;
- From whence though willingly I came to Denmark,
- To show my duty in your coronation,
- Yet now, I must confess, that duty done,
- My thoughts and wishes bend again toward France
- And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Have you your father's leave? What says Polonius?
-
-LORD POLONIUS He hath, my lord, wrung from me my slow leave
- By laboursome petition, and at last
- Upon his will I seal'd my hard consent:
- I do beseech you, give him leave to go.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Take thy fair hour, Laertes; time be thine,
- And thy best graces spend it at thy will!
- But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son,--
-
-HAMLET [Aside] A little more than kin, and less than kind.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS How is it that the clouds still hang on you?
-
-HAMLET Not so, my lord; I am too much i' the sun.
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off,
- And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark.
- Do not for ever with thy vailed lids
- Seek for thy noble father in the dust:
- Thou know'st 'tis common; all that lives must die,
- Passing through nature to eternity.
-
-HAMLET Ay, madam, it is common.
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE If it be,
- Why seems it so particular with thee?
-
-HAMLET Seems, madam! nay it is; I know not 'seems.'
- 'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
- Nor customary suits of solemn black,
- Nor windy suspiration of forced breath,
- No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,
- Nor the dejected 'havior of the visage,
- Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief,
- That can denote me truly: these indeed seem,
- For they are actions that a man might play:
- But I have that within which passeth show;
- These but the trappings and the suits of woe.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS 'Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet,
- To give these mourning duties to your father:
- But, you must know, your father lost a father;
- That father lost, lost his, and the survivor bound
- In filial obligation for some term
- To do obsequious sorrow: but to persever
- In obstinate condolement is a course
- Of impious stubbornness; 'tis unmanly grief;
- It shows a will most incorrect to heaven,
- A heart unfortified, a mind impatient,
- An understanding simple and unschool'd:
- For what we know must be and is as common
- As any the most vulgar thing to sense,
- Why should we in our peevish opposition
- Take it to heart? Fie! 'tis a fault to heaven,
- A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,
- To reason most absurd: whose common theme
- Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried,
- From the first corse till he that died to-day,
- 'This must be so.' We pray you, throw to earth
- This unprevailing woe, and think of us
- As of a father: for let the world take note,
- You are the most immediate to our throne;
- And with no less nobility of love
- Than that which dearest father bears his son,
- Do I impart toward you. For your intent
- In going back to school in Wittenberg,
- It is most retrograde to our desire:
- And we beseech you, bend you to remain
- Here, in the cheer and comfort of our eye,
- Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet:
- I pray thee, stay with us; go not to Wittenberg.
-
-HAMLET I shall in all my best obey you, madam.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Why, 'tis a loving and a fair reply:
- Be as ourself in Denmark. Madam, come;
- This gentle and unforced accord of Hamlet
- Sits smiling to my heart: in grace whereof,
- No jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day,
- But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell,
- And the king's rouse the heavens all bruit again,
- Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come away.
-
- [Exeunt all but HAMLET]
-
-HAMLET O, that this too too solid flesh would melt
- Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!
- Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
- His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!
- How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,
- Seem to me all the uses of this world!
- Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden,
- That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
- Possess it merely. That it should come to this!
- But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two:
- So excellent a king; that was, to this,
- Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother
- That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
- Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!
- Must I remember? why, she would hang on him,
- As if increase of appetite had grown
- By what it fed on: and yet, within a month--
- Let me not think on't--Frailty, thy name is woman!--
- A little month, or ere those shoes were old
- With which she follow'd my poor father's body,
- Like Niobe, all tears:--why she, even she--
- O, God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason,
- Would have mourn'd longer--married with my uncle,
- My father's brother, but no more like my father
- Than I to Hercules: within a month:
- Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
- Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,
- She married. O, most wicked speed, to post
- With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
- It is not nor it cannot come to good:
- But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue.
-
- [Enter HORATIO, MARCELLUS, and BERNARDO]
-
-HORATIO Hail to your lordship!
-
-HAMLET I am glad to see you well:
- Horatio,--or I do forget myself.
-
-HORATIO The same, my lord, and your poor servant ever.
-
-HAMLET Sir, my good friend; I'll change that name with you:
- And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio? Marcellus?
-
-MARCELLUS My good lord--
-
-HAMLET I am very glad to see you. Good even, sir.
- But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg?
-
-HORATIO A truant disposition, good my lord.
-
-HAMLET I would not hear your enemy say so,
- Nor shall you do mine ear that violence,
- To make it truster of your own report
- Against yourself: I know you are no truant.
- But what is your affair in Elsinore?
- We'll teach you to drink deep ere you depart.
-
-HORATIO My lord, I came to see your father's funeral.
-
-HAMLET I pray thee, do not mock me, fellow-student;
- I think it was to see my mother's wedding.
-
-HORATIO Indeed, my lord, it follow'd hard upon.
-
-HAMLET Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral baked meats
- Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.
- Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven
- Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio!
- My father!--methinks I see my father.
-
-HORATIO Where, my lord?
-
-HAMLET In my mind's eye, Horatio.
-
-HORATIO I saw him once; he was a goodly king.
-
-HAMLET He was a man, take him for all in all,
- I shall not look upon his like again.
-
-HORATIO My lord, I think I saw him yesternight.
-
-HAMLET Saw? who?
-
-HORATIO My lord, the king your father.
-
-HAMLET The king my father!
-
-HORATIO Season your admiration for awhile
- With an attent ear, till I may deliver,
- Upon the witness of these gentlemen,
- This marvel to you.
-
-HAMLET For God's love, let me hear.
-
-HORATIO Two nights together had these gentlemen,
- Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch,
- In the dead vast and middle of the night,
- Been thus encounter'd. A figure like your father,
- Armed at point exactly, cap-a-pe,
- Appears before them, and with solemn march
- Goes slow and stately by them: thrice he walk'd
- By their oppress'd and fear-surprised eyes,
- Within his truncheon's length; whilst they, distilled
- Almost to jelly with the act of fear,
- Stand dumb and speak not to him. This to me
- In dreadful secrecy impart they did;
- And I with them the third night kept the watch;
- Where, as they had deliver'd, both in time,
- Form of the thing, each word made true and good,
- The apparition comes: I knew your father;
- These hands are not more like.
-
-HAMLET But where was this?
-
-MARCELLUS My lord, upon the platform where we watch'd.
-
-HAMLET Did you not speak to it?
-
-HORATIO My lord, I did;
- But answer made it none: yet once methought
- It lifted up its head and did address
- Itself to motion, like as it would speak;
- But even then the morning cock crew loud,
- And at the sound it shrunk in haste away,
- And vanish'd from our sight.
-
-HAMLET 'Tis very strange.
-
-HORATIO As I do live, my honour'd lord, 'tis true;
- And we did think it writ down in our duty
- To let you know of it.
-
-HAMLET Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me.
- Hold you the watch to-night?
-
-
-MARCELLUS |
- | We do, my lord.
-BERNARDO |
-
-
-HAMLET Arm'd, say you?
-
-
-MARCELLUS |
- | Arm'd, my lord.
-BERNARDO |
-
-
-HAMLET From top to toe?
-
-
-MARCELLUS |
- | My lord, from head to foot.
-BERNARDO |
-
-
-HAMLET Then saw you not his face?
-
-HORATIO O, yes, my lord; he wore his beaver up.
-
-HAMLET What, look'd he frowningly?
-
-HORATIO A countenance more in sorrow than in anger.
-
-HAMLET Pale or red?
-
-HORATIO Nay, very pale.
-
-HAMLET And fix'd his eyes upon you?
-
-HORATIO Most constantly.
-
-HAMLET I would I had been there.
-
-HORATIO It would have much amazed you.
-
-HAMLET Very like, very like. Stay'd it long?
-
-HORATIO While one with moderate haste might tell a hundred.
-
-
-MARCELLUS |
- | Longer, longer.
-BERNARDO |
-
-
-HORATIO Not when I saw't.
-
-HAMLET His beard was grizzled--no?
-
-HORATIO It was, as I have seen it in his life,
- A sable silver'd.
-
-HAMLET I will watch to-night;
- Perchance 'twill walk again.
-
-HORATIO I warrant it will.
-
-HAMLET If it assume my noble father's person,
- I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape
- And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all,
- If you have hitherto conceal'd this sight,
- Let it be tenable in your silence still;
- And whatsoever else shall hap to-night,
- Give it an understanding, but no tongue:
- I will requite your loves. So, fare you well:
- Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve,
- I'll visit you.
-
-All Our duty to your honour.
-
-HAMLET Your loves, as mine to you: farewell.
-
- [Exeunt all but HAMLET]
-
- My father's spirit in arms! all is not well;
- I doubt some foul play: would the night were come!
- Till then sit still, my soul: foul deeds will rise,
- Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes.
-
- [Exit]
-
-
-
-
- HAMLET
-
-
-ACT I
-
-
-
-SCENE III A room in Polonius' house.
-
-
- [Enter LAERTES and OPHELIA]
-
-LAERTES My necessaries are embark'd: farewell:
- And, sister, as the winds give benefit
- And convoy is assistant, do not sleep,
- But let me hear from you.
-
-OPHELIA Do you doubt that?
-
-LAERTES For Hamlet and the trifling of his favour,
- Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood,
- A violet in the youth of primy nature,
- Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting,
- The perfume and suppliance of a minute; No more.
-
-OPHELIA No more but so?
-
-LAERTES Think it no more;
- For nature, crescent, does not grow alone
- In thews and bulk, but, as this temple waxes,
- The inward service of the mind and soul
- Grows wide withal. Perhaps he loves you now,
- And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch
- The virtue of his will: but you must fear,
- His greatness weigh'd, his will is not his own;
- For he himself is subject to his birth:
- He may not, as unvalued persons do,
- Carve for himself; for on his choice depends
- The safety and health of this whole state;
- And therefore must his choice be circumscribed
- Unto the voice and yielding of that body
- Whereof he is the head. Then if he says he loves you,
- It fits your wisdom so far to believe it
- As he in his particular act and place
- May give his saying deed; which is no further
- Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal.
- Then weigh what loss your honour may sustain,
- If with too credent ear you list his songs,
- Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open
- To his unmaster'd importunity.
- Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister,
- And keep you in the rear of your affection,
- Out of the shot and danger of desire.
- The chariest maid is prodigal enough,
- If she unmask her beauty to the moon:
- Virtue itself 'scapes not calumnious strokes:
- The canker galls the infants of the spring,
- Too oft before their buttons be disclosed,
- And in the morn and liquid dew of youth
- Contagious blastments are most imminent.
- Be wary then; best safety lies in fear:
- Youth to itself rebels, though none else near.
-
-OPHELIA I shall the effect of this good lesson keep,
- As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother,
- Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
- Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven;
- Whiles, like a puff'd and reckless libertine,
- Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
- And recks not his own rede.
-
-LAERTES O, fear me not.
- I stay too long: but here my father comes.
-
- [Enter POLONIUS]
-
- A double blessing is a double grace,
- Occasion smiles upon a second leave.
-
-LORD POLONIUS Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard, for shame!
- The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,
- And you are stay'd for. There; my blessing with thee!
- And these few precepts in thy memory
- See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
- Nor any unproportioned thought his act.
- Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
- Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
- Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
- But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
- Of each new-hatch'd, unfledged comrade. Beware
- Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,
- Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee.
- Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
- Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
- Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
- But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
- For the apparel oft proclaims the man,
- And they in France of the best rank and station
- Are of a most select and generous chief in that.
- Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
- For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
- And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
- This above all: to thine ownself be true,
- And it must follow, as the night the day,
- Thou canst not then be false to any man.
- Farewell: my blessing season this in thee!
-
-LAERTES Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord.
-
-LORD POLONIUS The time invites you; go; your servants tend.
-
-LAERTES Farewell, Ophelia; and remember well
- What I have said to you.
-
-OPHELIA 'Tis in my memory lock'd,
- And you yourself shall keep the key of it.
-
-LAERTES Farewell.
-
- [Exit]
-
-LORD POLONIUS What is't, Ophelia, be hath said to you?
-
-OPHELIA So please you, something touching the Lord Hamlet.
-
-LORD POLONIUS Marry, well bethought:
- 'Tis told me, he hath very oft of late
- Given private time to you; and you yourself
- Have of your audience been most free and bounteous:
- If it be so, as so 'tis put on me,
- And that in way of caution, I must tell you,
- You do not understand yourself so clearly
- As it behoves my daughter and your honour.
- What is between you? give me up the truth.
-
-OPHELIA He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders
- Of his affection to me.
-
-LORD POLONIUS Affection! pooh! you speak like a green girl,
- Unsifted in such perilous circumstance.
- Do you believe his tenders, as you call them?
-
-OPHELIA I do not know, my lord, what I should think.
-
-LORD POLONIUS Marry, I'll teach you: think yourself a baby;
- That you have ta'en these tenders for true pay,
- Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly;
- Or--not to crack the wind of the poor phrase,
- Running it thus--you'll tender me a fool.
-
-OPHELIA My lord, he hath importuned me with love
- In honourable fashion.
-
-LORD POLONIUS Ay, fashion you may call it; go to, go to.
-
-OPHELIA And hath given countenance to his speech, my lord,
- With almost all the holy vows of heaven.
-
-LORD POLONIUS Ay, springes to catch woodcocks. I do know,
- When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul
- Lends the tongue vows: these blazes, daughter,
- Giving more light than heat, extinct in both,
- Even in their promise, as it is a-making,
- You must not take for fire. From this time
- Be somewhat scanter of your maiden presence;
- Set your entreatments at a higher rate
- Than a command to parley. For Lord Hamlet,
- Believe so much in him, that he is young
- And with a larger tether may he walk
- Than may be given you: in few, Ophelia,
- Do not believe his vows; for they are brokers,
- Not of that dye which their investments show,
- But mere implorators of unholy suits,
- Breathing like sanctified and pious bawds,
- The better to beguile. This is for all:
- I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth,
- Have you so slander any moment leisure,
- As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet.
- Look to't, I charge you: come your ways.
-
-OPHELIA I shall obey, my lord.
-
- [Exeunt]
-
-
-
-
- HAMLET
-
-
-ACT I
-
-
-
-SCENE IV The platform.
-
-
- [Enter HAMLET, HORATIO, and MARCELLUS]
-
-HAMLET The air bites shrewdly; it is very cold.
-
-HORATIO It is a nipping and an eager air.
-
-HAMLET What hour now?
-
-HORATIO I think it lacks of twelve.
-
-HAMLET No, it is struck.
-
-HORATIO Indeed? I heard it not: then it draws near the season
- Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk.
-
- [A flourish of trumpets, and ordnance shot off, within]
-
- What does this mean, my lord?
-
-HAMLET The king doth wake to-night and takes his rouse,
- Keeps wassail, and the swaggering up-spring reels;
- And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down,
- The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out
- The triumph of his pledge.
-
-HORATIO Is it a custom?
-
-HAMLET Ay, marry, is't:
- But to my mind, though I am native here
- And to the manner born, it is a custom
- More honour'd in the breach than the observance.
- This heavy-headed revel east and west
- Makes us traduced and tax'd of other nations:
- They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase
- Soil our addition; and indeed it takes
- From our achievements, though perform'd at height,
- The pith and marrow of our attribute.
- So, oft it chances in particular men,
- That for some vicious mole of nature in them,
- As, in their birth--wherein they are not guilty,
- Since nature cannot choose his origin--
- By the o'ergrowth of some complexion,
- Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason,
- Or by some habit that too much o'er-leavens
- The form of plausive manners, that these men,
- Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect,
- Being nature's livery, or fortune's star,--
- Their virtues else--be they as pure as grace,
- As infinite as man may undergo--
- Shall in the general censure take corruption
- From that particular fault: the dram of eale
- Doth all the noble substance of a doubt
- To his own scandal.
-
-HORATIO Look, my lord, it comes!
-
- [Enter Ghost]
-
-HAMLET Angels and ministers of grace defend us!
- Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damn'd,
- Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell,
- Be thy intents wicked or charitable,
- Thou comest in such a questionable shape
- That I will speak to thee: I'll call thee Hamlet,
- King, father, royal Dane: O, answer me!
- Let me not burst in ignorance; but tell
- Why thy canonized bones, hearsed in death,
- Have burst their cerements; why the sepulchre,
- Wherein we saw thee quietly inurn'd,
- Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws,
- To cast thee up again. What may this mean,
- That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel
- Revisit'st thus the glimpses of the moon,
- Making night hideous; and we fools of nature
- So horridly to shake our disposition
- With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls?
- Say, why is this? wherefore? what should we do?
-
- [Ghost beckons HAMLET]
-
-HORATIO It beckons you to go away with it,
- As if it some impartment did desire
- To you alone.
-
-MARCELLUS Look, with what courteous action
- It waves you to a more removed ground:
- But do not go with it.
-
-HORATIO No, by no means.
-
-HAMLET It will not speak; then I will follow it.
-
-HORATIO Do not, my lord.
-
-HAMLET Why, what should be the fear?
- I do not set my life in a pin's fee;
- And for my soul, what can it do to that,
- Being a thing immortal as itself?
- It waves me forth again: I'll follow it.
-
-HORATIO What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord,
- Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff
- That beetles o'er his base into the sea,
- And there assume some other horrible form,
- Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason
- And draw you into madness? think of it:
- The very place puts toys of desperation,
- Without more motive, into every brain
- That looks so many fathoms to the sea
- And hears it roar beneath.
-
-HAMLET It waves me still.
- Go on; I'll follow thee.
-
-MARCELLUS You shall not go, my lord.
-
-HAMLET Hold off your hands.
-
-HORATIO Be ruled; you shall not go.
-
-HAMLET My fate cries out,
- And makes each petty artery in this body
- As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve.
- Still am I call'd. Unhand me, gentlemen.
- By heaven, I'll make a ghost of him that lets me!
- I say, away! Go on; I'll follow thee.
-
- [Exeunt Ghost and HAMLET]
-
-HORATIO He waxes desperate with imagination.
-
-MARCELLUS Let's follow; 'tis not fit thus to obey him.
-
-HORATIO Have after. To what issue will this come?
-
-MARCELLUS Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
-
-HORATIO Heaven will direct it.
-
-MARCELLUS Nay, let's follow him.
-
- [Exeunt]
-
-
-
-
- HAMLET
-
-
-ACT I
-
-
-
-SCENE V Another part of the platform.
-
-
- [Enter GHOST and HAMLET]
-
-HAMLET Where wilt thou lead me? speak; I'll go no further.
-
-Ghost Mark me.
-
-HAMLET I will.
-
-Ghost My hour is almost come,
- When I to sulphurous and tormenting flames
- Must render up myself.
-
-HAMLET Alas, poor ghost!
-
-Ghost Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing
- To what I shall unfold.
-
-HAMLET Speak; I am bound to hear.
-
-Ghost So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear.
-
-HAMLET What?
-
-Ghost I am thy father's spirit,
- Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night,
- And for the day confined to fast in fires,
- Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
- Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid
- To tell the secrets of my prison-house,
- I could a tale unfold whose lightest word
- Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
- Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,
- Thy knotted and combined locks to part
- And each particular hair to stand on end,
- Like quills upon the fretful porpentine:
- But this eternal blazon must not be
- To ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O, list!
- If thou didst ever thy dear father love--
-
-HAMLET O God!
-
-Ghost Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.
-
-HAMLET Murder!
-
-Ghost Murder most foul, as in the best it is;
- But this most foul, strange and unnatural.
-
-HAMLET Haste me to know't, that I, with wings as swift
- As meditation or the thoughts of love,
- May sweep to my revenge.
-
-Ghost I find thee apt;
- And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed
- That roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf,
- Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear:
- 'Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard,
- A serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark
- Is by a forged process of my death
- Rankly abused: but know, thou noble youth,
- The serpent that did sting thy father's life
- Now wears his crown.
-
-HAMLET O my prophetic soul! My uncle!
-
-Ghost Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,
- With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts,--
- O wicked wit and gifts, that have the power
- So to seduce!--won to his shameful lust
- The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen:
- O Hamlet, what a falling-off was there!
- From me, whose love was of that dignity
- That it went hand in hand even with the vow
- I made to her in marriage, and to decline
- Upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor
- To those of mine!
- But virtue, as it never will be moved,
- Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven,
- So lust, though to a radiant angel link'd,
- Will sate itself in a celestial bed,
- And prey on garbage.
- But, soft! methinks I scent the morning air;
- Brief let me be. Sleeping within my orchard,
- My custom always of the afternoon,
- Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole,
- With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial,
- And in the porches of my ears did pour
- The leperous distilment; whose effect
- Holds such an enmity with blood of man
- That swift as quicksilver it courses through
- The natural gates and alleys of the body,
- And with a sudden vigour doth posset
- And curd, like eager droppings into milk,
- The thin and wholesome blood: so did it mine;
- And a most instant tetter bark'd about,
- Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust,
- All my smooth body.
- Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand
- Of life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatch'd:
- Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin,
- Unhousel'd, disappointed, unanel'd,
- No reckoning made, but sent to my account
- With all my imperfections on my head:
- O, horrible! O, horrible! most horrible!
- If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not;
- Let not the royal bed of Denmark be
- A couch for luxury and damned incest.
- But, howsoever thou pursuest this act,
- Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive
- Against thy mother aught: leave her to heaven
- And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge,
- To prick and sting her. Fare thee well at once!
- The glow-worm shows the matin to be near,
- And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire:
- Adieu, adieu! Hamlet, remember me.
-
- [Exit]
-
-HAMLET O all you host of heaven! O earth! what else?
- And shall I couple hell? O, fie! Hold, hold, my heart;
- And you, my sinews, grow not instant old,
- But bear me stiffly up. Remember thee!
- Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat
- In this distracted globe. Remember thee!
- Yea, from the table of my memory
- I'll wipe away all trivial fond records,
- All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,
- That youth and observation copied there;
- And thy commandment all alone shall live
- Within the book and volume of my brain,
- Unmix'd with baser matter: yes, by heaven!
- O most pernicious woman!
- O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!
- My tables,--meet it is I set it down,
- That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain;
- At least I'm sure it may be so in Denmark:
-
- [Writing]
-
- So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word;
- It is 'Adieu, adieu! remember me.'
- I have sworn 't.
-
-
-MARCELLUS |
- | [Within] My lord, my lord,--
-HORATIO |
-
-
-MARCELLUS [Within] Lord Hamlet,--
-
-HORATIO [Within] Heaven secure him!
-
-HAMLET So be it!
-
-HORATIO [Within] Hillo, ho, ho, my lord!
-
-HAMLET Hillo, ho, ho, boy! come, bird, come.
-
- [Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS]
-
-MARCELLUS How is't, my noble lord?
-
-HORATIO What news, my lord?
-
-HAMLET O, wonderful!
-
-HORATIO Good my lord, tell it.
-
-HAMLET No; you'll reveal it.
-
-HORATIO Not I, my lord, by heaven.
-
-MARCELLUS Nor I, my lord.
-
-HAMLET How say you, then; would heart of man once think it?
- But you'll be secret?
-
-
-HORATIO |
- | Ay, by heaven, my lord.
-MARCELLUS |
-
-
-HAMLET There's ne'er a villain dwelling in all Denmark
- But he's an arrant knave.
-
-HORATIO There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave
- To tell us this.
-
-HAMLET Why, right; you are i' the right;
- And so, without more circumstance at all,
- I hold it fit that we shake hands and part:
- You, as your business and desire shall point you;
- For every man has business and desire,
- Such as it is; and for mine own poor part,
- Look you, I'll go pray.
-
-HORATIO These are but wild and whirling words, my lord.
-
-HAMLET I'm sorry they offend you, heartily;
- Yes, 'faith heartily.
-
-HORATIO There's no offence, my lord.
-
-HAMLET Yes, by Saint Patrick, but there is, Horatio,
- And much offence too. Touching this vision here,
- It is an honest ghost, that let me tell you:
- For your desire to know what is between us,
- O'ermaster 't as you may. And now, good friends,
- As you are friends, scholars and soldiers,
- Give me one poor request.
-
-HORATIO What is't, my lord? we will.
-
-HAMLET Never make known what you have seen to-night.
-
-
-HORATIO |
- | My lord, we will not.
-MARCELLUS |
-
-
-HAMLET Nay, but swear't.
-
-HORATIO In faith,
- My lord, not I.
-
-MARCELLUS Nor I, my lord, in faith.
-
-HAMLET Upon my sword.
-
-MARCELLUS We have sworn, my lord, already.
-
-HAMLET Indeed, upon my sword, indeed.
-
-Ghost [Beneath] Swear.
-
-HAMLET Ah, ha, boy! say'st thou so? art thou there,
- truepenny?
- Come on--you hear this fellow in the cellarage--
- Consent to swear.
-
-HORATIO Propose the oath, my lord.
-
-HAMLET Never to speak of this that you have seen,
- Swear by my sword.
-
-Ghost [Beneath] Swear.
-
-HAMLET Hic et ubique? then we'll shift our ground.
- Come hither, gentlemen,
- And lay your hands again upon my sword:
- Never to speak of this that you have heard,
- Swear by my sword.
-
-Ghost [Beneath] Swear.
-
-HAMLET Well said, old mole! canst work i' the earth so fast?
- A worthy pioner! Once more remove, good friends.
-
-HORATIO O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!
-
-HAMLET And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.
- There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
- Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. But come;
- Here, as before, never, so help you mercy,
- How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself,
- As I perchance hereafter shall think meet
- To put an antic disposition on,
- That you, at such times seeing me, never shall,
- With arms encumber'd thus, or this headshake,
- Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase,
- As 'Well, well, we know,' or 'We could, an if we would,'
- Or 'If we list to speak,' or 'There be, an if they might,'
- Or such ambiguous giving out, to note
- That you know aught of me: this not to do,
- So grace and mercy at your most need help you, Swear.
-
-Ghost [Beneath] Swear.
-
-HAMLET Rest, rest, perturbed spirit!
-
- [They swear]
-
- So, gentlemen,
- With all my love I do commend me to you:
- And what so poor a man as Hamlet is
- May do, to express his love and friending to you,
- God willing, shall not lack. Let us go in together;
- And still your fingers on your lips, I pray.
- The time is out of joint: O cursed spite,
- That ever I was born to set it right!
- Nay, come, let's go together.
-
- [Exeunt]
-
-
-
-
- HAMLET
-
-
-ACT II
-
-
-
-SCENE I A room in POLONIUS' house.
-
-
- [Enter POLONIUS and REYNALDO]
-
-LORD POLONIUS Give him this money and these notes, Reynaldo.
-
-REYNALDO I will, my lord.
-
-LORD POLONIUS You shall do marvellous wisely, good Reynaldo,
- Before you visit him, to make inquire
- Of his behavior.
-
-REYNALDO My lord, I did intend it.
-
-LORD POLONIUS Marry, well said; very well said. Look you, sir,
- Inquire me first what Danskers are in Paris;
- And how, and who, what means, and where they keep,
- What company, at what expense; and finding
- By this encompassment and drift of question
- That they do know my son, come you more nearer
- Than your particular demands will touch it:
- Take you, as 'twere, some distant knowledge of him;
- As thus, 'I know his father and his friends,
- And in part him: ' do you mark this, Reynaldo?
-
-REYNALDO Ay, very well, my lord.
-
-LORD POLONIUS 'And in part him; but' you may say 'not well:
- But, if't be he I mean, he's very wild;
- Addicted so and so:' and there put on him
- What forgeries you please; marry, none so rank
- As may dishonour him; take heed of that;
- But, sir, such wanton, wild and usual slips
- As are companions noted and most known
- To youth and liberty.
-
-REYNALDO As gaming, my lord.
-
-LORD POLONIUS Ay, or drinking, fencing, swearing, quarrelling,
- Drabbing: you may go so far.
-
-REYNALDO My lord, that would dishonour him.
-
-LORD POLONIUS 'Faith, no; as you may season it in the charge
- You must not put another scandal on him,
- That he is open to incontinency;
- That's not my meaning: but breathe his faults so quaintly
- That they may seem the taints of liberty,
- The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind,
- A savageness in unreclaimed blood,
- Of general assault.
-
-REYNALDO But, my good lord,--
-
-LORD POLONIUS Wherefore should you do this?
-
-REYNALDO Ay, my lord,
- I would know that.
-
-LORD POLONIUS Marry, sir, here's my drift;
- And I believe, it is a fetch of wit:
- You laying these slight sullies on my son,
- As 'twere a thing a little soil'd i' the working, Mark you,
- Your party in converse, him you would sound,
- Having ever seen in the prenominate crimes
- The youth you breathe of guilty, be assured
- He closes with you in this consequence;
- 'Good sir,' or so, or 'friend,' or 'gentleman,'
- According to the phrase or the addition
- Of man and country.
-
-REYNALDO Very good, my lord.
-
-LORD POLONIUS And then, sir, does he this--he does--what was I
- about to say? By the mass, I was about to say
- something: where did I leave?
-
-REYNALDO At 'closes in the consequence,' at 'friend or so,'
- and 'gentleman.'
-
-LORD POLONIUS At 'closes in the consequence,' ay, marry;
- He closes thus: 'I know the gentleman;
- I saw him yesterday, or t' other day,
- Or then, or then; with such, or such; and, as you say,
- There was a' gaming; there o'ertook in's rouse;
- There falling out at tennis:' or perchance,
- 'I saw him enter such a house of sale,'
- Videlicet, a brothel, or so forth.
- See you now;
- Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth:
- And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,
- With windlasses and with assays of bias,
- By indirections find directions out:
- So by my former lecture and advice,
- Shall you my son. You have me, have you not?
-
-REYNALDO My lord, I have.
-
-LORD POLONIUS God be wi' you; fare you well.
-
-REYNALDO Good my lord!
-
-LORD POLONIUS Observe his inclination in yourself.
-
-REYNALDO I shall, my lord.
-
-LORD POLONIUS And let him ply his music.
-
-REYNALDO Well, my lord.
-
-LORD POLONIUS Farewell!
-
- [Exit REYNALDO]
-
- [Enter OPHELIA]
-
- How now, Ophelia! what's the matter?
-
-OPHELIA O, my lord, my lord, I have been so affrighted!
-
-LORD POLONIUS With what, i' the name of God?
-
-OPHELIA My lord, as I was sewing in my closet,
- Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced;
- No hat upon his head; his stockings foul'd,
- Ungarter'd, and down-gyved to his ancle;
- Pale as his shirt; his knees knocking each other;
- And with a look so piteous in purport
- As if he had been loosed out of hell
- To speak of horrors,--he comes before me.
-
-LORD POLONIUS Mad for thy love?
-
-OPHELIA My lord, I do not know;
- But truly, I do fear it.
-
-LORD POLONIUS What said he?
-
-OPHELIA He took me by the wrist and held me hard;
- Then goes he to the length of all his arm;
- And, with his other hand thus o'er his brow,
- He falls to such perusal of my face
- As he would draw it. Long stay'd he so;
- At last, a little shaking of mine arm
- And thrice his head thus waving up and down,
- He raised a sigh so piteous and profound
- As it did seem to shatter all his bulk
- And end his being: that done, he lets me go:
- And, with his head over his shoulder turn'd,
- He seem'd to find his way without his eyes;
- For out o' doors he went without their helps,
- And, to the last, bended their light on me.
-
-LORD POLONIUS Come, go with me: I will go seek the king.
- This is the very ecstasy of love,
- Whose violent property fordoes itself
- And leads the will to desperate undertakings
- As oft as any passion under heaven
- That does afflict our natures. I am sorry.
- What, have you given him any hard words of late?
-
-OPHELIA No, my good lord, but, as you did command,
- I did repel his fetters and denied
- His access to me.
-
-LORD POLONIUS That hath made him mad.
- I am sorry that with better heed and judgment
- I had not quoted him: I fear'd he did but trifle,
- And meant to wreck thee; but, beshrew my jealousy!
- By heaven, it is as proper to our age
- To cast beyond ourselves in our opinions
- As it is common for the younger sort
- To lack discretion. Come, go we to the king:
- This must be known; which, being kept close, might
- move
- More grief to hide than hate to utter love.
-
- [Exeunt]
-
-
-
-
- HAMLET
-
-
-ACT II
-
-
-
-SCENE II A room in the castle.
-
-
- [Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, ROSENCRANTZ,
- GUILDENSTERN, and Attendants]
-
-KING CLAUDIUS 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 call it,
- Sith nor the 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 the understanding of himself,
- I cannot dream of: I entreat you both,
- That, being of so young days brought up with him,
- And sith so neighbour'd to his youth and havior,
- 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, open'd, lies within our remedy.
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE Good gentlemen, he hath much talk'd of you;
- And sure I am two men there are 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 awhile,
- 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 CLAUDIUS Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern.
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz:
- And I beseech you instantly to visit
- My too much changed son. Go, some of you,
- And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is.
-
-GUILDENSTERN Heavens make our presence and our practises
- Pleasant and helpful to him!
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE Ay, amen!
-
- [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and some
- Attendants]
-
- [Enter POLONIUS]
-
-LORD POLONIUS The ambassadors from Norway, my good lord,
- Are joyfully return'd.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Thou still hast been the father of good news.
-
-LORD POLONIUS Have I, my lord? I assure 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 CLAUDIUS O, speak of that; that do I long to hear.
-
-LORD POLONIUS Give first admittance to the ambassadors;
- My news shall be the fruit to that great feast.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS 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 GERTRUDE I doubt it is no other but the main;
- His father's death, and our o'erhasty marriage.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Well, we shall sift him.
-
- [Re-enter POLONIUS, with VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS]
-
- Welcome, my good friends!
- Say, Voltimand, what from our brother Norway?
-
-VOLTIMAND Most fair return of greetings and desires.
- Upon our first, he sent out to suppress
- His nephew's levies; which to him appear'd
- To be a preparation 'gainst the Polack;
- But, better look'd 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 the 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 CLAUDIUS It likes us well;
- And at our more consider'd time well 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 VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS]
-
-LORD 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 GERTRUDE More matter, with less art.
-
-LORD 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. Thus:
-
- [Reads]
-
- 'In her excellent white bosom, these, &c.'
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE Came this from Hamlet to her?
-
-LORD 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 CLAUDIUS But how hath she
- Received his love?
-
-LORD POLONIUS What do you think of me?
-
-KING CLAUDIUS As of a man faithful and honourable.
-
-LORD 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 play'd the desk or table-book,
- Or given my heart a winking, mute and dumb,
- Or look'd 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, repulsed--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 CLAUDIUS Do you think 'tis this?
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE It may be, very likely.
-
-LORD POLONIUS Hath there been such a time--I'd fain know that--
- That I have positively said 'Tis so,'
- When it proved otherwise?
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Not that I know.
-
-LORD POLONIUS [Pointing to his head and shoulder]
-
- Take this from this, if this be otherwise:
- If circumstances lead me, I will find
- Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed
- Within the centre.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS How may we try it further?
-
-LORD POLONIUS You know, sometimes he walks four hours together
- Here in the lobby.
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE So he does indeed.
-
-LORD 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 CLAUDIUS We will try it.
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE But, look, where sadly the poor wretch comes reading.
-
-LORD POLONIUS Away, I do beseech you, both away:
- I'll board him presently.
-
- [Exeunt KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, and
- Attendants]
-
- [Enter HAMLET, reading]
-
- O, give me leave:
- How does my good Lord Hamlet?
-
-HAMLET Well, God-a-mercy.
-
-LORD POLONIUS Do you know me, my lord?
-
-HAMLET Excellent well; you are a fishmonger.
-
-LORD POLONIUS Not I, my lord.
-
-HAMLET Then I would you were so honest a man.
-
-LORD POLONIUS Honest, my lord!
-
-HAMLET Ay, sir; to be honest, as this world goes, is to be
- one man picked out of ten thousand.
-
-LORD POLONIUS That's very true, my lord.
-
-HAMLET For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a
- god kissing carrion,--Have you a daughter?
-
-LORD POLONIUS I have, my lord.
-
-HAMLET Let her not walk i' the sun: conception is a
- blessing: but not as your daughter may conceive.
- Friend, look to 't.
-
-LORD POLONIUS [Aside] How say you by that? Still harping on my
- daughter: yet he knew me not at first; he said I
- was a fishmonger: he 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.
-
-LORD POLONIUS What is the matter, my lord?
-
-HAMLET Between who?
-
-LORD 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, should be old as I am, if like a crab
- you could go backward.
-
-LORD POLONIUS [Aside] Though this be madness, yet there is method
- in 't. Will you walk out of the air, my lord?
-
-HAMLET Into my grave.
-
-LORD POLONIUS Indeed, that is out o' 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.--My honourable
- lord, I will most humbly take my leave of you.
-
-HAMLET You cannot, sir, take from me any thing that I will
- more willingly part withal: except my life, except
- my life, except my life.
-
-LORD POLONIUS Fare you well, my lord.
-
-HAMLET These tedious old fools!
-
- [Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN]
-
-LORD POLONIUS You go to seek the Lord Hamlet; there he is.
-
-ROSENCRANTZ [To POLONIUS] God save you, sir!
-
- [Exit POLONIUS]
-
-GUILDENSTERN My honoured lord!
-
-ROSENCRANTZ My most dear lord!
-
-HAMLET My excellent good friends! How dost thou,
- Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do ye both?
-
-ROSENCRANTZ As the indifferent children of the earth.
-
-GUILDENSTERN Happy, in that we are not over-happy;
- 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's the news?
-
-ROSENCRANTZ None, my lord, but that 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' the 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 nut shell 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 the court? for, by my fay, I cannot reason.
-
-
-ROSENCRANTZ |
- | We'll wait upon you.
-GUILDENSTERN |
-
-
-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,
- deal justly with me: come, come; nay, speak.
-
-GUILDENSTERN What should we say, my lord?
-
-HAMLET Why, any thing, but to the 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 than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours.
- What a 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 you 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 humourous man shall end his part
- in peace; the clown shall make those laugh whose
- lungs are tickled o' the 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 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 aery 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 mine uncle is king of
- Denmark, and those that would make mows at him while
- my father lived, give twenty, forty, fifty, an
- hundred ducats a-piece 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.
-
- [Enter POLONIUS]
-
-LORD 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 Happily 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: o' Monday morning;
- 'twas so indeed.
-
-LORD 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,--
-
-LORD POLONIUS The actors are come hither, my lord.
-
-HAMLET Buz, buz!
-
-LORD POLONIUS Upon mine honour,--
-
-HAMLET Then came each actor on his ass,--
-
-LORD 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!
-
-LORD POLONIUS What a treasure had he, my lord?
-
-HAMLET Why,
- 'One fair daughter and no more,
- The which he loved passing well.'
-
-LORD POLONIUS [Aside] Still on my daughter.
-
-HAMLET Am I not i' the right, old Jephthah?
-
-LORD POLONIUS If you call me Jephthah, my lord, I have a daughter
- that I love passing well.
-
-HAMLET Nay, that follows not.
-
-LORD 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 four or five Players]
-
- You are welcome, masters; welcome, all. I am glad
- to see thee well. Welcome, good friends. O, my old
- friend! thy face is valenced since I saw thee last:
- comest thou to beard me in Denmark? What, my young
- lady and mistress! By'r lady, your ladyship is
- nearer to heaven than when I saw you last, by the
- altitude of a chopine. Pray God, your voice, like
- apiece 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 any thing we see:
- we'll have a speech straight: come, give us a taste
- of your quality; come, a passionate speech.
-
-First Player What speech, my 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 judgments 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, where 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 the Hyrcanian beast,'--
- it is not so:--it begins with Pyrrhus:--
- 'The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms,
- Black as his purpose, did the night resemble
- When he lay couched in the ominous horse,
- Hath now this dread and black complexion smear'd
- With heraldry more dismal; head to foot
- Now is he total gules; horridly trick'd
- With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons,
- Baked and impasted with the parching streets,
- That lend a tyrannous and damned light
- To their lord's murder: roasted in wrath and fire,
- And thus o'er-sized with coagulate gore,
- With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus
- Old grandsire Priam seeks.'
- So, proceed you.
-
-LORD POLONIUS 'Fore God, my lord, well spoken, with good accent and
- good discretion.
-
-First 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 match'd,
- Pyrrhus at Priam drives; in rage strikes wide;
- But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword
- The unnerved 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, seem'd i' the 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,
- Aroused 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!'
-
-LORD POLONIUS This is too long.
-
-HAMLET It shall to the 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.
-
-First Player 'But who, O, who had seen the mobled queen--'
-
-HAMLET 'The mobled queen?'
-
-LORD POLONIUS That's good; 'mobled queen' is good.
-
-First Player 'Run barefoot up and down, threatening 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'er-teemed loins,
- A blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up;
- Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steep'd,
- '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.'
-
-LORD POLONIUS Look, whether he has not turned his colour and has
- tears in's eyes. Pray you, no more.
-
-HAMLET 'Tis well: I'll have thee speak out the rest soon.
- 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.
-
-LORD 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.
-
-LORD POLONIUS Come, sirs.
-
-HAMLET Follow him, friends: we'll hear a play to-morrow.
-
- [Exit POLONIUS with all the Players but the First]
-
- Dost thou hear me, old friend; can you play the
- Murder of Gonzago?
-
-First Player Ay, my lord.
-
-HAMLET We'll ha't to-morrow 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?
-
-First Player Ay, my lord.
-
-HAMLET Very well. Follow that lord; and look you mock him
- not.
-
- [Exit First Player]
-
- My good friends, I'll leave you till night: you are
- welcome to Elsinore.
-
-ROSENCRANTZ Good my lord!
-
-HAMLET Ay, so, God be wi' ye;
-
- [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN]
-
- 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 his visage wann'd,
- 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 damn'd 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 the nose? gives me the lie i' the 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-liver'd and lack gall
- To make oppression bitter, or ere this
- I should have 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 murder'd,
- 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 brain! 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 proclaim'd 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 but blench,
- I know my course. The spirit that I have seen
- May be the devil: and the devil hath power
- To 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]
-
-
-
-
- HAMLET
-
-
-ACT III
-
-
-
-SCENE I A room in the castle.
-
-
- [Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, POLONIUS,
- OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN]
-
-KING CLAUDIUS And can you, by no drift of circumstance,
- Get from him why he puts on this confusion,
- Grating so harshly all his days of quiet
- With turbulent and dangerous lunacy?
-
-ROSENCRANTZ He does confess he feels himself distracted;
- But from what cause he will by no means speak.
-
-GUILDENSTERN Nor do we find him forward to be sounded,
- But, with a crafty madness, keeps aloof,
- When we would bring him on to some confession
- Of his true state.
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE Did he receive you well?
-
-ROSENCRANTZ Most like a gentleman.
-
-GUILDENSTERN But with much forcing of his disposition.
-
-ROSENCRANTZ Niggard of question; but, of our demands,
- Most free in his reply.
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE Did you assay him?
- To any pastime?
-
-ROSENCRANTZ Madam, it so fell out, that certain players
- We o'er-raught on the way: of these we told him;
- And there did seem in him a kind of joy
- To hear of it: they are about the court,
- And, as I think, they have already order
- This night to play before him.
-
-LORD POLONIUS 'Tis most true:
- And he beseech'd me to entreat your majesties
- To hear and see the matter.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS With all my heart; and it doth much content me
- To hear him so inclined.
- Good gentlemen, give him a further edge,
- And drive his purpose on to these delights.
-
-ROSENCRANTZ We shall, my lord.
-
- [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN]
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Sweet Gertrude, leave us too;
- For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither,
- That he, as 'twere by accident, may here
- Affront Ophelia:
- Her father and myself, lawful espials,
- Will so bestow ourselves that, seeing, unseen,
- We may of their encounter frankly judge,
- And gather by him, as he is behaved,
- If 't be the affliction of his love or no
- That thus he suffers for.
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE I shall obey you.
- And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish
- That your good beauties be the happy cause
- Of Hamlet's wildness: so shall I hope your virtues
- Will bring him to his wonted way again,
- To both your honours.
-
-OPHELIA Madam, I wish it may.
-
- [Exit QUEEN GERTRUDE]
-
-LORD POLONIUS Ophelia, walk you here. Gracious, so please you,
- We will bestow ourselves.
-
- [To OPHELIA]
-
- Read on this book;
- That show of such an exercise may colour
- Your loneliness. We are oft to blame in this,--
- 'Tis too much proved--that with devotion's visage
- And pious action we do sugar o'er
- The devil himself.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS [Aside] O, 'tis too true!
- How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience!
- The harlot's cheek, beautied with plastering art,
- Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it
- Than is my deed to my most painted word:
- O heavy burthen!
-
-LORD POLONIUS I hear him coming: let's withdraw, my lord.
-
- [Exeunt KING CLAUDIUS and POLONIUS]
-
- [Enter HAMLET]
-
-HAMLET To be, or not to be: that is the question:
- Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
- The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
- Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
- And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
- No more; and by a sleep to say we end
- The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
- That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
- Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
- To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
- For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
- When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
- Must give us pause: there's the respect
- That makes calamity of so long life;
- For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
- The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
- The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
- The insolence of office and the spurns
- That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
- When he himself might his quietus make
- With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
- To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
- But that the dread of something after death,
- The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
- No traveller returns, puzzles the will
- And makes us rather bear those ills we have
- Than fly to others that we know not of?
- Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
- And thus the native hue of resolution
- Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
- And enterprises of great pith and moment
- With this regard their currents turn awry,
- And lose the name of action.--Soft you now!
- The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
- Be all my sins remember'd.
-
-OPHELIA Good my lord,
- How does your honour for this many a day?
-
-HAMLET I humbly thank you; well, well, well.
-
-OPHELIA My lord, I have remembrances of yours,
- That I have longed long to re-deliver;
- I pray you, now receive them.
-
-HAMLET No, not I;
- I never gave you aught.
-
-OPHELIA My honour'd lord, you know right well you did;
- And, with them, words of so sweet breath composed
- As made the things more rich: their perfume lost,
- Take these again; for to the noble mind
- Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.
- There, my lord.
-
-HAMLET Ha, ha! are you honest?
-
-OPHELIA My lord?
-
-HAMLET Are you fair?
-
-OPHELIA What means your lordship?
-
-HAMLET That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should
- admit no discourse to your beauty.
-
-OPHELIA Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than
- with honesty?
-
-HAMLET Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will sooner
- transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the
- force of honesty can translate beauty into his
- likeness: this was sometime a paradox, but now the
- time gives it proof. I did love you once.
-
-OPHELIA Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.
-
-HAMLET You should not have believed me; for virtue cannot
- so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of
- it: I loved you not.
-
-OPHELIA I was the more deceived.
-
-HAMLET Get thee to a nunnery: why wouldst thou be a
- breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest;
- but yet I could accuse me of such things that it
- were better my mother had not borne me: I am very
- proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offences at
- my beck than I have thoughts to put them in,
- imagination to give them shape, or time to act them
- in. What should such fellows as I do crawling
- between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves,
- all; believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery.
- Where's your father?
-
-OPHELIA At home, my lord.
-
-HAMLET Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the
- fool no where but in's own house. Farewell.
-
-OPHELIA O, help him, you sweet heavens!
-
-HAMLET If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for
- thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as
- snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a
- nunnery, go: farewell. Or, if thou wilt needs
- marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough
- what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go,
- and quickly too. Farewell.
-
-OPHELIA O heavenly powers, restore him!
-
-HAMLET I have heard of your paintings too, well enough; God
- has given you one face, and you make yourselves
- another: you jig, you amble, and you lisp, and
- nick-name God's creatures, and make your wantonness
- your ignorance. Go to, I'll no more on't; it hath
- made me mad. I say, we will have no more marriages:
- those that are married already, all but one, shall
- live; the rest shall keep as they are. To a
- nunnery, go.
-
- [Exit]
-
-OPHELIA O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!
- The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue, sword;
- The expectancy and rose of the fair state,
- The glass of fashion and the mould of form,
- The observed of all observers, quite, quite down!
- And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,
- That suck'd the honey of his music vows,
- Now see that noble and most sovereign reason,
- Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh;
- That unmatch'd form and feature of blown youth
- Blasted with ecstasy: O, woe is me,
- To have seen what I have seen, see what I see!
-
- [Re-enter KING CLAUDIUS and POLONIUS]
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Love! his affections do not that way tend;
- Nor what he spake, though it lack'd form a little,
- Was not like madness. There's something in his soul,
- O'er which his melancholy sits on brood;
- And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose
- Will be some danger: which for to prevent,
- I have in quick determination
- Thus set it down: he shall with speed to England,
- For the demand of our neglected tribute
- Haply the seas and countries different
- With variable objects shall expel
- This something-settled matter in his heart,
- Whereon his brains still beating puts him thus
- From fashion of himself. What think you on't?
-
-LORD POLONIUS It shall do well: but yet do I believe
- The origin and commencement of his grief
- Sprung from neglected love. How now, Ophelia!
- You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet said;
- We heard it all. My lord, do as you please;
- But, if you hold it fit, after the play
- Let his queen mother all alone entreat him
- To show his grief: let her be round with him;
- And I'll be placed, so please you, in the ear
- Of all their conference. If she find him not,
- To England send him, or confine him where
- Your wisdom best shall think.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS It shall be so:
- Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go.
-
- [Exeunt]
-
-
-
-
- HAMLET
-
-
-ACT III
-
-
-
-SCENE II A hall in the castle.
-
-
- [Enter HAMLET and 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,
- the whirlwind of 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 dumbshows and noise: I would have such
- a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant; it
- out-herods Herod: pray you, avoid it.
-
-First 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 o'erstep not
- the modesty of nature: for any thing so overdone 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 the 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 the 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.
-
-First 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 mean time, some necessary
- question of the play be then to be considered:
- that's villanous, 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! I will the king hear this piece of work?
-
-LORD POLONIUS And the queen too, and that presently.
-
-HAMLET Bid the players make haste.
-
- [Exit POLONIUS]
-
- Will you two help to hasten them?
-
-
-ROSENCRANTZ |
- | We will, my lord.
-GUILDENSTERN |
-
-
- [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 flatter'd?
- 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
- Hath seal'd thee for herself; for thou hast been
- As one, in suffering 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 judgment are so well commingled,
- 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 to-night 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 mine uncle: if his occulted guilt
- Do not itself unkennel in one speech,
- It is a damned 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 judgments join
- In censure of his seeming.
-
-HORATIO Well, my lord:
- If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing,
- And 'scape detecting, I will pay the theft.
-
-HAMLET They are coming to the play; I must be idle:
- Get you a place.
-
- [Danish march. A flourish. Enter KING CLAUDIUS,
- QUEEN GERTRUDE, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ,
- GUILDENSTERN, and others]
-
-KING CLAUDIUS 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 CLAUDIUS 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' the university, you say?
-
-LORD POLONIUS That did I, my lord; and was accounted a good actor.
-
-HAMLET What did you enact?
-
-LORD POLONIUS I did enact Julius Caesar: I was killed i' the
- 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 GERTRUDE Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me.
-
-HAMLET No, good mother, here's metal more attractive.
-
-LORD POLONIUS [To KING CLAUDIUS] O, ho! do you mark that?
-
-HAMLET Lady, shall I lie in your lap?
-
- [Lying down 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 these 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'r lady, he must build churches,
- then; or else shall he 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, and he her. She kneels, and makes
- show of protestation unto him. He takes her up,
- and declines his head upon her neck: lays him down
- upon a bank of flowers: she, seeing him asleep,
- leaves him. Anon comes in a fellow, takes off his
- crown, kisses it, and pours poison in the King's
- ears, and exit. The Queen returns; finds the King
- dead, and makes passionate action. The Poisoner,
- with some two or three Mutes, comes in again,
- seeming to lament with her. The dead body is
- carried away. The Poisoner wooes the Queen with
- gifts: she seems loath and unwilling 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 he tell us what this show meant?
-
-HAMLET Ay, or any show that you'll 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 two Players, King and Queen]
-
-Player King Full thirty times hath Phoebus' cart gone round
- Neptune's salt wash and Tellus' orbed ground,
- And thirty dozen moons with borrow'd 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's fear and love holds 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,
- Honour'd, 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 kill'd 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, like 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 wife!
-
-HAMLET If she should break it now!
-
-Player King 'Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here awhile;
- 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 Madam, how like you this play?
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE The lady protests too much, methinks.
-
-HAMLET O, but she'll keep her word.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in 't?
-
-HAMLET No, no, they do but jest, poison in jest; no offence
- i' the world.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS What do you call the play?
-
-HAMLET The Mouse-trap. 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 must take your husbands. 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 usurp immediately.
-
- [Pours the poison into the sleeper's ears]
-
-HAMLET He poisons him i' the garden for's estate. His
- name's Gonzago: the story is extant, and writ in
- 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 GERTRUDE How fares my lord?
-
-LORD POLONIUS Give o'er the play.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Give me some light: away!
-
-All Lights, lights, lights!
-
- [Exeunt all but HAMLET and HORATIO]
-
-HAMLET Why, let the stricken deer go weep,
- The hart ungalled 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, sir?
-
-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--pajock.
-
-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 his 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 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 lingers 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!
-
-LORD 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?
-
-LORD POLONIUS By the mass, and 'tis like a camel, indeed.
-
-HAMLET Methinks it is like a weasel.
-
-LORD POLONIUS It is backed like a weasel.
-
-HAMLET Or like a whale?
-
-LORD 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.
-
-LORD 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]
-
-
-
- HAMLET
-
-
-ACT III
-
-
-
-SCENE III A room in the castle.
-
-
- [Enter KING CLAUDIUS, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN]
-
-KING CLAUDIUS 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 CLAUDIUS Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy voyage;
- For we will fetters put upon this fear,
- Which now goes too free-footed.
-
-
-ROSENCRANTZ |
- | We will haste us.
-GUILDENSTERN |
-
-
- [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN]
-
- [Enter POLONIUS]
-
-LORD 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 CLAUDIUS 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 is past. But, O, what form of prayer
- Can serve my turn? 'Forgive me my foul murder'?
- That cannot be; since I am still possess'd
- Of those effects for which I did the murder,
- My crown, mine own ambition and my queen.
- May one be pardon'd and retain the offence?
- In the corrupted currents of this world
- Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice,
- And oft 'tis seen the wicked prize itself
- Buys out the law: but 'tis not so above;
- There is no shuffling, there the action lies
- In his true nature; and we ourselves compell'd,
- Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,
- To give in evidence. What then? what rests?
- Try what repentance can: what can it not?
- Yet what can it when one can not repent?
- O wretched state! O bosom black as death!
- O limed soul, that, struggling to be free,
- Art more engaged! Help, angels! Make assay!
- Bow, stubborn knees; and, heart with strings of steel,
- Be soft as sinews of the newborn babe!
- All may be well.
-
- [Retires and kneels]
-
- [Enter HAMLET]
-
-HAMLET Now might I do it pat, now he is praying;
- And now I'll do't. And so he goes to heaven;
- And so am I revenged. That would be scann'd:
- A villain kills my father; and for that,
- I, his sole son, do this same villain send
- To heaven.
- O, this is hire and salary, not revenge.
- He took my father grossly, full of bread;
- With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May;
- And how his audit stands who knows save heaven?
- But in our circumstance and course of thought,
- 'Tis heavy with him: and am I then revenged,
- To take him in the purging of his soul,
- When he is fit and season'd for his passage?
- No!
- Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent:
- When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage,
- Or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed;
- At gaming, swearing, or about some act
- That has no relish of salvation in't;
- Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven,
- And that his soul may be as damn'd and black
- As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays:
- This physic but prolongs thy sickly days.
-
- [Exit]
-
-KING CLAUDIUS [Rising] My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:
- Words without thoughts never to heaven go.
-
- [Exit]
-
-
-
-
- HAMLET
-
-
-ACT III
-
-
-
-SCENE IV The Queen's closet.
-
-
- [Enter QUEEN MARGARET and POLONIUS]
-
-LORD POLONIUS He will come straight. Look you lay home to him:
- Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear with,
- And that your grace hath screen'd and stood between
- Much heat and him. I'll sconce me even here.
- Pray you, be round with him.
-
-HAMLET [Within] Mother, mother, mother!
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE I'll warrant you,
- Fear me not: withdraw, I hear him coming.
-
- [POLONIUS hides behind the arras]
-
- [Enter HAMLET]
-
-HAMLET Now, mother, what's the matter?
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.
-
-HAMLET Mother, you have my father much offended.
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.
-
-HAMLET Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE Why, how now, Hamlet!
-
-HAMLET What's the matter now?
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE Have you forgot me?
-
-HAMLET No, by the rood, not so:
- You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife;
- And--would it were not so!--you are my mother.
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE Nay, then, I'll set those to you that can speak.
-
-HAMLET Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge;
- You go not till I set you up a glass
- Where you may see the inmost part of you.
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder me?
- Help, help, ho!
-
-LORD POLONIUS [Behind] What, ho! help, help, help!
-
-HAMLET [Drawing] How now! a rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!
-
- [Makes a pass through the arras]
-
-LORD POLONIUS [Behind] O, I am slain!
-
- [Falls and dies]
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE O me, what hast thou done?
-
-HAMLET Nay, I know not:
- Is it the king?
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE O, what a rash and bloody deed is this!
-
-HAMLET A bloody deed! almost as bad, good mother,
- As kill a king, and marry with his brother.
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE As kill a king!
-
-HAMLET Ay, lady, 'twas my word.
-
- [Lifts up the array and discovers POLONIUS]
-
- Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!
- I took thee for thy better: take thy fortune;
- Thou find'st to be too busy is some danger.
- Leave wringing of your hands: peace! sit you down,
- And let me wring your heart; for so I shall,
- If it be made of penetrable stuff,
- If damned custom have not brass'd it so
- That it is proof and bulwark against sense.
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE What have I done, that thou darest wag thy tongue
- In noise so rude against me?
-
-HAMLET Such an act
- That blurs the grace and blush of modesty,
- Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the rose
- From the fair forehead of an innocent love
- And sets a blister there, makes marriage-vows
- As false as dicers' oaths: O, such a deed
- As from the body of contraction plucks
- The very soul, and sweet religion makes
- A rhapsody of words: heaven's face doth glow:
- Yea, this solidity and compound mass,
- With tristful visage, as against the doom,
- Is thought-sick at the act.
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE Ay me, what act,
- That roars so loud, and thunders in the index?
-
-HAMLET Look here, upon this picture, and on this,
- The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.
- See, what a grace was seated on this brow;
- Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself;
- An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;
- A station like the herald Mercury
- New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill;
- A combination and a form indeed,
- Where every god did seem to set his seal,
- To give the world assurance of a man:
- This was your husband. Look you now, what follows:
- Here is your husband; like a mildew'd ear,
- Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes?
- Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed,
- And batten on this moor? Ha! have you eyes?
- You cannot call it love; for at your age
- The hey-day in the blood is tame, it's humble,
- And waits upon the judgment: and what judgment
- Would step from this to this? Sense, sure, you have,
- Else could you not have motion; but sure, that sense
- Is apoplex'd; for madness would not err,
- Nor sense to ecstasy was ne'er so thrall'd
- But it reserved some quantity of choice,
- To serve in such a difference. What devil was't
- That thus hath cozen'd you at hoodman-blind?
- Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight,
- Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all,
- Or but a sickly part of one true sense
- Could not so mope.
- O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell,
- If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones,
- To flaming youth let virtue be as wax,
- And melt in her own fire: proclaim no shame
- When the compulsive ardour gives the charge,
- Since frost itself as actively doth burn
- And reason panders will.
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE O Hamlet, speak no more:
- Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul;
- And there I see such black and grained spots
- As will not leave their tinct.
-
-HAMLET Nay, but to live
- In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed,
- Stew'd in corruption, honeying and making love
- Over the nasty sty,--
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE O, speak to me no more;
- These words, like daggers, enter in mine ears;
- No more, sweet Hamlet!
-
-HAMLET A murderer and a villain;
- A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe
- Of your precedent lord; a vice of kings;
- A cutpurse of the empire and the rule,
- That from a shelf the precious diadem stole,
- And put it in his pocket!
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE No more!
-
-HAMLET A king of shreds and patches,--
-
- [Enter Ghost]
-
- Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings,
- You heavenly guards! What would your gracious figure?
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE Alas, he's mad!
-
-HAMLET Do you not come your tardy son to chide,
- That, lapsed in time and passion, lets go by
- The important acting of your dread command? O, say!
-
-Ghost Do not forget: this visitation
- Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.
- But, look, amazement on thy mother sits:
- O, step between her and her fighting soul:
- Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works:
- Speak to her, Hamlet.
-
-HAMLET How is it with you, lady?
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE Alas, how is't with you,
- That you do bend your eye on vacancy
- And with the incorporal air do hold discourse?
- Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep;
- And, as the sleeping soldiers in the alarm,
- Your bedded hair, like life in excrements,
- Starts up, and stands on end. O gentle son,
- Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper
- Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look?
-
-HAMLET On him, on him! Look you, how pale he glares!
- His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones,
- Would make them capable. Do not look upon me;
- Lest with this piteous action you convert
- My stern effects: then what I have to do
- Will want true colour; tears perchance for blood.
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE To whom do you speak this?
-
-HAMLET Do you see nothing there?
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE Nothing at all; yet all that is I see.
-
-HAMLET Nor did you nothing hear?
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE No, nothing but ourselves.
-
-HAMLET Why, look you there! look, how it steals away!
- My father, in his habit as he lived!
- Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal!
-
- [Exit Ghost]
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE This the very coinage of your brain:
- This bodiless creation ecstasy
- Is very cunning in.
-
-HAMLET Ecstasy!
- My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time,
- And makes as healthful music: it is not madness
- That I have utter'd: bring me to the test,
- And I the matter will re-word; which madness
- Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace,
- Lay not that mattering unction to your soul,
- That not your trespass, but my madness speaks:
- It will but skin and film the ulcerous place,
- Whilst rank corruption, mining all within,
- Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven;
- Repent what's past; avoid what is to come;
- And do not spread the compost on the weeds,
- To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue;
- For in the fatness of these pursy times
- Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg,
- Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good.
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain.
-
-HAMLET O, throw away the worser part of it,
- And live the purer with the other half.
- Good night: but go not to mine uncle's bed;
- Assume a virtue, if you have it not.
- That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat,
- Of habits devil, is angel yet in this,
- That to the use of actions fair and good
- He likewise gives a frock or livery,
- That aptly is put on. Refrain to-night,
- And that shall lend a kind of easiness
- To the next abstinence: the next more easy;
- For use almost can change the stamp of nature,
- And either [ ] the devil, or throw him out
- With wondrous potency. Once more, good night:
- And when you are desirous to be bless'd,
- I'll blessing beg of you. For this same lord,
-
- [Pointing to POLONIUS]
-
- I do repent: but heaven hath pleased it so,
- To punish me with this and this with me,
- That I must be their scourge and minister.
- I will bestow him, and will answer well
- The death I gave him. So, again, good night.
- I must be cruel, only to be kind:
- Thus bad begins and worse remains behind.
- One word more, good lady.
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE What shall I do?
-
-HAMLET Not this, by no means, that I bid you do:
- Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed;
- Pinch wanton on your cheek; call you his mouse;
- And let him, for a pair of reechy kisses,
- Or paddling in your neck with his damn'd fingers,
- Make you to ravel all this matter out,
- That I essentially am not in madness,
- But mad in craft. 'Twere good you let him know;
- For who, that's but a queen, fair, sober, wise,
- Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib,
- Such dear concernings hide? who would do so?
- No, in despite of sense and secrecy,
- Unpeg the basket on the house's top.
- Let the birds fly, and, like the famous ape,
- To try conclusions, in the basket creep,
- And break your own neck down.
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE Be thou assured, if words be made of breath,
- And breath of life, I have no life to breathe
- What thou hast said to me.
-
-HAMLET I must to England; you know that?
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE Alack,
- I had forgot: 'tis so concluded on.
-
-HAMLET There's letters seal'd: and my two schoolfellows,
- Whom I will trust as I will adders fang'd,
- They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way,
- And marshal me to knavery. Let it work;
- For 'tis the sport to have the engineer
- Hoist with his own petard: and 't shall go hard
- But I will delve one yard below their mines,
- And blow them at the moon: O, 'tis most sweet,
- When in one line two crafts directly meet.
- This man shall set me packing:
- I'll lug the guts into the neighbour room.
- Mother, good night. Indeed this counsellor
- Is now most still, most secret and most grave,
- Who was in life a foolish prating knave.
- Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you.
- Good night, mother.
-
- [Exeunt severally; HAMLET dragging in POLONIUS]
-
-
-
-
- HAMLET
-
-
-ACT IV
-
-
-
-SCENE I A room in the castle.
-
-
- [Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, ROSENCRANTZ,
- and GUILDENSTERN]
-
-KING CLAUDIUS There's matter in these sighs, these profound heaves:
- You must translate: 'tis fit we understand them.
- Where is your son?
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE Bestow this place on us a little while.
-
- [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN]
-
- Ah, my good lord, what have I seen to-night!
-
-KING CLAUDIUS What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet?
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE Mad as the sea and wind, when both contend
- Which is the mightier: in his lawless fit,
- Behind the arras hearing something stir,
- Whips out his rapier, cries, 'A rat, a rat!'
- And, in this brainish apprehension, kills
- The unseen good old man.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS O heavy deed!
- It had been so with us, had we been there:
- His liberty is full of threats to all;
- To you yourself, to us, to every one.
- Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answer'd?
- It will be laid to us, whose providence
- Should have kept short, restrain'd and out of haunt,
- This mad young man: but so much was our love,
- We would not understand what was most fit;
- But, like the owner of a foul disease,
- To keep it from divulging, let it feed
- Even on the pith of Life. Where is he gone?
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE To draw apart the body he hath kill'd:
- O'er whom his very madness, like some ore
- Among a mineral of metals base,
- Shows itself pure; he weeps for what is done.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS O Gertrude, come away!
- The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch,
- But we will ship him hence: and this vile deed
- We must, with all our majesty and skill,
- Both countenance and excuse. Ho, Guildenstern!
-
- [Re-enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN]
-
- Friends both, go join you with some further aid:
- Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain,
- And from his mother's closet hath he dragg'd him:
- Go seek him out; speak fair, and bring the body
- Into the chapel. I pray you, haste in this.
-
- [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN]
-
- Come, Gertrude, we'll call up our wisest friends;
- And let them know, both what we mean to do,
- And what's untimely done [ ]
- Whose whisper o'er the world's diameter,
- As level as the cannon to his blank,
- Transports his poison'd shot, may miss our name,
- And hit the woundless air. O, come away!
- My soul is full of discord and dismay.
-
- [Exeunt]
-
-
-
-
- HAMLET
-
-
-ACT IV
-
-
-
-SCENE II Another room in the castle.
-
-
- [Enter HAMLET]
-
-HAMLET Safely stowed.
-
-
-ROSENCRANTZ: |
- | [Within] Hamlet! Lord Hamlet!
-GUILDENSTERN: |
-
-
-HAMLET What noise? who calls on Hamlet?
- O, here they come.
-
- [Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN]
-
-ROSENCRANTZ What have you done, my lord, with the dead body?
-
-HAMLET Compounded it with dust, whereto 'tis kin.
-
-ROSENCRANTZ Tell us where 'tis, that we may take it thence
- And bear it to the chapel.
-
-HAMLET Do not believe it.
-
-ROSENCRANTZ Believe what?
-
-HAMLET That I can keep your counsel and not mine own.
- Besides, to be demanded of a sponge! what
- replication should be made by the son of a king?
-
-ROSENCRANTZ Take you me for a sponge, my lord?
-
-HAMLET Ay, sir, that soaks up the king's countenance, his
- rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the
- king best service in the end: he keeps them, like
- an ape, in the corner of his jaw; first mouthed, to
- be last swallowed: when he needs what you have
- gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you
- shall be dry again.
-
-ROSENCRANTZ I understand you not, my lord.
-
-HAMLET I am glad of it: a knavish speech sleeps in a
- foolish ear.
-
-ROSENCRANTZ My lord, you must tell us where the body is, and go
- with us to the king.
-
-HAMLET The body is with the king, but the king is not with
- the body. The king is a thing--
-
-GUILDENSTERN A thing, my lord!
-
-HAMLET Of nothing: bring me to him. Hide fox, and all after.
-
- [Exeunt]
-
-
-
-
- HAMLET
-
-
-ACT IV
-
-
-
-SCENE III Another room in the castle.
-
-
- [Enter KING CLAUDIUS, attended]
-
-KING CLAUDIUS I have sent to seek him, and to find the body.
- How dangerous is it that this man goes loose!
- Yet must not we put the strong law on him:
- He's loved of the distracted multitude,
- Who like not in their judgment, but their eyes;
- And where tis so, the offender's scourge is weigh'd,
- But never the offence. To bear all smooth and even,
- This sudden sending him away must seem
- Deliberate pause: diseases desperate grown
- By desperate appliance are relieved,
- Or not at all.
-
- [Enter ROSENCRANTZ]
-
- How now! what hath befall'n?
-
-ROSENCRANTZ Where the dead body is bestow'd, my lord,
- We cannot get from him.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS But where is he?
-
-ROSENCRANTZ Without, my lord; guarded, to know your pleasure.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Bring him before us.
-
-ROSENCRANTZ Ho, Guildenstern! bring in my lord.
-
- [Enter HAMLET and GUILDENSTERN]
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius?
-
-HAMLET At supper.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS At supper! where?
-
-HAMLET Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain
- convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your
- worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all
- creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for
- maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar is but
- variable service, two dishes, but to one table:
- that's the end.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Alas, alas!
-
-HAMLET A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a
- king, and cat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS What dost you mean by this?
-
-HAMLET Nothing but to show you how a king may go a
- progress through the guts of a beggar.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Where is Polonius?
-
-HAMLET In heaven; send hither to see: if your messenger
- find him not there, seek him i' the other place
- yourself. But indeed, if you find him not within
- this month, you shall nose him as you go up the
- stairs into the lobby.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Go seek him there.
-
- [To some Attendants]
-
-HAMLET He will stay till ye come.
-
- [Exeunt Attendants]
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safety,--
- Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve
- For that which thou hast done,--must send thee hence
- With fiery quickness: therefore prepare thyself;
- The bark is ready, and the wind at help,
- The associates tend, and every thing is bent
- For England.
-
-HAMLET For England!
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Ay, Hamlet.
-
-HAMLET Good.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes.
-
-HAMLET I see a cherub that sees them. But, come; for
- England! Farewell, dear mother.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Thy loving father, Hamlet.
-
-HAMLET My mother: father and mother is man and wife; man
- and wife is one flesh; and so, my mother. Come, for England!
-
- [Exit]
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed aboard;
- Delay it not; I'll have him hence to-night:
- Away! for every thing is seal'd and done
- That else leans on the affair: pray you, make haste.
-
- [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN]
-
- And, England, if my love thou hold'st at aught--
- As my great power thereof may give thee sense,
- Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red
- After the Danish sword, and thy free awe
- Pays homage to us--thou mayst not coldly set
- Our sovereign process; which imports at full,
- By letters congruing to that effect,
- The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England;
- For like the hectic in my blood he rages,
- And thou must cure me: till I know 'tis done,
- Howe'er my haps, my joys were ne'er begun.
-
- [Exit]
-
-
-
-
- HAMLET
-
-
-ACT IV
-
-
-
-SCENE IV A plain in Denmark.
-
-
- [Enter FORTINBRAS, a Captain, and Soldiers, marching]
-
-PRINCE FORTINBRAS Go, captain, from me greet the Danish king;
- Tell him that, by his licence, Fortinbras
- Craves the conveyance of a promised march
- Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous.
- If that his majesty would aught with us,
- We shall express our duty in his eye;
- And let him know so.
-
-Captain I will do't, my lord.
-
-PRINCE FORTINBRAS Go softly on.
-
- [Exeunt FORTINBRAS and Soldiers]
-
- [Enter HAMLET, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and others]
-
-HAMLET Good sir, whose powers are these?
-
-Captain They are of Norway, sir.
-
-HAMLET How purposed, sir, I pray you?
-
-Captain Against some part of Poland.
-
-HAMLET Who commands them, sir?
-
-Captain The nephews to old Norway, Fortinbras.
-
-HAMLET Goes it against the main of Poland, sir,
- Or for some frontier?
-
-Captain Truly to speak, and with no addition,
- We go to gain a little patch of ground
- That hath in it no profit but the name.
- To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it;
- Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole
- A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee.
-
-HAMLET Why, then the Polack never will defend it.
-
-Captain Yes, it is already garrison'd.
-
-HAMLET Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats
- Will not debate the question of this straw:
- This is the imposthume of much wealth and peace,
- That inward breaks, and shows no cause without
- Why the man dies. I humbly thank you, sir.
-
-Captain God be wi' you, sir.
-
- [Exit]
-
-ROSENCRANTZ Wilt please you go, my lord?
-
-HAMLET I'll be with you straight go a little before.
-
- [Exeunt all except HAMLET]
-
- How all occasions do inform against me,
- And spur my dull revenge! What is a man,
- If his chief good and market of his time
- Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more.
- Sure, he that made us with such large discourse,
- Looking before and after, gave us not
- That capability and god-like reason
- To fust in us unused. Now, whether it be
- Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple
- Of thinking too precisely on the event,
- A thought which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom
- And ever three parts coward, I do not know
- Why yet I live to say 'This thing's to do;'
- Sith I have cause and will and strength and means
- To do't. Examples gross as earth exhort me:
- Witness this army of such mass and charge
- Led by a delicate and tender prince,
- Whose spirit with divine ambition puff'd
- Makes mouths at the invisible event,
- Exposing what is mortal and unsure
- To all that fortune, death and danger dare,
- Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be great
- Is not to stir without great argument,
- But greatly to find quarrel in a straw
- When honour's at the stake. How stand I then,
- That have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd,
- Excitements of my reason and my blood,
- And let all sleep? while, to my shame, I see
- The imminent death of twenty thousand men,
- That, for a fantasy and trick of fame,
- Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot
- Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
- Which is not tomb enough and continent
- To hide the slain? O, from this time forth,
- My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!
-
- [Exit]
-
-
-
-
- HAMLET
-
-
-ACT IV
-
-
-SCENE V Elsinore. A room in the castle.
-
-
- [Enter QUEEN GERTRUDE, HORATIO, and a Gentleman]
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE I will not speak with her.
-
-Gentleman She is importunate, indeed distract:
- Her mood will needs be pitied.
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE What would she have?
-
-Gentleman She speaks much of her father; says she hears
- There's tricks i' the world; and hems, and beats her heart;
- Spurns enviously at straws; speaks things in doubt,
- That carry but half sense: her speech is nothing,
- Yet the unshaped use of it doth move
- The hearers to collection; they aim at it,
- And botch the words up fit to their own thoughts;
- Which, as her winks, and nods, and gestures
- yield them,
- Indeed would make one think there might be thought,
- Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily.
-
-HORATIO 'Twere good she were spoken with; for she may strew
- Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds.
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE Let her come in.
-
- [Exit HORATIO]
-
- To my sick soul, as sin's true nature is,
- Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss:
- So full of artless jealousy is guilt,
- It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.
-
- [Re-enter HORATIO, with OPHELIA]
-
-OPHELIA Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark?
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE How now, Ophelia!
-
-OPHELIA [Sings]
-
- How should I your true love know
- From another one?
- By his cockle hat and staff,
- And his sandal shoon.
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE Alas, sweet lady, what imports this song?
-
-OPHELIA Say you? nay, pray you, mark.
-
- [Sings]
-
- He is dead and gone, lady,
- He is dead and gone;
- At his head a grass-green turf,
- At his heels a stone.
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE Nay, but, Ophelia,--
-
-OPHELIA Pray you, mark.
-
- [Sings]
-
- White his shroud as the mountain snow,--
-
- [Enter KING CLAUDIUS]
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE Alas, look here, my lord.
-
-OPHELIA [Sings]
-
- Larded with sweet flowers
- Which bewept to the grave did go
- With true-love showers.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS How do you, pretty lady?
-
-OPHELIA Well, God 'ild you! They say the owl was a baker's
- daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but know not
- what we may be. God be at your table!
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Conceit upon her father.
-
-OPHELIA Pray you, let's have no words of this; but when they
- ask you what it means, say you this:
-
- [Sings]
-
- To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day,
- All in the morning betime,
- And I a maid at your window,
- To be your Valentine.
- Then up he rose, and donn'd his clothes,
- And dupp'd the chamber-door;
- Let in the maid, that out a maid
- Never departed more.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Pretty Ophelia!
-
-OPHELIA Indeed, la, without an oath, I'll make an end on't:
-
- [Sings]
-
- By Gis and by Saint Charity,
- Alack, and fie for shame!
- Young men will do't, if they come to't;
- By cock, they are to blame.
- Quoth she, before you tumbled me,
- You promised me to wed.
- So would I ha' done, by yonder sun,
- An thou hadst not come to my bed.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS How long hath she been thus?
-
-OPHELIA I hope all will be well. We must be patient: but I
- cannot choose but weep, to think they should lay him
- i' the cold ground. My brother shall know of it:
- and so I thank you for your good counsel. Come, my
- coach! Good night, ladies; good night, sweet ladies;
- good night, good night.
-
- [Exit]
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Follow her close; give her good watch,
- I pray you.
-
- [Exit HORATIO]
-
- O, this is the poison of deep grief; it springs
- All from her father's death. O Gertrude, Gertrude,
- When sorrows come, they come not single spies
- But in battalions. First, her father slain:
- Next, your son gone; and he most violent author
- Of his own just remove: the people muddied,
- Thick and unwholesome in their thoughts and whispers,
- For good Polonius' death; and we have done but greenly,
- In hugger-mugger to inter him: poor Ophelia
- Divided from herself and her fair judgment,
- Without the which we are pictures, or mere beasts:
- Last, and as much containing as all these,
- Her brother is in secret come from France;
- Feeds on his wonder, keeps himself in clouds,
- And wants not buzzers to infect his ear
- With pestilent speeches of his father's death;
- Wherein necessity, of matter beggar'd,
- Will nothing stick our person to arraign
- In ear and ear. O my dear Gertrude, this,
- Like to a murdering-piece, in many places
- Gives me superfluous death.
-
- [A noise within]
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE Alack, what noise is this?
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Where are my Switzers? Let them guard the door.
-
- [Enter another Gentleman]
-
- What is the matter?
-
-Gentleman Save yourself, my lord:
- The ocean, overpeering of his list,
- Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste
- Than young Laertes, in a riotous head,
- O'erbears your officers. The rabble call him lord;
- And, as the world were now but to begin,
- Antiquity forgot, custom not known,
- The ratifiers and props of every word,
- They cry 'Choose we: Laertes shall be king:'
- Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds:
- 'Laertes shall be king, Laertes king!'
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE How cheerfully on the false trail they cry!
- O, this is counter, you false Danish dogs!
-
-KING CLAUDIUS The doors are broke.
-
- [Noise within]
-
- [Enter LAERTES, armed; Danes following]
-
-LAERTES Where is this king? Sirs, stand you all without.
-
-Danes No, let's come in.
-
-LAERTES I pray you, give me leave.
-
-Danes We will, we will.
-
- [They retire without the door]
-
-LAERTES I thank you: keep the door. O thou vile king,
- Give me my father!
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE Calmly, good Laertes.
-
-LAERTES That drop of blood that's calm proclaims me bastard,
- Cries cuckold to my father, brands the harlot
- Even here, between the chaste unsmirched brow
- Of my true mother.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS What is the cause, Laertes,
- That thy rebellion looks so giant-like?
- Let him go, Gertrude; do not fear our person:
- There's such divinity doth hedge a king,
- That treason can but peep to what it would,
- Acts little of his will. Tell me, Laertes,
- Why thou art thus incensed. Let him go, Gertrude.
- Speak, man.
-
-LAERTES Where is my father?
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Dead.
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE But not by him.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Let him demand his fill.
-
-LAERTES How came he dead? I'll not be juggled with:
- To hell, allegiance! vows, to the blackest devil!
- Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit!
- I dare damnation. To this point I stand,
- That both the worlds I give to negligence,
- Let come what comes; only I'll be revenged
- Most thoroughly for my father.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Who shall stay you?
-
-LAERTES My will, not all the world:
- And for my means, I'll husband them so well,
- They shall go far with little.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Good Laertes,
- If you desire to know the certainty
- Of your dear father's death, is't writ in your revenge,
- That, swoopstake, you will draw both friend and foe,
- Winner and loser?
-
-LAERTES None but his enemies.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Will you know them then?
-
-LAERTES To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my arms;
- And like the kind life-rendering pelican,
- Repast them with my blood.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Why, now you speak
- Like a good child and a true gentleman.
- That I am guiltless of your father's death,
- And am most sensible in grief for it,
- It shall as level to your judgment pierce
- As day does to your eye.
-
-Danes [Within] Let her come in.
-
-LAERTES How now! what noise is that?
-
- [Re-enter OPHELIA]
-
- O heat, dry up my brains! tears seven times salt,
- Burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye!
- By heaven, thy madness shall be paid by weight,
- Till our scale turn the beam. O rose of May!
- Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia!
- O heavens! is't possible, a young maid's wits
- Should be as moral as an old man's life?
- Nature is fine in love, and where 'tis fine,
- It sends some precious instance of itself
- After the thing it loves.
-
-OPHELIA [Sings]
-
- They bore him barefaced on the bier;
- Hey non nonny, nonny, hey nonny;
- And in his grave rain'd many a tear:--
- Fare you well, my dove!
-
-LAERTES Hadst thou thy wits, and didst persuade revenge,
- It could not move thus.
-
-OPHELIA [Sings]
-
- You must sing a-down a-down,
- An you call him a-down-a.
- O, how the wheel becomes it! It is the false
- steward, that stole his master's daughter.
-
-LAERTES This nothing's more than matter.
-
-OPHELIA There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray,
- love, remember: and there is pansies. that's for thoughts.
-
-LAERTES A document in madness, thoughts and remembrance fitted.
-
-OPHELIA There's fennel for you, and columbines: there's rue
- for you; and here's some for me: we may call it
- herb-grace o' Sundays: O you must wear your rue with
- a difference. There's a daisy: I would give you
- some violets, but they withered all when my father
- died: they say he made a good end,--
-
- [Sings]
-
- For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy.
-
-LAERTES Thought and affliction, passion, hell itself,
- She turns to favour and to prettiness.
-
-OPHELIA [Sings]
-
- And will he not come again?
- And will he not come again?
- No, no, he is dead:
- Go to thy death-bed:
- He never will come again.
-
- His beard was as white as snow,
- All flaxen was his poll:
- He is gone, he is gone,
- And we cast away moan:
- God ha' mercy on his soul!
-
- And of all Christian souls, I pray God. God be wi' ye.
-
- [Exit]
-
-LAERTES Do you see this, O God?
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Laertes, I must commune with your grief,
- Or you deny me right. Go but apart,
- Make choice of whom your wisest friends you will.
- And they shall hear and judge 'twixt you and me:
- If by direct or by collateral hand
- They find us touch'd, we will our kingdom give,
- Our crown, our life, and all that we can ours,
- To you in satisfaction; but if not,
- Be you content to lend your patience to us,
- And we shall jointly labour with your soul
- To give it due content.
-
-LAERTES Let this be so;
- His means of death, his obscure funeral--
- No trophy, sword, nor hatchment o'er his bones,
- No noble rite nor formal ostentation--
- Cry to be heard, as 'twere from heaven to earth,
- That I must call't in question.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS So you shall;
- And where the offence is let the great axe fall.
- I pray you, go with me.
-
- [Exeunt]
-
-
-
-
- HAMLET
-
-
-ACT IV
-
-
-
-SCENE VI Another room in the castle.
-
-
- [Enter HORATIO and a Servant]
-
-HORATIO What are they that would speak with me?
-
-Servant Sailors, sir: they say they have letters for you.
-
-HORATIO Let them come in.
-
- [Exit Servant]
-
- I do not know from what part of the world
- I should be greeted, if not from Lord Hamlet.
-
- [Enter Sailors]
-
-First Sailor God bless you, sir.
-
-HORATIO Let him bless thee too.
-
-First Sailor He shall, sir, an't please him. There's a letter for
- you, sir; it comes from the ambassador that was
- bound for England; if your name be Horatio, as I am
- let to know it is.
-
-HORATIO [Reads] 'Horatio, when thou shalt have overlooked
- this, give these fellows some means to the king:
- they have letters for him. Ere we were two days old
- at sea, a pirate of very warlike appointment gave us
- chase. Finding ourselves too slow of sail, we put on
- a compelled valour, and in the grapple I boarded
- them: on the instant they got clear of our ship; so
- I alone became their prisoner. They have dealt with
- me like thieves of mercy: but they knew what they
- did; I am to do a good turn for them. Let the king
- have the letters I have sent; and repair thou to me
- with as much speed as thou wouldst fly death. I
- have words to speak in thine ear will make thee
- dumb; yet are they much too light for the bore of
- the matter. These good fellows will bring thee
- where I am. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern hold their
- course for England: of them I have much to tell
- thee. Farewell.
- 'He that thou knowest thine, HAMLET.'
- Come, I will make you way for these your letters;
- And do't the speedier, that you may direct me
- To him from whom you brought them.
-
- [Exeunt]
-
-
-
-
- HAMLET
-
-
-ACT IV
-
-
-SCENE VII Another room in the castle.
-
-
- [Enter KING CLAUDIUS and LAERTES]
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Now must your conscience my acquaintance seal,
- And you must put me in your heart for friend,
- Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear,
- That he which hath your noble father slain
- Pursued my life.
-
-LAERTES It well appears: but tell me
- Why you proceeded not against these feats,
- So crimeful and so capital in nature,
- As by your safety, wisdom, all things else,
- You mainly were stirr'd up.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS O, for two special reasons;
- Which may to you, perhaps, seem much unsinew'd,
- But yet to me they are strong. The queen his mother
- Lives almost by his looks; and for myself--
- My virtue or my plague, be it either which--
- She's so conjunctive to my life and soul,
- That, as the star moves not but in his sphere,
- I could not but by her. The other motive,
- Why to a public count I might not go,
- Is the great love the general gender bear him;
- Who, dipping all his faults in their affection,
- Would, like the spring that turneth wood to stone,
- Convert his gyves to graces; so that my arrows,
- Too slightly timber'd for so loud a wind,
- Would have reverted to my bow again,
- And not where I had aim'd them.
-
-LAERTES And so have I a noble father lost;
- A sister driven into desperate terms,
- Whose worth, if praises may go back again,
- Stood challenger on mount of all the age
- For her perfections: but my revenge will come.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Break not your sleeps for that: you must not think
- That we are made of stuff so flat and dull
- That we can let our beard be shook with danger
- And think it pastime. You shortly shall hear more:
- I loved your father, and we love ourself;
- And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine--
-
- [Enter a Messenger]
-
- How now! what news?
-
-Messenger Letters, my lord, from Hamlet:
- This to your majesty; this to the queen.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS From Hamlet! who brought them?
-
-Messenger Sailors, my lord, they say; I saw them not:
- They were given me by Claudio; he received them
- Of him that brought them.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Laertes, you shall hear them. Leave us.
-
- [Exit Messenger]
-
- [Reads]
-
- 'High and mighty, You shall know I am set naked on
- your kingdom. To-morrow shall I beg leave to see
- your kingly eyes: when I shall, first asking your
- pardon thereunto, recount the occasion of my sudden
- and more strange return. 'HAMLET.'
- What should this mean? Are all the rest come back?
- Or is it some abuse, and no such thing?
-
-LAERTES Know you the hand?
-
-KING CLAUDIUS 'Tis Hamlets character. 'Naked!
- And in a postscript here, he says 'alone.'
- Can you advise me?
-
-LAERTES I'm lost in it, my lord. But let him come;
- It warms the very sickness in my heart,
- That I shall live and tell him to his teeth,
- 'Thus didest thou.'
-
-KING CLAUDIUS If it be so, Laertes--
- As how should it be so? how otherwise?--
- Will you be ruled by me?
-
-LAERTES Ay, my lord;
- So you will not o'errule me to a peace.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS To thine own peace. If he be now return'd,
- As checking at his voyage, and that he means
- No more to undertake it, I will work him
- To an exploit, now ripe in my device,
- Under the which he shall not choose but fall:
- And for his death no wind of blame shall breathe,
- But even his mother shall uncharge the practise
- And call it accident.
-
-LAERTES My lord, I will be ruled;
- The rather, if you could devise it so
- That I might be the organ.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS It falls right.
- You have been talk'd of since your travel much,
- And that in Hamlet's hearing, for a quality
- Wherein, they say, you shine: your sum of parts
- Did not together pluck such envy from him
- As did that one, and that, in my regard,
- Of the unworthiest siege.
-
-LAERTES What part is that, my lord?
-
-KING CLAUDIUS A very riband in the cap of youth,
- Yet needful too; for youth no less becomes
- The light and careless livery that it wears
- Than settled age his sables and his weeds,
- Importing health and graveness. Two months since,
- Here was a gentleman of Normandy:--
- I've seen myself, and served against, the French,
- And they can well on horseback: but this gallant
- Had witchcraft in't; he grew unto his seat;
- And to such wondrous doing brought his horse,
- As he had been incorpsed and demi-natured
- With the brave beast: so far he topp'd my thought,
- That I, in forgery of shapes and tricks,
- Come short of what he did.
-
-LAERTES A Norman was't?
-
-KING CLAUDIUS A Norman.
-
-LAERTES Upon my life, Lamond.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS The very same.
-
-LAERTES I know him well: he is the brooch indeed
- And gem of all the nation.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS He made confession of you,
- And gave you such a masterly report
- For art and exercise in your defence
- And for your rapier most especially,
- That he cried out, 'twould be a sight indeed,
- If one could match you: the scrimers of their nation,
- He swore, had had neither motion, guard, nor eye,
- If you opposed them. Sir, this report of his
- Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy
- That he could nothing do but wish and beg
- Your sudden coming o'er, to play with him.
- Now, out of this,--
-
-LAERTES What out of this, my lord?
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Laertes, was your father dear to you?
- Or are you like the painting of a sorrow,
- A face without a heart?
-
-LAERTES Why ask you this?
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Not that I think you did not love your father;
- But that I know love is begun by time;
- And that I see, in passages of proof,
- Time qualifies the spark and fire of it.
- There lives within the very flame of love
- A kind of wick or snuff that will abate it;
- And nothing is at a like goodness still;
- For goodness, growing to a plurisy,
- Dies in his own too much: that we would do
- We should do when we would; for this 'would' changes
- And hath abatements and delays as many
- As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents;
- And then this 'should' is like a spendthrift sigh,
- That hurts by easing. But, to the quick o' the ulcer:--
- Hamlet comes back: what would you undertake,
- To show yourself your father's son in deed
- More than in words?
-
-LAERTES To cut his throat i' the church.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS No place, indeed, should murder sanctuarize;
- Revenge should have no bounds. But, good Laertes,
- Will you do this, keep close within your chamber.
- Hamlet return'd shall know you are come home:
- We'll put on those shall praise your excellence
- And set a double varnish on the fame
- The Frenchman gave you, bring you in fine together
- And wager on your heads: he, being remiss,
- Most generous and free from all contriving,
- Will not peruse the foils; so that, with ease,
- Or with a little shuffling, you may choose
- A sword unbated, and in a pass of practise
- Requite him for your father.
-
-LAERTES I will do't:
- And, for that purpose, I'll anoint my sword.
- I bought an unction of a mountebank,
- So mortal that, but dip a knife in it,
- Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare,
- Collected from all simples that have virtue
- Under the moon, can save the thing from death
- That is but scratch'd withal: I'll touch my point
- With this contagion, that, if I gall him slightly,
- It may be death.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Let's further think of this;
- Weigh what convenience both of time and means
- May fit us to our shape: if this should fail,
- And that our drift look through our bad performance,
- 'Twere better not assay'd: therefore this project
- Should have a back or second, that might hold,
- If this should blast in proof. Soft! let me see:
- We'll make a solemn wager on your cunnings: I ha't.
- When in your motion you are hot and dry--
- As make your bouts more violent to that end--
- And that he calls for drink, I'll have prepared him
- A chalice for the nonce, whereon but sipping,
- If he by chance escape your venom'd stuck,
- Our purpose may hold there.
-
- [Enter QUEEN GERTRUDE]
-
- How now, sweet queen!
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE One woe doth tread upon another's heel,
- So fast they follow; your sister's drown'd, Laertes.
-
-LAERTES Drown'd! O, where?
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE There is a willow grows aslant a brook,
- That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream;
- There with fantastic garlands did she come
- Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples
- That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
- But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them:
- There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds
- Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke;
- When down her weedy trophies and herself
- Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide;
- And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up:
- Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes;
- As one incapable of her own distress,
- Or like a creature native and indued
- Unto that element: but long it could not be
- Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
- Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay
- To muddy death.
-
-LAERTES Alas, then, she is drown'd?
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE Drown'd, drown'd.
-
-LAERTES Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia,
- And therefore I forbid my tears: but yet
- It is our trick; nature her custom holds,
- Let shame say what it will: when these are gone,
- The woman will be out. Adieu, my lord:
- I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze,
- But that this folly douts it.
-
- [Exit]
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Let's follow, Gertrude:
- How much I had to do to calm his rage!
- Now fear I this will give it start again;
- Therefore let's follow.
-
- [Exeunt]
-
-
-
-
- HAMLET
-
-
-ACT V
-
-
-
-SCENE I A churchyard.
-
-
- [Enter two Clowns, with spades, &c]
-
-First Clown Is she to be buried in Christian burial that
- wilfully seeks her own salvation?
-
-Second Clown I tell thee she is: and therefore make her grave
- straight: the crowner hath sat on her, and finds it
- Christian burial.
-
-First Clown How can that be, unless she drowned herself in her
- own defence?
-
-Second Clown Why, 'tis found so.
-
-First Clown It must be 'se offendendo;' it cannot be else. For
- here lies the point: if I drown myself wittingly,
- it argues an act: and an act hath three branches: it
- is, to act, to do, to perform: argal, she drowned
- herself wittingly.
-
-Second Clown Nay, but hear you, goodman delver,--
-
-First Clown Give me leave. Here lies the water; good: here
- stands the man; good; if the man go to this water,
- and drown himself, it is, will he, nill he, he
- goes,--mark you that; but if the water come to him
- and drown him, he drowns not himself: argal, he
- that is not guilty of his own death shortens not his own life.
-
-Second Clown But is this law?
-
-First Clown Ay, marry, is't; crowner's quest law.
-
-Second Clown Will you ha' the truth on't? If this had not been
- a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out o'
- Christian burial.
-
-First Clown Why, there thou say'st: and the more pity that
- great folk should have countenance in this world to
- drown or hang themselves, more than their even
- Christian. Come, my spade. There is no ancient
- gentleman but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers:
- they hold up Adam's profession.
-
-Second Clown Was he a gentleman?
-
-First Clown He was the first that ever bore arms.
-
-Second Clown Why, he had none.
-
-First Clown What, art a heathen? How dost thou understand the
- Scripture? The Scripture says 'Adam digged:'
- could he dig without arms? I'll put another
- question to thee: if thou answerest me not to the
- purpose, confess thyself--
-
-Second Clown Go to.
-
-First Clown What is he that builds stronger than either the
- mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter?
-
-Second Clown The gallows-maker; for that frame outlives a
- thousand tenants.
-
-First Clown I like thy wit well, in good faith: the gallows
- does well; but how does it well? it does well to
- those that do in: now thou dost ill to say the
- gallows is built stronger than the church: argal,
- the gallows may do well to thee. To't again, come.
-
-Second Clown 'Who builds stronger than a mason, a shipwright, or
- a carpenter?'
-
-First Clown Ay, tell me that, and unyoke.
-
-Second Clown Marry, now I can tell.
-
-First Clown To't.
-
-Second Clown Mass, I cannot tell.
-
- [Enter HAMLET and HORATIO, at a distance]
-
-First Clown Cudgel thy brains no more about it, for your dull
- ass will not mend his pace with beating; and, when
- you are asked this question next, say 'a
- grave-maker: 'the houses that he makes last till
- doomsday. Go, get thee to Yaughan: fetch me a
- stoup of liquor.
-
- [Exit Second Clown]
-
- [He digs and sings]
-
- In youth, when I did love, did love,
- Methought it was very sweet,
- To contract, O, the time, for, ah, my behove,
- O, methought, there was nothing meet.
-
-HAMLET Has this fellow no feeling of his business, that he
- sings at grave-making?
-
-HORATIO Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness.
-
-HAMLET 'Tis e'en so: the hand of little employment hath
- the daintier sense.
-
-First Clown [Sings]
-
- But age, with his stealing steps,
- Hath claw'd me in his clutch,
- And hath shipped me intil the land,
- As if I had never been such.
-
- [Throws up a skull]
-
-HAMLET That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once:
- how the knave jowls it to the ground, as if it were
- Cain's jaw-bone, that did the first murder! It
- might be the pate of a politician, which this ass
- now o'er-reaches; one that would circumvent God,
- might it not?
-
-HORATIO It might, my lord.
-
-HAMLET Or of a courtier; which could say 'Good morrow,
- sweet lord! How dost thou, good lord?' This might
- be my lord such-a-one, that praised my lord
- such-a-one's horse, when he meant to beg it; might it not?
-
-HORATIO Ay, my lord.
-
-HAMLET Why, e'en so: and now my Lady Worm's; chapless, and
- knocked about the mazzard with a sexton's spade:
- here's fine revolution, an we had the trick to
- see't. Did these bones cost no more the breeding,
- but to play at loggats with 'em? mine ache to think on't.
-
-First Clown: [Sings]
-
- A pick-axe, and a spade, a spade,
- For and a shrouding sheet:
- O, a pit of clay for to be made
- For such a guest is meet.
-
- [Throws up another skull]
-
-HAMLET There's another: why may not that be the skull of a
- lawyer? Where be his quiddities now, his quillets,
- his cases, his tenures, and his tricks? why does he
- suffer this rude knave now to knock him about the
- sconce with a dirty shovel, and will not tell him of
- his action of battery? Hum! This fellow might be
- in's time a great buyer of land, with his statutes,
- his recognizances, his fines, his double vouchers,
- his recoveries: is this the fine of his fines, and
- the recovery of his recoveries, to have his fine
- pate full of fine dirt? will his vouchers vouch him
- no more of his purchases, and double ones too, than
- the length and breadth of a pair of indentures? The
- very conveyances of his lands will hardly lie in
- this box; and must the inheritor himself have no more, ha?
-
-HORATIO Not a jot more, my lord.
-
-HAMLET Is not parchment made of sheepskins?
-
-HORATIO Ay, my lord, and of calf-skins too.
-
-HAMLET They are sheep and calves which seek out assurance
- in that. I will speak to this fellow. Whose
- grave's this, sirrah?
-
-First Clown Mine, sir.
-
- [Sings]
-
- O, a pit of clay for to be made
- For such a guest is meet.
-
-HAMLET I think it be thine, indeed; for thou liest in't.
-
-First Clown You lie out on't, sir, and therefore it is not
- yours: for my part, I do not lie in't, and yet it is mine.
-
-HAMLET 'Thou dost lie in't, to be in't and say it is thine:
- 'tis for the dead, not for the quick; therefore thou liest.
-
-First Clown 'Tis a quick lie, sir; 'twill away gain, from me to
- you.
-
-HAMLET What man dost thou dig it for?
-
-First Clown For no man, sir.
-
-HAMLET What woman, then?
-
-First Clown For none, neither.
-
-HAMLET Who is to be buried in't?
-
-First Clown One that was a woman, sir; but, rest her soul, she's dead.
-
-HAMLET How absolute the knave is! we must speak by the
- card, or equivocation will undo us. By the Lord,
- Horatio, these three years I have taken a note of
- it; the age is grown so picked that the toe of the
- peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier, he
- gaffs his kibe. How long hast thou been a
- grave-maker?
-
-First Clown Of all the days i' the year, I came to't that day
- that our last king Hamlet overcame Fortinbras.
-
-HAMLET How long is that since?
-
-First Clown Cannot you tell that? every fool can tell that: it
- was the very day that young Hamlet was born; he that
- is mad, and sent into England.
-
-HAMLET Ay, marry, why was he sent into England?
-
-First Clown Why, because he was mad: he shall recover his wits
- there; or, if he do not, it's no great matter there.
-
-HAMLET Why?
-
-First Clown 'Twill, a not be seen in him there; there the men
- are as mad as he.
-
-HAMLET How came he mad?
-
-First Clown Very strangely, they say.
-
-HAMLET How strangely?
-
-First Clown Faith, e'en with losing his wits.
-
-HAMLET Upon what ground?
-
-First Clown Why, here in Denmark: I have been sexton here, man
- and boy, thirty years.
-
-HAMLET How long will a man lie i' the earth ere he rot?
-
-First Clown I' faith, if he be not rotten before he die--as we
- have many pocky corses now-a-days, that will scarce
- hold the laying in--he will last you some eight year
- or nine year: a tanner will last you nine year.
-
-HAMLET Why he more than another?
-
-First Clown Why, sir, his hide is so tanned with his trade, that
- he will keep out water a great while; and your water
- is a sore decayer of your whoreson dead body.
- Here's a skull now; this skull has lain in the earth
- three and twenty years.
-
-HAMLET Whose was it?
-
-First Clown A whoreson mad fellow's it was: whose do you think it was?
-
-HAMLET Nay, I know not.
-
-First Clown A pestilence on him for a mad rogue! a' poured a
- flagon of Rhenish on my head once. This same skull,
- sir, was Yorick's skull, the king's jester.
-
-HAMLET This?
-
-First Clown E'en that.
-
-HAMLET Let me see.
-
- [Takes the skull]
-
- Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow
- of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath
- borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how
- abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rims at
- it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know
- not how oft. Where be your gibes now? your
- gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment,
- that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one
- now, to mock your own grinning? quite chap-fallen?
- Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let
- her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must
- come; make her laugh at that. Prithee, Horatio, tell
- me one thing.
-
-HORATIO What's that, my lord?
-
-HAMLET Dost thou think Alexander looked o' this fashion i'
- the earth?
-
-HORATIO E'en so.
-
-HAMLET And smelt so? pah!
-
- [Puts down the skull]
-
-HORATIO E'en so, my lord.
-
-HAMLET To what base uses we may return, Horatio! Why may
- not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander,
- till he find it stopping a bung-hole?
-
-HORATIO 'Twere to consider too curiously, to consider so.
-
-HAMLET No, faith, not a jot; but to follow him thither with
- modesty enough, and likelihood to lead it: as
- thus: Alexander died, Alexander was buried,
- Alexander returneth into dust; the dust is earth; of
- earth we make loam; and why of that loam, whereto he
- was converted, might they not stop a beer-barrel?
- Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay,
- Might stop a hole to keep the wind away:
- O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe,
- Should patch a wall to expel the winter flaw!
- But soft! but soft! aside: here comes the king.
-
- [Enter Priest, &c. in procession; the Corpse of
- OPHELIA, LAERTES and Mourners following; KING
- CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, their trains, &c]
-
- The queen, the courtiers: who is this they follow?
- And with such maimed rites? This doth betoken
- The corse they follow did with desperate hand
- Fordo its own life: 'twas of some estate.
- Couch we awhile, and mark.
-
- [Retiring with HORATIO]
-
-LAERTES What ceremony else?
-
-HAMLET That is Laertes,
- A very noble youth: mark.
-
-LAERTES What ceremony else?
-
-First Priest Her obsequies have been as far enlarged
- As we have warrantise: her death was doubtful;
- And, but that great command o'ersways the order,
- She should in ground unsanctified have lodged
- Till the last trumpet: for charitable prayers,
- Shards, flints and pebbles should be thrown on her;
- Yet here she is allow'd her virgin crants,
- Her maiden strewments and the bringing home
- Of bell and burial.
-
-LAERTES Must there no more be done?
-
-First Priest No more be done:
- We should profane the service of the dead
- To sing a requiem and such rest to her
- As to peace-parted souls.
-
-LAERTES Lay her i' the earth:
- And from her fair and unpolluted flesh
- May violets spring! I tell thee, churlish priest,
- A ministering angel shall my sister be,
- When thou liest howling.
-
-HAMLET What, the fair Ophelia!
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE Sweets to the sweet: farewell!
-
- [Scattering flowers]
-
- I hoped thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife;
- I thought thy bride-bed to have deck'd, sweet maid,
- And not have strew'd thy grave.
-
-LAERTES O, treble woe
- Fall ten times treble on that cursed head,
- Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense
- Deprived thee of! Hold off the earth awhile,
- Till I have caught her once more in mine arms:
-
- [Leaps into the grave]
-
- Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead,
- Till of this flat a mountain you have made,
- To o'ertop old Pelion, or the skyish head
- Of blue Olympus.
-
-HAMLET [Advancing] What is he whose grief
- Bears such an emphasis? whose phrase of sorrow
- Conjures the wandering stars, and makes them stand
- Like wonder-wounded hearers? This is I,
- Hamlet the Dane.
-
- [Leaps into the grave]
-
-LAERTES The devil take thy soul!
-
- [Grappling with him]
-
-HAMLET Thou pray'st not well.
- I prithee, take thy fingers from my throat;
- For, though I am not splenitive and rash,
- Yet have I something in me dangerous,
- Which let thy wiseness fear: hold off thy hand.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Pluck them asunder.
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE Hamlet, Hamlet!
-
-All Gentlemen,--
-
-HORATIO Good my lord, be quiet.
-
- [The Attendants part them, and they come out of the grave]
-
-HAMLET Why I will fight with him upon this theme
- Until my eyelids will no longer wag.
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE O my son, what theme?
-
-HAMLET I loved Ophelia: forty thousand brothers
- Could not, with all their quantity of love,
- Make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her?
-
-KING CLAUDIUS O, he is mad, Laertes.
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE For love of God, forbear him.
-
-HAMLET 'Swounds, show me what thou'lt do:
- Woo't weep? woo't fight? woo't fast? woo't tear thyself?
- Woo't drink up eisel? eat a crocodile?
- I'll do't. Dost thou come here to whine?
- To outface me with leaping in her grave?
- Be buried quick with her, and so will I:
- And, if thou prate of mountains, let them throw
- Millions of acres on us, till our ground,
- Singeing his pate against the burning zone,
- Make Ossa like a wart! Nay, an thou'lt mouth,
- I'll rant as well as thou.
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE This is mere madness:
- And thus awhile the fit will work on him;
- Anon, as patient as the female dove,
- When that her golden couplets are disclosed,
- His silence will sit drooping.
-
-HAMLET Hear you, sir;
- What is the reason that you use me thus?
- I loved you ever: but it is no matter;
- Let Hercules himself do what he may,
- The cat will mew and dog will have his day.
-
- [Exit]
-
-KING CLAUDIUS I pray you, good Horatio, wait upon him.
-
- [Exit HORATIO]
-
- [To LAERTES]
-
- Strengthen your patience in our last night's speech;
- We'll put the matter to the present push.
- Good Gertrude, set some watch over your son.
- This grave shall have a living monument:
- An hour of quiet shortly shall we see;
- Till then, in patience our proceeding be.
-
- [Exeunt]
-
-
-
- HAMLET
-
-
-ACT V
-
-
-
-SCENE II A hall in the castle.
-
-
- [Enter HAMLET and HORATIO]
-
-HAMLET So much for this, sir: now shall you see the other;
- You do remember all the circumstance?
-
-HORATIO Remember it, my lord?
-
-HAMLET Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting,
- That would not let me sleep: methought I lay
- Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly,
- And praised be rashness for it, let us know,
- Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well,
- When our deep plots do pall: and that should teach us
- There's a divinity that shapes our ends,
- Rough-hew them how we will,--
-
-HORATIO That is most certain.
-
-HAMLET Up from my cabin,
- My sea-gown scarf'd about me, in the dark
- Groped I to find out them; had my desire.
- Finger'd their packet, and in fine withdrew
- To mine own room again; making so bold,
- My fears forgetting manners, to unseal
- Their grand commission; where I found, Horatio,--
- O royal knavery!--an exact command,
- Larded with many several sorts of reasons
- Importing Denmark's health and England's too,
- With, ho! such bugs and goblins in my life,
- That, on the supervise, no leisure bated,
- No, not to stay the grinding of the axe,
- My head should be struck off.
-
-HORATIO Is't possible?
-
-HAMLET Here's the commission: read it at more leisure.
- But wilt thou hear me how I did proceed?
-
-HORATIO I beseech you.
-
-HAMLET Being thus be-netted round with villanies,--
- Ere I could make a prologue to my brains,
- They had begun the play--I sat me down,
- Devised a new commission, wrote it fair:
- I once did hold it, as our statists do,
- A baseness to write fair and labour'd much
- How to forget that learning, but, sir, now
- It did me yeoman's service: wilt thou know
- The effect of what I wrote?
-
-HORATIO Ay, good my lord.
-
-HAMLET An earnest conjuration from the king,
- As England was his faithful tributary,
- As love between them like the palm might flourish,
- As peace should stiff her wheaten garland wear
- And stand a comma 'tween their amities,
- And many such-like 'As'es of great charge,
- That, on the view and knowing of these contents,
- Without debatement further, more or less,
- He should the bearers put to sudden death,
- Not shriving-time allow'd.
-
-HORATIO How was this seal'd?
-
-HAMLET Why, even in that was heaven ordinant.
- I had my father's signet in my purse,
- Which was the model of that Danish seal;
- Folded the writ up in form of the other,
- Subscribed it, gave't the impression, placed it safely,
- The changeling never known. Now, the next day
- Was our sea-fight; and what to this was sequent
- Thou know'st already.
-
-HORATIO So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to't.
-
-HAMLET Why, man, they did make love to this employment;
- They are not near my conscience; their defeat
- Does by their own insinuation grow:
- 'Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes
- Between the pass and fell incensed points
- Of mighty opposites.
-
-HORATIO Why, what a king is this!
-
-HAMLET Does it not, think'st thee, stand me now upon--
- He that hath kill'd my king and whored my mother,
- Popp'd in between the election and my hopes,
- Thrown out his angle for my proper life,
- And with such cozenage--is't not perfect conscience,
- To quit him with this arm? and is't not to be damn'd,
- To let this canker of our nature come
- In further evil?
-
-HORATIO It must be shortly known to him from England
- What is the issue of the business there.
-
-HAMLET It will be short: the interim is mine;
- And a man's life's no more than to say 'One.'
- But I am very sorry, good Horatio,
- That to Laertes I forgot myself;
- For, by the image of my cause, I see
- The portraiture of his: I'll court his favours.
- But, sure, the bravery of his grief did put me
- Into a towering passion.
-
-HORATIO Peace! who comes here?
-
- [Enter OSRIC]
-
-OSRIC Your lordship is right welcome back to Denmark.
-
-HAMLET I humbly thank you, sir. Dost know this water-fly?
-
-HORATIO No, my good lord.
-
-HAMLET Thy state is the more gracious; for 'tis a vice to
- know him. He hath much land, and fertile: let a
- beast be lord of beasts, and his crib shall stand at
- the king's mess: 'tis a chough; but, as I say,
- spacious in the possession of dirt.
-
-OSRIC Sweet lord, if your lordship were at leisure, I
- should impart a thing to you from his majesty.
-
-HAMLET I will receive it, sir, with all diligence of
- spirit. Put your bonnet to his right use; 'tis for the head.
-
-OSRIC I thank your lordship, it is very hot.
-
-HAMLET No, believe me, 'tis very cold; the wind is
- northerly.
-
-OSRIC It is indifferent cold, my lord, indeed.
-
-HAMLET But yet methinks it is very sultry and hot for my
- complexion.
-
-OSRIC Exceedingly, my lord; it is very sultry,--as
- 'twere,--I cannot tell how. But, my lord, his
- majesty bade me signify to you that he has laid a
- great wager on your head: sir, this is the matter,--
-
-HAMLET I beseech you, remember--
-
- [HAMLET moves him to put on his hat]
-
-OSRIC Nay, good my lord; for mine ease, in good faith.
- Sir, here is newly come to court Laertes; believe
- me, an absolute gentleman, full of most excellent
- differences, of very soft society and great showing:
- indeed, to speak feelingly of him, he is the card or
- calendar of gentry, for you shall find in him the
- continent of what part a gentleman would see.
-
-HAMLET Sir, his definement suffers no perdition in you;
- though, I know, to divide him inventorially would
- dizzy the arithmetic of memory, and yet but yaw
- neither, in respect of his quick sail. But, in the
- verity of extolment, I take him to be a soul of
- great article; and his infusion of such dearth and
- rareness, as, to make true diction of him, his
- semblable is his mirror; and who else would trace
- him, his umbrage, nothing more.
-
-OSRIC Your lordship speaks most infallibly of him.
-
-HAMLET The concernancy, sir? why do we wrap the gentleman
- in our more rawer breath?
-
-OSRIC Sir?
-
-HORATIO Is't not possible to understand in another tongue?
- You will do't, sir, really.
-
-HAMLET What imports the nomination of this gentleman?
-
-OSRIC Of Laertes?
-
-HORATIO His purse is empty already; all's golden words are spent.
-
-HAMLET Of him, sir.
-
-OSRIC I know you are not ignorant--
-
-HAMLET I would you did, sir; yet, in faith, if you did,
- it would not much approve me. Well, sir?
-
-OSRIC You are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is--
-
-HAMLET I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with
- him in excellence; but, to know a man well, were to
- know himself.
-
-OSRIC I mean, sir, for his weapon; but in the imputation
- laid on him by them, in his meed he's unfellowed.
-
-HAMLET What's his weapon?
-
-OSRIC Rapier and dagger.
-
-HAMLET That's two of his weapons: but, well.
-
-OSRIC The king, sir, hath wagered with him six Barbary
- horses: against the which he has imponed, as I take
- it, six French rapiers and poniards, with their
- assigns, as girdle, hangers, and so: three of the
- carriages, in faith, are very dear to fancy, very
- responsive to the hilts, most delicate carriages,
- and of very liberal conceit.
-
-HAMLET What call you the carriages?
-
-HORATIO I knew you must be edified by the margent ere you had done.
-
-OSRIC The carriages, sir, are the hangers.
-
-HAMLET The phrase would be more german to the matter, if we
- could carry cannon by our sides: I would it might
- be hangers till then. But, on: six Barbary horses
- against six French swords, their assigns, and three
- liberal-conceited carriages; that's the French bet
- against the Danish. Why is this 'imponed,' as you call it?
-
-OSRIC The king, sir, hath laid, that in a dozen passes
- between yourself and him, he shall not exceed you
- three hits: he hath laid on twelve for nine; and it
- would come to immediate trial, if your lordship
- would vouchsafe the answer.
-
-HAMLET How if I answer 'no'?
-
-OSRIC I mean, my lord, the opposition of your person in trial.
-
-HAMLET Sir, I will walk here in the hall: if it please his
- majesty, 'tis the breathing time of day with me; let
- the foils be brought, the gentleman willing, and the
- king hold his purpose, I will win for him an I can;
- if not, I will gain nothing but my shame and the odd hits.
-
-OSRIC Shall I re-deliver you e'en so?
-
-HAMLET To this effect, sir; after what flourish your nature will.
-
-OSRIC I commend my duty to your lordship.
-
-HAMLET Yours, yours.
-
- [Exit OSRIC]
-
- He does well to commend it himself; there are no
- tongues else for's turn.
-
-HORATIO This lapwing runs away with the shell on his head.
-
-HAMLET He did comply with his dug, before he sucked it.
- Thus has he--and many more of the same bevy that I
- know the dressy age dotes on--only got the tune of
- the time and outward habit of encounter; a kind of
- yesty collection, which carries them through and
- through the most fond and winnowed opinions; and do
- but blow them to their trial, the bubbles are out.
-
- [Enter a Lord]
-
-Lord My lord, his majesty commended him to you by young
- Osric, who brings back to him that you attend him in
- the hall: he sends to know if your pleasure hold to
- play with Laertes, or that you will take longer time.
-
-HAMLET I am constant to my purpose; they follow the king's
- pleasure: if his fitness speaks, mine is ready; now
- or whensoever, provided I be so able as now.
-
-Lord The king and queen and all are coming down.
-
-HAMLET In happy time.
-
-Lord The queen desires you to use some gentle
- entertainment to Laertes before you fall to play.
-
-HAMLET She well instructs me.
-
- [Exit Lord]
-
-HORATIO You will lose this wager, my lord.
-
-HAMLET I do not think so: since he went into France, I
- have been in continual practise: I shall win at the
- odds. But thou wouldst not think how ill all's here
- about my heart: but it is no matter.
-
-HORATIO Nay, good my lord,--
-
-HAMLET It is but foolery; but it is such a kind of
- gain-giving, as would perhaps trouble a woman.
-
-HORATIO If your mind dislike any thing, obey it: I will
- forestall their repair hither, and say you are not
- fit.
-
-HAMLET Not a whit, we defy augury: there's a special
- providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now,
- 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be
- now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the
- readiness is all: since no man has aught of what he
- leaves, what is't to leave betimes?
-
- [Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, LAERTES,
- Lords, OSRIC, and Attendants with foils, &c]
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me.
-
- [KING CLAUDIUS puts LAERTES' hand into HAMLET's]
-
-HAMLET Give me your pardon, sir: I've done you wrong;
- But pardon't, as you are a gentleman.
- This presence knows,
- And you must needs have heard, how I am punish'd
- With sore distraction. What I have done,
- That might your nature, honour and exception
- Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness.
- Was't Hamlet wrong'd Laertes? Never Hamlet:
- If Hamlet from himself be ta'en away,
- And when he's not himself does wrong Laertes,
- Then Hamlet does it not, Hamlet denies it.
- Who does it, then? His madness: if't be so,
- Hamlet is of the faction that is wrong'd;
- His madness is poor Hamlet's enemy.
- Sir, in this audience,
- Let my disclaiming from a purposed evil
- Free me so far in your most generous thoughts,
- That I have shot mine arrow o'er the house,
- And hurt my brother.
-
-LAERTES I am satisfied in nature,
- Whose motive, in this case, should stir me most
- To my revenge: but in my terms of honour
- I stand aloof; and will no reconcilement,
- Till by some elder masters, of known honour,
- I have a voice and precedent of peace,
- To keep my name ungored. But till that time,
- I do receive your offer'd love like love,
- And will not wrong it.
-
-HAMLET I embrace it freely;
- And will this brother's wager frankly play.
- Give us the foils. Come on.
-
-LAERTES Come, one for me.
-
-HAMLET I'll be your foil, Laertes: in mine ignorance
- Your skill shall, like a star i' the darkest night,
- Stick fiery off indeed.
-
-LAERTES You mock me, sir.
-
-HAMLET No, by this hand.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Give them the foils, young Osric. Cousin Hamlet,
- You know the wager?
-
-HAMLET Very well, my lord
- Your grace hath laid the odds o' the weaker side.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS I do not fear it; I have seen you both:
- But since he is better'd, we have therefore odds.
-
-LAERTES This is too heavy, let me see another.
-
-HAMLET This likes me well. These foils have all a length?
-
- [They prepare to play]
-
-OSRIC Ay, my good lord.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Set me the stoops of wine upon that table.
- If Hamlet give the first or second hit,
- Or quit in answer of the third exchange,
- Let all the battlements their ordnance fire:
- The king shall drink to Hamlet's better breath;
- And in the cup an union shall he throw,
- Richer than that which four successive kings
- In Denmark's crown have worn. Give me the cups;
- And let the kettle to the trumpet speak,
- The trumpet to the cannoneer without,
- The cannons to the heavens, the heavens to earth,
- 'Now the king dunks to Hamlet.' Come, begin:
- And you, the judges, bear a wary eye.
-
-HAMLET Come on, sir.
-
-LAERTES Come, my lord.
-
- [They play]
-
-HAMLET One.
-
-LAERTES No.
-
-HAMLET Judgment.
-
-OSRIC A hit, a very palpable hit.
-
-LAERTES Well; again.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Stay; give me drink. Hamlet, this pearl is thine;
- Here's to thy health.
-
- [Trumpets sound, and cannon shot off within]
-
- Give him the cup.
-
-HAMLET I'll play this bout first; set it by awhile. Come.
-
- [They play]
-
- Another hit; what say you?
-
-LAERTES A touch, a touch, I do confess.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Our son shall win.
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE He's fat, and scant of breath.
- Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows;
- The queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet.
-
-HAMLET Good madam!
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Gertrude, do not drink.
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE I will, my lord; I pray you, pardon me.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS [Aside] It is the poison'd cup: it is too late.
-
-HAMLET I dare not drink yet, madam; by and by.
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE Come, let me wipe thy face.
-
-LAERTES My lord, I'll hit him now.
-
-KING CLAUDIUS I do not think't.
-
-LAERTES [Aside] And yet 'tis almost 'gainst my conscience.
-
-HAMLET Come, for the third, Laertes: you but dally;
- I pray you, pass with your best violence;
- I am afeard you make a wanton of me.
-
-LAERTES Say you so? come on.
-
- [They play]
-
-OSRIC Nothing, neither way.
-
-LAERTES Have at you now!
-
- [LAERTES wounds HAMLET; then in scuffling, they
- change rapiers, and HAMLET wounds LAERTES]
-
-KING CLAUDIUS Part them; they are incensed.
-
-HAMLET Nay, come, again.
-
- [QUEEN GERTRUDE falls]
-
-OSRIC Look to the queen there, ho!
-
-HORATIO They bleed on both sides. How is it, my lord?
-
-OSRIC How is't, Laertes?
-
-LAERTES Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, Osric;
- I am justly kill'd with mine own treachery.
-
-HAMLET How does the queen?
-
-KING CLAUDIUS She swounds to see them bleed.
-
-QUEEN GERTRUDE No, no, the drink, the drink,--O my dear Hamlet,--
- The drink, the drink! I am poison'd.
-
- [Dies]
-
-HAMLET O villany! Ho! let the door be lock'd:
- Treachery! Seek it out.
-
-LAERTES It is here, Hamlet: Hamlet, thou art slain;
- No medicine in the world can do thee good;
- In thee there is not half an hour of life;
- The treacherous instrument is in thy hand,
- Unbated and envenom'd: the foul practise
- Hath turn'd itself on me lo, here I lie,
- Never to rise again: thy mother's poison'd:
- I can no more: the king, the king's to blame.
-
-HAMLET The point!--envenom'd too!
- Then, venom, to thy work.
-
- [Stabs KING CLAUDIUS]
-
-All Treason! treason!
-
-KING CLAUDIUS O, yet defend me, friends; I am but hurt.
-
-HAMLET Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane,
- Drink off this potion. Is thy union here?
- Follow my mother.
-
- [KING CLAUDIUS dies]
-
-LAERTES He is justly served;
- It is a poison temper'd by himself.
- Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet:
- Mine and my father's death come not upon thee,
- Nor thine on me.
-
- [Dies]
-
-HAMLET Heaven make thee free of it! I follow thee.
- I am dead, Horatio. Wretched queen, adieu!
- You that look pale and tremble at this chance,
- That are but mutes or audience to this act,
- Had I but time--as this fell sergeant, death,
- Is strict in his arrest--O, I could tell you--
- But let it be. Horatio, I am dead;
- Thou livest; report me and my cause aright
- To the unsatisfied.
-
-HORATIO Never believe it:
- I am more an antique Roman than a Dane:
- Here's yet some liquor left.
-
-HAMLET As thou'rt a man,
- Give me the cup: let go; by heaven, I'll have't.
- O good Horatio, what a wounded name,
- Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me!
- If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart
- Absent thee from felicity awhile,
- And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,
- To tell my story.
-
- [March afar off, and shot within]
-
- What warlike noise is this?
-
-OSRIC Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland,
- To the ambassadors of England gives
- This warlike volley.
-
-HAMLET O, I die, Horatio;
- The potent poison quite o'er-crows my spirit:
- I cannot live to hear the news from England;
- But I do prophesy the election lights
- On Fortinbras: he has my dying voice;
- So tell him, with the occurrents, more and less,
- Which have solicited. The rest is silence.
-
- [Dies]
-
-HORATIO Now cracks a noble heart. Good night sweet prince:
- And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!
- Why does the drum come hither?
-
- [March within]
-
- [Enter FORTINBRAS, the English Ambassadors,
- and others]
-
-PRINCE FORTINBRAS Where is this sight?
-
-HORATIO What is it ye would see?
- If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search.
-
-PRINCE FORTINBRAS This quarry cries on havoc. O proud death,
- What feast is toward in thine eternal cell,
- That thou so many princes at a shot
- So bloodily hast struck?
-
-First Ambassador The sight is dismal;
- And our affairs from England come too late:
- The ears are senseless that should give us hearing,
- To tell him his commandment is fulfill'd,
- That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead:
- Where should we have our thanks?
-
-HORATIO Not from his mouth,
- Had it the ability of life to thank you:
- He never gave commandment for their death.
- But since, so jump upon this bloody question,
- You from the Polack wars, and you from England,
- Are here arrived give order that these bodies
- High on a stage be placed to the view;
- And let me speak to the yet unknowing world
- How these things came about: so shall you hear
- Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts,
- Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters,
- Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause,
- And, in this upshot, purposes mistook
- Fall'n on the inventors' reads: all this can I
- Truly deliver.
-
-PRINCE FORTINBRAS Let us haste to hear it,
- And call the noblest to the audience.
- For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune:
- I have some rights of memory in this kingdom,
- Which now to claim my vantage doth invite me.
-
-HORATIO Of that I shall have also cause to speak,
- And from his mouth whose voice will draw on more;
- But let this same be presently perform'd,
- Even while men's minds are wild; lest more mischance
- On plots and errors, happen.
-
-PRINCE FORTINBRAS Let four captains
- Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage;
- For he was likely, had he been put on,
- To have proved most royally: and, for his passage,
- The soldiers' music and the rites of war
- Speak loudly for him.
- Take up the bodies: such a sight as this
- Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss.
- Go, bid the soldiers shoot.
-
- [A dead march. Exeunt, bearing off the dead
- bodies; after which a peal of ordnance is shot off]
diff --git a/sdks/go/data/shakespeare/kinglear-hashtag.txt b/sdks/go/data/shakespeare/kinglear-hashtag.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index 5579e7e..0000000
--- a/sdks/go/data/shakespeare/kinglear-hashtag.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,5525 +0,0 @@
- #KING #LEAR
-
-
- DRAMATIS PERSONAE
-
-
-#LEAR king of Britain (#KING LEAR:)
-
-KING OF FRANCE:
-
-DUKE OF #BURGUNDY (BURGUNDY:)
-
-DUKE OF #CORNWALL (CORNWALL:)
-
-DUKE OF #ALBANY (ALBANY:)
-
-EARL OF #KENT (KENT:)
-
-EARL OF #GLOUCESTER (GLOUCESTER:)
-
-#EDGAR son to Gloucester.
-
-#EDMUND bastard son to Gloucester.
-
-#CURAN a courtier.
-
-Old Man tenant to Gloucester.
-
-#Doctor:
-
-#Fool:
-
-#OSWALD steward to Goneril.
-
- A #Captain employed by Edmund. (Captain:)
-
- #Gentleman attendant on Cordelia. (Gentleman:)
- A Herald.
-
- Servants to Cornwall.
- (First Servant:)
- (Second Servant:)
- (Third Servant:)
-
-
-#GONERIL |
- |
-#REGAN | daughters to Lear.
- |
-#CORDELIA |
-
-
- Knights of Lear's train, #Captains, Messengers,
- Soldiers, and Attendants
- (Knight:)
- (#Captain:)
- (Messenger:)
-
-
-
-SCENE Britain.
-
-
-
-
- #KING #LEAR
-
-
-ACT I
-
-
-
-SCENE I King Lear's palace.
-
-
- [Enter #KENT, #GLOUCESTER, and #EDMUND]
-
-#KENT I thought the king had more affected the Duke of
- Albany than Cornwall.
-
-#GLOUCESTER It did always seem so to us: but now, in the
- division of the kingdom, it appears not which of
- the dukes he values most; for equalities are so
- weighed, that curiosity in neither can make choice
- of either's moiety.
-
-#KENT Is not this your son, my lord?
-
-#GLOUCESTER His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge: I have
- so often blushed to acknowledge him, that now I am
- brazed to it.
-
-#KENT I cannot conceive you.
-
-#GLOUCESTER Sir, this young fellow's mother could: whereupon
- she grew round-wombed, and had, indeed, sir, a son
- for her cradle ere she had a husband for her bed.
- Do you smell a fault?
-
-#KENT I cannot wish the fault undone, the issue of it
- being so proper.
-
-#GLOUCESTER But I have, sir, a son by order of law, some year
- elder than this, who yet is no dearer in my account:
- though this knave came something saucily into the
- world before he was sent for, yet was his mother
- fair; there was good sport at his making, and the
- whoreson must be acknowledged. Do you know this
- noble gentleman, Edmund?
-
-#EDMUND No, my lord.
-
-#GLOUCESTER My lord of Kent: remember him hereafter as my
- honourable friend.
-
-#EDMUND My services to your lordship.
-
-#KENT I must love you, and sue to know you better.
-
-#EDMUND Sir, I shall study deserving.
-
-#GLOUCESTER He hath been out nine years, and away he shall
- again. The king is coming.
-
- [Sennet. Enter #KING #LEAR, #CORNWALL, #ALBANY,
- #GONERIL, #REGAN, #CORDELIA, and Attendants]
-
-#KING #LEAR Attend the lords of France and Burgundy, Gloucester.
-
-#GLOUCESTER I shall, my liege.
-
- [Exeunt #GLOUCESTER and #EDMUND]
-
-#KING #LEAR Meantime we shall express our darker purpose.
- Give me the map there. Know that we have divided
- In three our kingdom: and 'tis our fast intent
- To shake all cares and business from our age;
- Conferring them on younger strengths, while we
- Unburthen'd crawl toward death. Our son of Cornwall,
- And you, our no less loving son of Albany,
- We have this hour a constant will to publish
- Our daughters' several dowers, that future strife
- May be prevented now. The princes, France and Burgundy,
- Great rivals in our youngest daughter's love,
- Long in our court have made their amorous sojourn,
- And here are to be answer'd. Tell me, my daughters,--
- Since now we will divest us both of rule,
- Interest of territory, cares of state,--
- Which of you shall we say doth love us most?
- That we our largest bounty may extend
- Where nature doth with merit challenge. Goneril,
- Our eldest-born, speak first.
-
-#GONERIL Sir, I love you more than words can wield the matter;
- Dearer than eye-sight, space, and liberty;
- Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare;
- No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honour;
- As much as child e'er loved, or father found;
- A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable;
- Beyond all manner of so much I love you.
-
-#CORDELIA [Aside] What shall Cordelia do?
- Love, and be silent.
-
-#LEAR Of all these bounds, even from this line to this,
- With shadowy forests and with champains rich'd,
- With plenteous rivers and wide-skirted meads,
- We make thee lady: to thine and Albany's issue
- Be this perpetual. What says our second daughter,
- Our dearest Regan, wife to Cornwall? Speak.
-
-#REGAN Sir, I am made
- Of the self-same metal that my sister is,
- And prize me at her worth. In my true heart
- I find she names my very deed of love;
- Only she comes too short: that I profess
- Myself an enemy to all other joys,
- Which the most precious square of sense possesses;
- And find I am alone felicitate
- In your dear highness' love.
-
-#CORDELIA [Aside] Then poor Cordelia!
- And yet not so; since, I am sure, my love's
- More richer than my tongue.
-
-#KING #LEAR To thee and thine hereditary ever
- Remain this ample third of our fair kingdom;
- No less in space, validity, and pleasure,
- Than that conferr'd on Goneril. Now, our joy,
- Although the last, not least; to whose young love
- The vines of France and milk of Burgundy
- Strive to be interess'd; what can you say to draw
- A third more opulent than your sisters? Speak.
-
-#CORDELIA Nothing, my lord.
-
-#KING #LEAR Nothing!
-
-#CORDELIA Nothing.
-
-#KING #LEAR Nothing will come of nothing: speak again.
-
-#CORDELIA Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave
- My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty
- According to my bond; nor more nor less.
-
-#KING #LEAR How, how, Cordelia! mend your speech a little,
- Lest it may mar your fortunes.
-
-#CORDELIA Good my lord,
- You have begot me, bred me, loved me: I
- Return those duties back as are right fit,
- Obey you, love you, and most honour you.
- Why have my sisters husbands, if they say
- They love you all? Haply, when I shall wed,
- That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry
- Half my love with him, half my care and duty:
- Sure, I shall never marry like my sisters,
- To love my father all.
-
-#KING #LEAR But goes thy heart with this?
-
-#CORDELIA Ay, good my lord.
-
-#KING #LEAR So young, and so untender?
-
-#CORDELIA So young, my lord, and true.
-
-#KING #LEAR Let it be so; thy truth, then, be thy dower:
- For, by the sacred radiance of the sun,
- The mysteries of Hecate, and the night;
- By all the operation of the orbs
- From whom we do exist, and cease to be;
- Here I disclaim all my paternal care,
- Propinquity and property of blood,
- And as a stranger to my heart and me
- Hold thee, from this, for ever. The barbarous Scythian,
- Or he that makes his generation messes
- To gorge his appetite, shall to my bosom
- Be as well neighbour'd, pitied, and relieved,
- As thou my sometime daughter.
-
-#KENT Good my liege,--
-
-#KING #LEAR Peace, Kent!
- Come not between the dragon and his wrath.
- I loved her most, and thought to set my rest
- On her kind nursery. Hence, and avoid my sight!
- So be my grave my peace, as here I give
- Her father's heart from her! Call France; who stirs?
- Call Burgundy. Cornwall and Albany,
- With my two daughters' dowers digest this third:
- Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her.
- I do invest you jointly with my power,
- Pre-eminence, and all the large effects
- That troop with majesty. Ourself, by monthly course,
- With reservation of an hundred knights,
- By you to be sustain'd, shall our abode
- Make with you by due turns. Only we still retain
- The name, and all the additions to a king;
- The sway, revenue, execution of the rest,
- Beloved sons, be yours: which to confirm,
- This coronet part betwixt you.
-
- [Giving the crown]
-
-#KENT Royal Lear,
- Whom I have ever honour'd as my king,
- Loved as my father, as my master follow'd,
- As my great patron thought on in my prayers,--
-
-#KING #LEAR The bow is bent and drawn, make from the shaft.
-
-#KENT Let it fall rather, though the fork invade
- The region of my heart: be Kent unmannerly,
- When Lear is mad. What wilt thou do, old man?
- Think'st thou that duty shall have dread to speak,
- When power to flattery bows? To plainness honour's bound,
- When majesty stoops to folly. Reverse thy doom;
- And, in thy best consideration, cheque
- This hideous rashness: answer my life my judgment,
- Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least;
- Nor are those empty-hearted whose low sound
- Reverbs no hollowness.
-
-#KING #LEAR Kent, on thy life, no more.
-
-#KENT My life I never held but as a pawn
- To wage against thy enemies; nor fear to lose it,
- Thy safety being the motive.
-
-#KING #LEAR Out of my sight!
-
-#KENT See better, Lear; and let me still remain
- The true blank of thine eye.
-
-#KING #LEAR Now, by Apollo,--
-
-#KENT Now, by Apollo, king,
- Thou swear'st thy gods in vain.
-
-#KING #LEAR O, vassal! miscreant!
-
- [Laying his hand on his sword]
-
-
-#ALBANY |
- | Dear sir, forbear.
-#CORNWALL |
-
-
-#KENT Do:
- Kill thy physician, and the fee bestow
- Upon thy foul disease. Revoke thy doom;
- Or, whilst I can vent clamour from my throat,
- I'll tell thee thou dost evil.
-
-#KING #LEAR Hear me, recreant!
- On thine allegiance, hear me!
- Since thou hast sought to make us break our vow,
- Which we durst never yet, and with strain'd pride
- To come between our sentence and our power,
- Which nor our nature nor our place can bear,
- Our potency made good, take thy reward.
- Five days we do allot thee, for provision
- To shield thee from diseases of the world;
- And on the sixth to turn thy hated back
- Upon our kingdom: if, on the tenth day following,
- Thy banish'd trunk be found in our dominions,
- The moment is thy death. Away! by Jupiter,
- This shall not be revoked.
-
-#KENT Fare thee well, king: sith thus thou wilt appear,
- Freedom lives hence, and banishment is here.
-
- [To #CORDELIA]
-
- The gods to their dear shelter take thee, maid,
- That justly think'st, and hast most rightly said!
-
- [To #REGAN and #GONERIL]
-
- And your large speeches may your deeds approve,
- That good effects may spring from words of love.
- Thus Kent, O princes, bids you all adieu;
- He'll shape his old course in a country new.
-
- [Exit]
-
- [Flourish. Re-enter #GLOUCESTER, with KING OF FRANCE,
- #BURGUNDY, and Attendants]
-
-#GLOUCESTER Here's France and Burgundy, my noble lord.
-
-#KING #LEAR My lord of Burgundy.
- We first address towards you, who with this king
- Hath rivall'd for our daughter: what, in the least,
- Will you require in present dower with her,
- Or cease your quest of love?
-
-#BURGUNDY Most royal majesty,
- I crave no more than what your highness offer'd,
- Nor will you tender less.
-
-#KING #LEAR Right noble Burgundy,
- When she was dear to us, we did hold her so;
- But now her price is fall'n. Sir, there she stands:
- If aught within that little seeming substance,
- Or all of it, with our displeasure pieced,
- And nothing more, may fitly like your grace,
- She's there, and she is yours.
-
-#BURGUNDY I know no answer.
-
-#KING #LEAR Will you, with those infirmities she owes,
- Unfriended, new-adopted to our hate,
- Dower'd with our curse, and stranger'd with our oath,
- Take her, or leave her?
-
-#BURGUNDY Pardon me, royal sir;
- Election makes not up on such conditions.
-
-#KING #LEAR Then leave her, sir; for, by the power that made me,
- I tell you all her wealth.
-
- [To KING OF FRANCE]
-
- For you, great king,
- I would not from your love make such a stray,
- To match you where I hate; therefore beseech you
- To avert your liking a more worthier way
- Than on a wretch whom nature is ashamed
- Almost to acknowledge hers.
-
-KING OF FRANCE This is most strange,
- That she, that even but now was your best object,
- The argument of your praise, balm of your age,
- Most best, most dearest, should in this trice of time
- Commit a thing so monstrous, to dismantle
- So many folds of favour. Sure, her offence
- Must be of such unnatural degree,
- That monsters it, or your fore-vouch'd affection
- Fall'n into taint: which to believe of her,
- Must be a faith that reason without miracle
- Could never plant in me.
-
-#CORDELIA I yet beseech your majesty,--
- If for I want that glib and oily art,
- To speak and purpose not; since what I well intend,
- I'll do't before I speak,--that you make known
- It is no vicious blot, murder, or foulness,
- No unchaste action, or dishonour'd step,
- That hath deprived me of your grace and favour;
- But even for want of that for which I am richer,
- A still-soliciting eye, and such a tongue
- As I am glad I have not, though not to have it
- Hath lost me in your liking.
-
-#KING #LEAR Better thou
- Hadst not been born than not to have pleased me better.
-
-KING OF FRANCE Is it but this,--a tardiness in nature
- Which often leaves the history unspoke
- That it intends to do? My lord of Burgundy,
- What say you to the lady? Love's not love
- When it is mingled with regards that stand
- Aloof from the entire point. Will you have her?
- She is herself a dowry.
-
-#BURGUNDY Royal Lear,
- Give but that portion which yourself proposed,
- And here I take Cordelia by the hand,
- Duchess of Burgundy.
-
-#KING #LEAR Nothing: I have sworn; I am firm.
-
-#BURGUNDY I am sorry, then, you have so lost a father
- That you must lose a husband.
-
-#CORDELIA Peace be with Burgundy!
- Since that respects of fortune are his love,
- I shall not be his wife.
-
-KING OF FRANCE Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich, being poor;
- Most choice, forsaken; and most loved, despised!
- Thee and thy virtues here I seize upon:
- Be it lawful I take up what's cast away.
- Gods, gods! 'tis strange that from their cold'st neglect
- My love should kindle to inflamed respect.
- Thy dowerless daughter, king, thrown to my chance,
- Is queen of us, of ours, and our fair France:
- Not all the dukes of waterish Burgundy
- Can buy this unprized precious maid of me.
- Bid them farewell, Cordelia, though unkind:
- Thou losest here, a better where to find.
-
-#KING #LEAR Thou hast her, France: let her be thine; for we
- Have no such daughter, nor shall ever see
- That face of hers again. Therefore be gone
- Without our grace, our love, our benison.
- Come, noble Burgundy.
-
- [Flourish. Exeunt all but KING OF FRANCE, #GONERIL,
- #REGAN, and #CORDELIA]
-
-KING OF FRANCE Bid farewell to your sisters.
-
-#CORDELIA The jewels of our father, with wash'd eyes
- Cordelia leaves you: I know you what you are;
- And like a sister am most loath to call
- Your faults as they are named. Use well our father:
- To your professed bosoms I commit him
- But yet, alas, stood I within his grace,
- I would prefer him to a better place.
- So, farewell to you both.
-
-#REGAN Prescribe not us our duties.
-
-#GONERIL Let your study
- Be to content your lord, who hath received you
- At fortune's alms. You have obedience scanted,
- And well are worth the want that you have wanted.
-
-#CORDELIA Time shall unfold what plaited cunning hides:
- Who cover faults, at last shame them derides.
- Well may you prosper!
-
-KING OF FRANCE Come, my fair Cordelia.
-
- [Exeunt KING OF FRANCE and #CORDELIA]
-
-#GONERIL Sister, it is not a little I have to say of what
- most nearly appertains to us both. I think our
- father will hence to-night.
-
-#REGAN That's most certain, and with you; next month with us.
-
-#GONERIL You see how full of changes his age is; the
- observation we have made of it hath not been
- little: he always loved our sister most; and
- with what poor judgment he hath now cast her off
- appears too grossly.
-
-#REGAN 'Tis the infirmity of his age: yet he hath ever
- but slenderly known himself.
-
-#GONERIL The best and soundest of his time hath been but
- rash; then must we look to receive from his age,
- not alone the imperfections of long-engraffed
- condition, but therewithal the unruly waywardness
- that infirm and choleric years bring with them.
-
-#REGAN Such unconstant starts are we like to have from
- him as this of Kent's banishment.
-
-#GONERIL There is further compliment of leavetaking
- between France and him. Pray you, let's hit
- together: if our father carry authority with
- such dispositions as he bears, this last
- surrender of his will but offend us.
-
-#REGAN We shall further think on't.
-
-#GONERIL We must do something, and i' the heat.
-
- [Exeunt]
-
-
-
-
- #KING #LEAR
-
-
-ACT I
-
-
-
-SCENE II The Earl of Gloucester's castle.
-
-
- [Enter #EDMUND, with a letter]
-
-#EDMUND Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy law
- My services are bound. Wherefore should I
- Stand in the plague of custom, and permit
- The curiosity of nations to deprive me,
- For that I am some twelve or fourteen moon-shines
- Lag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore base?
- When my dimensions are as well compact,
- My mind as generous, and my shape as true,
- As honest madam's issue? Why brand they us
- With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base?
- Who, in the lusty stealth of nature, take
- More composition and fierce quality
- Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed,
- Go to the creating a whole tribe of fops,
- Got 'tween asleep and wake? Well, then,
- Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land:
- Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund
- As to the legitimate: fine word,--legitimate!
- Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed,
- And my invention thrive, Edmund the base
- Shall top the legitimate. I grow; I prosper:
- Now, gods, stand up for bastards!
-
- [Enter #GLOUCESTER]
-
-#GLOUCESTER Kent banish'd thus! and France in choler parted!
- And the king gone to-night! subscribed his power!
- Confined to exhibition! All this done
- Upon the gad! Edmund, how now! what news?
-
-#EDMUND So please your lordship, none.
-
- [Putting up the letter]
-
-#GLOUCESTER Why so earnestly seek you to put up that letter?
-
-#EDMUND I know no news, my lord.
-
-#GLOUCESTER What paper were you reading?
-
-#EDMUND Nothing, my lord.
-
-#GLOUCESTER No? What needed, then, that terrible dispatch of
- it into your pocket? the quality of nothing hath
- not such need to hide itself. Let's see: come,
- if it be nothing, I shall not need spectacles.
-
-#EDMUND I beseech you, sir, pardon me: it is a letter
- from my brother, that I have not all o'er-read;
- and for so much as I have perused, I find it not
- fit for your o'er-looking.
-
-#GLOUCESTER Give me the letter, sir.
-
-#EDMUND I shall offend, either to detain or give it. The
- contents, as in part I understand them, are to blame.
-
-#GLOUCESTER Let's see, let's see.
-
-#EDMUND I hope, for my brother's justification, he wrote
- this but as an essay or taste of my virtue.
-
-#GLOUCESTER [Reads] 'This policy and reverence of age makes
- the world bitter to the best of our times; keeps
- our fortunes from us till our oldness cannot relish
- them. I begin to find an idle and fond bondage
- in the oppression of aged tyranny; who sways, not
- as it hath power, but as it is suffered. Come to
- me, that of this I may speak more. If our father
- would sleep till I waked him, you should half his
- revenue for ever, and live the beloved of your
- brother, #EDGAR.'
-
- Hum--conspiracy!--'Sleep till I waked him,--you
- should enjoy half his revenue,'--My son Edgar!
- Had he a hand to write this? a heart and brain
- to breed it in?--When came this to you? who
- brought it?
-
-#EDMUND It was not brought me, my lord; there's the
- cunning of it; I found it thrown in at the
- casement of my closet.
-
-#GLOUCESTER You know the character to be your brother's?
-
-#EDMUND If the matter were good, my lord, I durst swear
- it were his; but, in respect of that, I would
- fain think it were not.
-
-#GLOUCESTER It is his.
-
-#EDMUND It is his hand, my lord; but I hope his heart is
- not in the contents.
-
-#GLOUCESTER Hath he never heretofore sounded you in this business?
-
-#EDMUND Never, my lord: but I have heard him oft
- maintain it to be fit, that, sons at perfect age,
- and fathers declining, the father should be as
- ward to the son, and the son manage his revenue.
-
-#GLOUCESTER O villain, villain! His very opinion in the
- letter! Abhorred villain! Unnatural, detested,
- brutish villain! worse than brutish! Go, sirrah,
- seek him; I'll apprehend him: abominable villain!
- Where is he?
-
-#EDMUND I do not well know, my lord. If it shall please
- you to suspend your indignation against my
- brother till you can derive from him better
- testimony of his intent, you shall run a certain
- course; where, if you violently proceed against
- him, mistaking his purpose, it would make a great
- gap in your own honour, and shake in pieces the
- heart of his obedience. I dare pawn down my life
- for him, that he hath wrote this to feel my
- affection to your honour, and to no further
- pretence of danger.
-
-#GLOUCESTER Think you so?
-
-#EDMUND If your honour judge it meet, I will place you
- where you shall hear us confer of this, and by an
- auricular assurance have your satisfaction; and
- that without any further delay than this very evening.
-
-#GLOUCESTER He cannot be such a monster--
-
-#EDMUND Nor is not, sure.
-
-#GLOUCESTER To his father, that so tenderly and entirely
- loves him. Heaven and earth! Edmund, seek him
- out: wind me into him, I pray you: frame the
- business after your own wisdom. I would unstate
- myself, to be in a due resolution.
-
-#EDMUND I will seek him, sir, presently: convey the
- business as I shall find means and acquaint you withal.
-
-#GLOUCESTER These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend
- no good to us: though the wisdom of nature can
- reason it thus and thus, yet nature finds itself
- scourged by the sequent effects: love cools,
- friendship falls off, brothers divide: in
- cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in
- palaces, treason; and the bond cracked 'twixt son
- and father. This villain of mine comes under the
- prediction; there's son against father: the king
- falls from bias of nature; there's father against
- child. We have seen the best of our time:
- machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all
- ruinous disorders, follow us disquietly to our
- graves. Find out this villain, Edmund; it shall
- lose thee nothing; do it carefully. And the
- noble and true-hearted Kent banished! his
- offence, honesty! 'Tis strange.
-
- [Exit]
-
-#EDMUND This is the excellent foppery of the world, that,
- when we are sick in fortune,--often the surfeit
- of our own behavior,--we make guilty of our
- disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars: as
- if we were villains by necessity; fools by
- heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and
- treachers, by spherical predominance; drunkards,
- liars, and adulterers, by an enforced obedience of
- planetary influence; and all that we are evil in,
- by a divine thrusting on: an admirable evasion
- of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish
- disposition to the charge of a star! My
- father compounded with my mother under the
- dragon's tail; and my nativity was under Ursa
- major; so that it follows, I am rough and
- lecherous. Tut, I should have been that I am,
- had the maidenliest star in the firmament
- twinkled on my bastardizing. Edgar--
-
- [Enter #EDGAR]
-
- And pat he comes like the catastrophe of the old
- comedy: my cue is villanous melancholy, with a
- sigh like Tom o' Bedlam. O, these eclipses do
- portend these divisions! fa, sol, la, mi.
-
-#EDGAR How now, brother Edmund! what serious
- contemplation are you in?
-
-#EDMUND I am thinking, brother, of a prediction I read
- this other day, what should follow these eclipses.
-
-#EDGAR Do you busy yourself about that?
-
-#EDMUND I promise you, the effects he writes of succeed
- unhappily; as of unnaturalness between the child
- and the parent; death, dearth, dissolutions of
- ancient amities; divisions in state, menaces and
- maledictions against king and nobles; needless
- diffidences, banishment of friends, dissipation
- of cohorts, nuptial breaches, and I know not what.
-
-#EDGAR How long have you been a sectary astronomical?
-
-#EDMUND Come, come; when saw you my father last?
-
-#EDGAR Why, the night gone by.
-
-#EDMUND Spake you with him?
-
-#EDGAR Ay, two hours together.
-
-#EDMUND Parted you in good terms? Found you no
- displeasure in him by word or countenance?
-
-#EDGAR None at all.
-
-#EDMUND Bethink yourself wherein you may have offended
- him: and at my entreaty forbear his presence
- till some little time hath qualified the heat of
- his displeasure; which at this instant so rageth
- in him, that with the mischief of your person it
- would scarcely allay.
-
-#EDGAR Some villain hath done me wrong.
-
-#EDMUND That's my fear. I pray you, have a continent
- forbearance till the spied of his rage goes
- slower; and, as I say, retire with me to my
- lodging, from whence I will fitly bring you to
- hear my lord speak: pray ye, go; there's my key:
- if you do stir abroad, go armed.
-
-#EDGAR Armed, brother!
-
-#EDMUND Brother, I advise you to the best; go armed: I
- am no honest man if there be any good meaning
- towards you: I have told you what I have seen
- and heard; but faintly, nothing like the image
- and horror of it: pray you, away.
-
-#EDGAR Shall I hear from you anon?
-
-#EDMUND I do serve you in this business.
-
- [Exit #EDGAR]
-
- A credulous father! and a brother noble,
- Whose nature is so far from doing harms,
- That he suspects none: on whose foolish honesty
- My practises ride easy! I see the business.
- Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit:
- All with me's meet that I can fashion fit.
-
- [Exit]
-
-
-
-
- #KING #LEAR
-
-
-ACT I
-
-
-
-SCENE III The Duke of Albany's palace.
-
-
- [Enter #GONERIL, and #OSWALD, her steward]
-
-#GONERIL Did my father strike my gentleman for chiding of his fool?
-
-#OSWALD Yes, madam.
-
-#GONERIL By day and night he wrongs me; every hour
- He flashes into one gross crime or other,
- That sets us all at odds: I'll not endure it:
- His knights grow riotous, and himself upbraids us
- On every trifle. When he returns from hunting,
- I will not speak with him; say I am sick:
- If you come slack of former services,
- You shall do well; the fault of it I'll answer.
-
-#OSWALD He's coming, madam; I hear him.
-
- [Horns within]
-
-#GONERIL Put on what weary negligence you please,
- You and your fellows; I'll have it come to question:
- If he dislike it, let him to our sister,
- Whose mind and mine, I know, in that are one,
- Not to be over-ruled. Idle old man,
- That still would manage those authorities
- That he hath given away! Now, by my life,
- Old fools are babes again; and must be used
- With cheques as flatteries,--when they are seen abused.
- Remember what I tell you.
-
-#OSWALD Well, madam.
-
-#GONERIL And let his knights have colder looks among you;
- What grows of it, no matter; advise your fellows so:
- I would breed from hence occasions, and I shall,
- That I may speak: I'll write straight to my sister,
- To hold my very course. Prepare for dinner.
-
- [Exeunt]
-
-
-
-
- #KING #LEAR
-
-
-ACT I
-
-
-
-SCENE IV A hall in the same.
-
-
- [Enter #KENT, disguised]
-
-#KENT If but as well I other accents borrow,
- That can my speech defuse, my good intent
- May carry through itself to that full issue
- For which I razed my likeness. Now, banish'd Kent,
- If thou canst serve where thou dost stand condemn'd,
- So may it come, thy master, whom thou lovest,
- Shall find thee full of labours.
-
- [Horns within. Enter #KING #LEAR, Knights, and
- Attendants]
-
-#KING #LEAR Let me not stay a jot for dinner; go get it ready.
-
- [Exit an Attendant]
-
- How now! what art thou?
-
-#KENT A man, sir.
-
-#KING #LEAR What dost thou profess? what wouldst thou with us?
-
-#KENT I do profess to be no less than I seem; to serve
- him truly that will put me in trust: to love him
- that is honest; to converse with him that is wise,
- and says little; to fear judgment; to fight when I
- cannot choose; and to eat no fish.
-
-#KING #LEAR What art thou?
-
-#KENT A very honest-hearted fellow, and as poor as the king.
-
-#KING #LEAR If thou be as poor for a subject as he is for a
- king, thou art poor enough. What wouldst thou?
-
-#KENT Service.
-
-#KING #LEAR Who wouldst thou serve?
-
-#KENT You.
-
-#KING #LEAR Dost thou know me, fellow?
-
-#KENT No, sir; but you have that in your countenance
- which I would fain call master.
-
-#KING #LEAR What's that?
-
-#KENT Authority.
-
-#KING #LEAR What services canst thou do?
-
-#KENT I can keep honest counsel, ride, run, mar a curious
- tale in telling it, and deliver a plain message
- bluntly: that which ordinary men are fit for, I am
- qualified in; and the best of me is diligence.
-
-#KING #LEAR How old art thou?
-
-#KENT Not so young, sir, to love a woman for singing, nor
- so old to dote on her for any thing: I have years
- on my back forty eight.
-
-#KING #LEAR Follow me; thou shalt serve me: if I like thee no
- worse after dinner, I will not part from thee yet.
- Dinner, ho, dinner! Where's my knave? my fool?
- Go you, and call my fool hither.
-
- [Exit an Attendant]
-
- [Enter #OSWALD]
-
- You, you, sirrah, where's my daughter?
-
-#OSWALD So please you,--
-
- [Exit]
-
-#KING #LEAR What says the fellow there? Call the clotpoll back.
-
- [Exit a Knight]
-
- Where's my fool, ho? I think the world's asleep.
-
- [Re-enter Knight]
-
- How now! where's that mongrel?
-
-Knight He says, my lord, your daughter is not well.
-
-#KING #LEAR Why came not the slave back to me when I called him.
-
-Knight Sir, he answered me in the roundest manner, he would
- not.
-
-#KING #LEAR He would not!
-
-Knight My lord, I know not what the matter is; but, to my
- judgment, your highness is not entertained with that
- ceremonious affection as you were wont; there's a
- great abatement of kindness appears as well in the
- general dependants as in the duke himself also and
- your daughter.
-
-#KING #LEAR Ha! sayest thou so?
-
-Knight I beseech you, pardon me, my lord, if I be mistaken;
- for my duty cannot be silent when I think your
- highness wronged.
-
-#KING #LEAR Thou but rememberest me of mine own conception: I
- have perceived a most faint neglect of late; which I
- have rather blamed as mine own jealous curiosity
- than as a very pretence and purpose of unkindness:
- I will look further into't. But where's my fool? I
- have not seen him this two days.
-
-Knight Since my young lady's going into France, sir, the
- fool hath much pined away.
-
-#KING #LEAR No more of that; I have noted it well. Go you, and
- tell my daughter I would speak with her.
-
- [Exit an Attendant]
-
- Go you, call hither my fool.
-
- [Exit an Attendant]
-
- [Re-enter #OSWALD]
-
- O, you sir, you, come you hither, sir: who am I,
- sir?
-
-#OSWALD My lady's father.
-
-#KING #LEAR 'My lady's father'! my lord's knave: your
- whoreson dog! you slave! you cur!
-
-#OSWALD I am none of these, my lord; I beseech your pardon.
-
-#KING #LEAR Do you bandy looks with me, you rascal?
-
- [Striking him]
-
-#OSWALD I'll not be struck, my lord.
-
-#KENT Nor tripped neither, you base football player.
-
- [Tripping up his heels]
-
-#KING #LEAR I thank thee, fellow; thou servest me, and I'll
- love thee.
-
-#KENT Come, sir, arise, away! I'll teach you differences:
- away, away! if you will measure your lubber's
- length again, tarry: but away! go to; have you
- wisdom? so.
-
- [Pushes #OSWALD out]
-
-#KING #LEAR Now, my friendly knave, I thank thee: there's
- earnest of thy service.
-
- [Giving #KENT money]
-
- [Enter #Fool]
-
-#Fool Let me hire him too: here's my coxcomb.
-
- [Offering #KENT his cap]
-
-#KING #LEAR How now, my pretty knave! how dost thou?
-
-#Fool Sirrah, you were best take my coxcomb.
-
-#KENT Why, fool?
-
-#Fool Why, for taking one's part that's out of favour:
- nay, an thou canst not smile as the wind sits,
- thou'lt catch cold shortly: there, take my coxcomb:
- why, this fellow has banished two on's daughters,
- and did the third a blessing against his will; if
- thou follow him, thou must needs wear my coxcomb.
- How now, nuncle! Would I had two coxcombs and two daughters!
-
-#KING #LEAR Why, my boy?
-
-#Fool If I gave them all my living, I'ld keep my coxcombs
- myself. There's mine; beg another of thy daughters.
-
-#KING #LEAR Take heed, sirrah; the whip.
-
-#Fool Truth's a dog must to kennel; he must be whipped
- out, when Lady the brach may stand by the fire and stink.
-
-#KING #LEAR A pestilent gall to me!
-
-#Fool Sirrah, I'll teach thee a speech.
-
-#KING #LEAR Do.
-
-#Fool Mark it, nuncle:
- Have more than thou showest,
- Speak less than thou knowest,
- Lend less than thou owest,
- Ride more than thou goest,
- Learn more than thou trowest,
- Set less than thou throwest;
- Leave thy drink and thy whore,
- And keep in-a-door,
- And thou shalt have more
- Than two tens to a score.
-
-#KENT This is nothing, fool.
-
-#Fool Then 'tis like the breath of an unfee'd lawyer; you
- gave me nothing for't. Can you make no use of
- nothing, nuncle?
-
-#KING #LEAR Why, no, boy; nothing can be made out of nothing.
-
-#Fool [To #KENT] Prithee, tell him, so much the rent of
- his land comes to: he will not believe a fool.
-
-#KING #LEAR A bitter fool!
-
-#Fool Dost thou know the difference, my boy, between a
- bitter fool and a sweet fool?
-
-#KING #LEAR No, lad; teach me.
-
-#Fool That lord that counsell'd thee
- To give away thy land,
- Come place him here by me,
- Do thou for him stand:
- The sweet and bitter fool
- Will presently appear;
- The one in motley here,
- The other found out there.
-
-#KING #LEAR Dost thou call me fool, boy?
-
-#Fool All thy other titles thou hast given away; that
- thou wast born with.
-
-#KENT This is not altogether fool, my lord.
-
-#Fool No, faith, lords and great men will not let me; if
- I had a monopoly out, they would have part on't:
- and ladies too, they will not let me have all fool
- to myself; they'll be snatching. Give me an egg,
- nuncle, and I'll give thee two crowns.
-
-#KING #LEAR What two crowns shall they be?
-
-#Fool Why, after I have cut the egg i' the middle, and eat
- up the meat, the two crowns of the egg. When thou
- clovest thy crown i' the middle, and gavest away
- both parts, thou borest thy ass on thy back o'er
- the dirt: thou hadst little wit in thy bald crown,
- when thou gavest thy golden one away. If I speak
- like myself in this, let him be whipped that first
- finds it so.
-
- [Singing]
-
- #Fools had ne'er less wit in a year;
- For wise men are grown foppish,
- They know not how their wits to wear,
- Their manners are so apish.
-
-#KING #LEAR When were you wont to be so full of songs, sirrah?
-
-#Fool I have used it, nuncle, ever since thou madest thy
- daughters thy mothers: for when thou gavest them
- the rod, and put'st down thine own breeches,
-
- [Singing]
-
- Then they for sudden joy did weep,
- And I for sorrow sung,
- That such a king should play bo-peep,
- And go the fools among.
-
- Prithee, nuncle, keep a schoolmaster that can teach
- thy fool to lie: I would fain learn to lie.
-
-#KING #LEAR An you lie, sirrah, we'll have you whipped.
-
-#Fool I marvel what kin thou and thy daughters are:
- they'll have me whipped for speaking true, thou'lt
- have me whipped for lying; and sometimes I am
- whipped for holding my peace. I had rather be any
- kind o' thing than a fool: and yet I would not be
- thee, nuncle; thou hast pared thy wit o' both sides,
- and left nothing i' the middle: here comes one o'
- the parings.
-
- [Enter #GONERIL]
-
-#KING #LEAR How now, daughter! what makes that frontlet on?
- Methinks you are too much of late i' the frown.
-
-#Fool Thou wast a pretty fellow when thou hadst no need to
- care for her frowning; now thou art an O without a
- figure: I am better than thou art now; I am a fool,
- thou art nothing.
-
- [To #GONERIL]
-
- Yes, forsooth, I will hold my tongue; so your face
- bids me, though you say nothing. Mum, mum,
- He that keeps nor crust nor crum,
- Weary of all, shall want some.
-
- [Pointing to #KING #LEAR]
-
- That's a shealed peascod.
-
-#GONERIL Not only, sir, this your all-licensed fool,
- But other of your insolent retinue
- Do hourly carp and quarrel; breaking forth
- In rank and not-to-be endured riots. Sir,
- I had thought, by making this well known unto you,
- To have found a safe redress; but now grow fearful,
- By what yourself too late have spoke and done.
- That you protect this course, and put it on
- By your allowance; which if you should, the fault
- Would not 'scape censure, nor the redresses sleep,
- Which, in the tender of a wholesome weal,
- Might in their working do you that offence,
- Which else were shame, that then necessity
- Will call discreet proceeding.
-
-#Fool For, you trow, nuncle,
- The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long,
- That it's had it head bit off by it young.
- So, out went the candle, and we were left darkling.
-
-#KING #LEAR Are you our daughter?
-
-#GONERIL Come, sir,
- I would you would make use of that good wisdom,
- Whereof I know you are fraught; and put away
- These dispositions, that of late transform you
- From what you rightly are.
-
-#Fool May not an ass know when the cart
- draws the horse? Whoop, Jug! I love thee.
-
-#KING #LEAR Doth any here know me? This is not Lear:
- Doth Lear walk thus? speak thus? Where are his eyes?
- Either his notion weakens, his discernings
- Are lethargied--Ha! waking? 'tis not so.
- Who is it that can tell me who I am?
-
-#Fool Lear's shadow.
-
-#KING #LEAR I would learn that; for, by the
- marks of sovereignty, knowledge, and reason,
- I should be false persuaded I had daughters.
-
-#Fool Which they will make an obedient father.
-
-#KING #LEAR Your name, fair gentlewoman?
-
-#GONERIL This admiration, sir, is much o' the savour
- Of other your new pranks. I do beseech you
- To understand my purposes aright:
- As you are old and reverend, you should be wise.
- Here do you keep a hundred knights and squires;
- Men so disorder'd, so debosh'd and bold,
- That this our court, infected with their manners,
- Shows like a riotous inn: epicurism and lust
- Make it more like a tavern or a brothel
- Than a graced palace. The shame itself doth speak
- For instant remedy: be then desired
- By her, that else will take the thing she begs,
- A little to disquantity your train;
- And the remainder, that shall still depend,
- To be such men as may besort your age,
- And know themselves and you.
-
-#KING #LEAR Darkness and devils!
- Saddle my horses; call my train together:
- Degenerate bastard! I'll not trouble thee.
- Yet have I left a daughter.
-
-#GONERIL You strike my people; and your disorder'd rabble
- Make servants of their betters.
-
- [Enter #ALBANY]
-
-#KING #LEAR Woe, that too late repents,--
-
- [To #ALBANY]
-
- O, sir, are you come?
- Is it your will? Speak, sir. Prepare my horses.
- Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend,
- More hideous when thou show'st thee in a child
- Than the sea-monster!
-
-#ALBANY Pray, sir, be patient.
-
-#KING #LEAR [To #GONERIL] Detested kite! thou liest.
- My train are men of choice and rarest parts,
- That all particulars of duty know,
- And in the most exact regard support
- The worships of their name. O most small fault,
- How ugly didst thou in Cordelia show!
- That, like an engine, wrench'd my frame of nature
- From the fix'd place; drew from heart all love,
- And added to the gall. O Lear, Lear, Lear!
- Beat at this gate, that let thy folly in,
-
- [Striking his head]
-
- And thy dear judgment out! Go, go, my people.
-
-#ALBANY My lord, I am guiltless, as I am ignorant
- Of what hath moved you.
-
-#KING #LEAR It may be so, my lord.
- Hear, nature, hear; dear goddess, hear!
- Suspend thy purpose, if thou didst intend
- To make this creature fruitful!
- Into her womb convey sterility!
- Dry up in her the organs of increase;
- And from her derogate body never spring
- A babe to honour her! If she must teem,
- Create her child of spleen; that it may live,
- And be a thwart disnatured torment to her!
- Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth;
- With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks;
- Turn all her mother's pains and benefits
- To laughter and contempt; that she may feel
- How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
- To have a thankless child! Away, away!
-
- [Exit]
-
-#ALBANY Now, gods that we adore, whereof comes this?
-
-#GONERIL Never afflict yourself to know the cause;
- But let his disposition have that scope
- That dotage gives it.
-
- [Re-enter #KING #LEAR]
-
-#KING #LEAR What, fifty of my followers at a clap!
- Within a fortnight!
-
-#ALBANY What's the matter, sir?
-
-
-#KING #LEAR I'll tell thee:
-
- [To #GONERIL]
-
- Life and death! I am ashamed
- That thou hast power to shake my manhood thus;
- That these hot tears, which break from me perforce,
- Should make thee worth them. Blasts and fogs upon thee!
- The untented woundings of a father's curse
- Pierce every sense about thee! Old fond eyes,
- Beweep this cause again, I'll pluck ye out,
- And cast you, with the waters that you lose,
- To temper clay. Yea, it is come to this?
- Let is be so: yet have I left a daughter,
- Who, I am sure, is kind and comfortable:
- When she shall hear this of thee, with her nails
- She'll flay thy wolvish visage. Thou shalt find
- That I'll resume the shape which thou dost think
- I have cast off for ever: thou shalt,
- I warrant thee.
-
- [Exeunt #KING #LEAR, #KENT, and Attendants]
-
-#GONERIL Do you mark that, my lord?
-
-#ALBANY I cannot be so partial, Goneril,
- To the great love I bear you,--
-
-#GONERIL Pray you, content. What, Oswald, ho!
-
- [To the #Fool]
-
- You, sir, more knave than fool, after your master.
-
-#Fool Nuncle Lear, nuncle Lear, tarry and take the fool
- with thee.
- A fox, when one has caught her,
- And such a daughter,
- Should sure to the slaughter,
- If my cap would buy a halter:
- So the fool follows after.
-
- [Exit]
-
-#GONERIL This man hath had good counsel:--a hundred knights!
- 'Tis politic and safe to let him keep
- At point a hundred knights: yes, that, on every dream,
- Each buzz, each fancy, each complaint, dislike,
- He may enguard his dotage with their powers,
- And hold our lives in mercy. Oswald, I say!
-
-#ALBANY Well, you may fear too far.
-
-#GONERIL Safer than trust too far:
- Let me still take away the harms I fear,
- Not fear still to be taken: I know his heart.
- What he hath utter'd I have writ my sister
- If she sustain him and his hundred knights
- When I have show'd the unfitness,--
-
- [Re-enter #OSWALD]
-
- How now, Oswald!
- What, have you writ that letter to my sister?
-
-#OSWALD Yes, madam.
-
-#GONERIL Take you some company, and away to horse:
- Inform her full of my particular fear;
- And thereto add such reasons of your own
- As may compact it more. Get you gone;
- And hasten your return.
-
- [Exit #OSWALD]
-
- No, no, my lord,
- This milky gentleness and course of yours
- Though I condemn not, yet, under pardon,
- You are much more attask'd for want of wisdom
- Than praised for harmful mildness.
-
-#ALBANY How far your eyes may pierce I can not tell:
- Striving to better, oft we mar what's well.
-
-#GONERIL Nay, then--
-
-#ALBANY Well, well; the event.
-
- [Exeunt]
-
-
-
-
- #KING #LEAR
-
-
-ACT I
-
-
-
-SCENE V Court before the same.
-
-
- [Enter #KING #LEAR, #KENT, and #Fool]
-
-#KING #LEAR Go you before to Gloucester with these letters.
- Acquaint my daughter no further with any thing you
- know than comes from her demand out of the letter.
- If your diligence be not speedy, I shall be there afore you.
-
-#KENT I will not sleep, my lord, till I have delivered
- your letter.
-
- [Exit]
-
-#Fool If a man's brains were in's heels, were't not in
- danger of kibes?
-
-#KING #LEAR Ay, boy.
-
-#Fool Then, I prithee, be merry; thy wit shall ne'er go
- slip-shod.
-
-#KING #LEAR Ha, ha, ha!
-
-#Fool Shalt see thy other daughter will use thee kindly;
- for though she's as like this as a crab's like an
- apple, yet I can tell what I can tell.
-
-#KING #LEAR Why, what canst thou tell, my boy?
-
-#Fool She will taste as like this as a crab does to a
- crab. Thou canst tell why one's nose stands i'
- the middle on's face?
-
-#KING #LEAR No.
-
-#Fool Why, to keep one's eyes of either side's nose; that
- what a man cannot smell out, he may spy into.
-
-#KING #LEAR I did her wrong--
-
-#Fool Canst tell how an oyster makes his shell?
-
-#KING #LEAR No.
-
-#Fool Nor I neither; but I can tell why a snail has a house.
-
-#KING #LEAR Why?
-
-#Fool Why, to put his head in; not to give it away to his
- daughters, and leave his horns without a case.
-
-#KING #LEAR I will forget my nature. So kind a father! Be my
- horses ready?
-
-#Fool Thy asses are gone about 'em. The reason why the
- seven stars are no more than seven is a pretty reason.
-
-#KING #LEAR Because they are not eight?
-
-#Fool Yes, indeed: thou wouldst make a good fool.
-
-#KING #LEAR To take 't again perforce! Monster ingratitude!
-
-#Fool If thou wert my fool, nuncle, I'ld have thee beaten
- for being old before thy time.
-
-#KING #LEAR How's that?
-
-#Fool Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst
- been wise.
-
-#KING #LEAR O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven
- Keep me in temper: I would not be mad!
-
- [Enter #Gentleman]
-
- How now! are the horses ready?
-
-#Gentleman Ready, my lord.
-
-#KING #LEAR Come, boy.
-
-#Fool She that's a maid now, and laughs at my departure,
- Shall not be a maid long, unless things be cut shorter.
-
- [Exeunt]
-
-
-
-
- #KING #LEAR
-
-
-ACT II
-
-
-
-SCENE I #GLOUCESTER's castle.
-
-
- [Enter #EDMUND, and #CURAN meets him]
-
-#EDMUND Save thee, Curan.
-
-#CURAN And you, sir. I have been with your father, and
- given him notice that the Duke of Cornwall and Regan
- his duchess will be here with him this night.
-
-#EDMUND How comes that?
-
-#CURAN Nay, I know not. You have heard of the news abroad;
- I mean the whispered ones, for they are yet but
- ear-kissing arguments?
-
-#EDMUND Not I pray you, what are they?
-
-#CURAN Have you heard of no likely wars toward, 'twixt the
- Dukes of Cornwall and Albany?
-
-#EDMUND Not a word.
-
-#CURAN You may do, then, in time. Fare you well, sir.
-
- [Exit]
-
-#EDMUND The duke be here to-night? The better! best!
- This weaves itself perforce into my business.
- My father hath set guard to take my brother;
- And I have one thing, of a queasy question,
- Which I must act: briefness and fortune, work!
- Brother, a word; descend: brother, I say!
-
- [Enter #EDGAR]
-
- My father watches: O sir, fly this place;
- Intelligence is given where you are hid;
- You have now the good advantage of the night:
- Have you not spoken 'gainst the Duke of Cornwall?
- He's coming hither: now, i' the night, i' the haste,
- And Regan with him: have you nothing said
- Upon his party 'gainst the Duke of Albany?
- Advise yourself.
-
-#EDGAR I am sure on't, not a word.
-
-#EDMUND I hear my father coming: pardon me:
- In cunning I must draw my sword upon you
- Draw; seem to defend yourself; now quit you well.
- Yield: come before my father. Light, ho, here!
- Fly, brother. Torches, torches! So, farewell.
-
- [Exit #EDGAR]
-
- Some blood drawn on me would beget opinion.
-
- [Wounds his arm]
-
- Of my more fierce endeavour: I have seen drunkards
- Do more than this in sport. Father, father!
- Stop, stop! No help?
-
- [Enter #GLOUCESTER, and Servants with torches]
-
-#GLOUCESTER Now, Edmund, where's the villain?
-
-#EDMUND Here stood he in the dark, his sharp sword out,
- Mumbling of wicked charms, conjuring the moon
- To stand auspicious mistress,--
-
-#GLOUCESTER But where is he?
-
-#EDMUND Look, sir, I bleed.
-
-#GLOUCESTER Where is the villain, Edmund?
-
-#EDMUND Fled this way, sir. When by no means he could--
-
-#GLOUCESTER Pursue him, ho! Go after.
-
- [Exeunt some Servants]
-
- By no means what?
-
-#EDMUND Persuade me to the murder of your lordship;
- But that I told him, the revenging gods
- 'Gainst parricides did all their thunders bend;
- Spoke, with how manifold and strong a bond
- The child was bound to the father; sir, in fine,
- Seeing how loathly opposite I stood
- To his unnatural purpose, in fell motion,
- With his prepared sword, he charges home
- My unprovided body, lanced mine arm:
- But when he saw my best alarum'd spirits,
- Bold in the quarrel's right, roused to the encounter,
- Or whether gasted by the noise I made,
- Full suddenly he fled.
-
-#GLOUCESTER Let him fly far:
- Not in this land shall he remain uncaught;
- And found--dispatch. The noble duke my master,
- My worthy arch and patron, comes to-night:
- By his authority I will proclaim it,
- That he which finds him shall deserve our thanks,
- Bringing the murderous coward to the stake;
- He that conceals him, death.
-
-#EDMUND When I dissuaded him from his intent,
- And found him pight to do it, with curst speech
- I threaten'd to discover him: he replied,
- 'Thou unpossessing bastard! dost thou think,
- If I would stand against thee, would the reposal
- Of any trust, virtue, or worth in thee
- Make thy words faith'd? No: what I should deny,--
- As this I would: ay, though thou didst produce
- My very character,--I'ld turn it all
- To thy suggestion, plot, and damned practise:
- And thou must make a dullard of the world,
- If they not thought the profits of my death
- Were very pregnant and potential spurs
- To make thee seek it.'
-
-#GLOUCESTER Strong and fasten'd villain
- Would he deny his letter? I never got him.
-
- [Tucket within]
-
- Hark, the duke's trumpets! I know not why he comes.
- All ports I'll bar; the villain shall not 'scape;
- The duke must grant me that: besides, his picture
- I will send far and near, that all the kingdom
- May have the due note of him; and of my land,
- Loyal and natural boy, I'll work the means
- To make thee capable.
-
- [Enter #CORNWALL, #REGAN, and Attendants]
-
-#CORNWALL How now, my noble friend! since I came hither,
- Which I can call but now, I have heard strange news.
-
-#REGAN If it be true, all vengeance comes too short
- Which can pursue the offender. How dost, my lord?
-
-#GLOUCESTER O, madam, my old heart is crack'd, it's crack'd!
-
-#REGAN What, did my father's godson seek your life?
- He whom my father named? your Edgar?
-
-#GLOUCESTER O, lady, lady, shame would have it hid!
-
-#REGAN Was he not companion with the riotous knights
- That tend upon my father?
-
-#GLOUCESTER I know not, madam: 'tis too bad, too bad.
-
-#EDMUND Yes, madam, he was of that consort.
-
-#REGAN No marvel, then, though he were ill affected:
- 'Tis they have put him on the old man's death,
- To have the expense and waste of his revenues.
- I have this present evening from my sister
- Been well inform'd of them; and with such cautions,
- That if they come to sojourn at my house,
- I'll not be there.
-
-#CORNWALL Nor I, assure thee, Regan.
- Edmund, I hear that you have shown your father
- A child-like office.
-
-#EDMUND 'Twas my duty, sir.
-
-#GLOUCESTER He did bewray his practise; and received
- This hurt you see, striving to apprehend him.
-
-#CORNWALL Is he pursued?
-
-#GLOUCESTER Ay, my good lord.
-
-#CORNWALL If he be taken, he shall never more
- Be fear'd of doing harm: make your own purpose,
- How in my strength you please. For you, Edmund,
- Whose virtue and obedience doth this instant
- So much commend itself, you shall be ours:
- Natures of such deep trust we shall much need;
- You we first seize on.
-
-#EDMUND I shall serve you, sir,
- Truly, however else.
-
-#GLOUCESTER For him I thank your grace.
-
-#CORNWALL You know not why we came to visit you,--
-
-#REGAN Thus out of season, threading dark-eyed night:
- Occasions, noble Gloucester, of some poise,
- Wherein we must have use of your advice:
- Our father he hath writ, so hath our sister,
- Of differences, which I least thought it fit
- To answer from our home; the several messengers
- From hence attend dispatch. Our good old friend,
- Lay comforts to your bosom; and bestow
- Your needful counsel to our business,
- Which craves the instant use.
-
-#GLOUCESTER I serve you, madam:
- Your graces are right welcome.
-
- [Exeunt]
-
-
-
-
- #KING #LEAR
-
-
-ACT II
-
-
-
-SCENE II Before Gloucester's castle.
-
-
- [Enter #KENT and #OSWALD, severally]
-
-#OSWALD Good dawning to thee, friend: art of this house?
-
-#KENT Ay.
-
-#OSWALD Where may we set our horses?
-
-#KENT I' the mire.
-
-#OSWALD Prithee, if thou lovest me, tell me.
-
-#KENT I love thee not.
-
-#OSWALD Why, then, I care not for thee.
-
-#KENT If I had thee in Lipsbury pinfold, I would make thee
- care for me.
-
-#OSWALD Why dost thou use me thus? I know thee not.
-
-#KENT Fellow, I know thee.
-
-#OSWALD What dost thou know me for?
-
-#KENT A knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats; a
- base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited,
- hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave; a
- lily-livered, action-taking knave, a whoreson,
- glass-gazing, super-serviceable finical rogue;
- one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a
- bawd, in way of good service, and art nothing but
- the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pandar,
- and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch: one whom I
- will beat into clamorous whining, if thou deniest
- the least syllable of thy addition.
-
-#OSWALD Why, what a monstrous fellow art thou, thus to rail
- on one that is neither known of thee nor knows thee!
-
-#KENT What a brazen-faced varlet art thou, to deny thou
- knowest me! Is it two days ago since I tripped up
- thy heels, and beat thee before the king? Draw, you
- rogue: for, though it be night, yet the moon
- shines; I'll make a sop o' the moonshine of you:
- draw, you whoreson cullionly barber-monger, draw.
-
- [Drawing his sword]
-
-#OSWALD Away! I have nothing to do with thee.
-
-#KENT Draw, you rascal: you come with letters against the
- king; and take vanity the puppet's part against the
- royalty of her father: draw, you rogue, or I'll so
- carbonado your shanks: draw, you rascal; come your ways.
-
-#OSWALD Help, ho! murder! help!
-
-#KENT Strike, you slave; stand, rogue, stand; you neat
- slave, strike.
-
- [Beating him]
-
-#OSWALD Help, ho! murder! murder!
-
- [Enter #EDMUND, with his rapier drawn, #CORNWALL,
- #REGAN, #GLOUCESTER, and Servants]
-
-#EDMUND How now! What's the matter?
-
-#KENT With you, goodman boy, an you please: come, I'll
- flesh ye; come on, young master.
-
-#GLOUCESTER Weapons! arms! What 's the matter here?
-
-#CORNWALL Keep peace, upon your lives:
- He dies that strikes again. What is the matter?
-
-#REGAN The messengers from our sister and the king.
-
-#CORNWALL What is your difference? speak.
-
-#OSWALD I am scarce in breath, my lord.
-
-#KENT No marvel, you have so bestirred your valour. You
- cowardly rascal, nature disclaims in thee: a
- tailor made thee.
-
-#CORNWALL Thou art a strange fellow: a tailor make a man?
-
-#KENT Ay, a tailor, sir: a stone-cutter or painter could
- not have made him so ill, though he had been but two
- hours at the trade.
-
-#CORNWALL Speak yet, how grew your quarrel?
-
-#OSWALD This ancient ruffian, sir, whose life I have spared
- at suit of his gray beard,--
-
-#KENT Thou whoreson zed! thou unnecessary letter! My
- lord, if you will give me leave, I will tread this
- unbolted villain into mortar, and daub the wall of
- a jakes with him. Spare my gray beard, you wagtail?
-
-#CORNWALL Peace, sirrah!
- You beastly knave, know you no reverence?
-
-#KENT Yes, sir; but anger hath a privilege.
-
-#CORNWALL Why art thou angry?
-
-#KENT That such a slave as this should wear a sword,
- Who wears no honesty. Such smiling rogues as these,
- Like rats, oft bite the holy cords a-twain
- Which are too intrinse t' unloose; smooth every passion
- That in the natures of their lords rebel;
- Bring oil to fire, snow to their colder moods;
- Renege, affirm, and turn their halcyon beaks
- With every gale and vary of their masters,
- Knowing nought, like dogs, but following.
- A plague upon your epileptic visage!
- Smile you my speeches, as I were a fool?
- Goose, if I had you upon Sarum plain,
- I'ld drive ye cackling home to Camelot.
-
-#CORNWALL Why, art thou mad, old fellow?
-
-#GLOUCESTER How fell you out? say that.
-
-#KENT No contraries hold more antipathy
- Than I and such a knave.
-
-#CORNWALL Why dost thou call him a knave? What's his offence?
-
-#KENT His countenance likes me not.
-
-#CORNWALL No more, perchance, does mine, nor his, nor hers.
-
-#KENT Sir, 'tis my occupation to be plain:
- I have seen better faces in my time
- Than stands on any shoulder that I see
- Before me at this instant.
-
-#CORNWALL This is some fellow,
- Who, having been praised for bluntness, doth affect
- A saucy roughness, and constrains the garb
- Quite from his nature: he cannot flatter, he,
- An honest mind and plain, he must speak truth!
- An they will take it, so; if not, he's plain.
- These kind of knaves I know, which in this plainness
- Harbour more craft and more corrupter ends
- Than twenty silly ducking observants
- That stretch their duties nicely.
-
-#KENT Sir, in good sooth, in sincere verity,
- Under the allowance of your great aspect,
- Whose influence, like the wreath of radiant fire
- On flickering Phoebus' front,--
-
-#CORNWALL What mean'st by this?
-
-#KENT To go out of my dialect, which you
- discommend so much. I know, sir, I am no
- flatterer: he that beguiled you in a plain
- accent was a plain knave; which for my part
- I will not be, though I should win your displeasure
- to entreat me to 't.
-
-#CORNWALL What was the offence you gave him?
-
-#OSWALD I never gave him any:
- It pleased the king his master very late
- To strike at me, upon his misconstruction;
- When he, conjunct and flattering his displeasure,
- Tripp'd me behind; being down, insulted, rail'd,
- And put upon him such a deal of man,
- That worthied him, got praises of the king
- For him attempting who was self-subdued;
- And, in the fleshment of this dread exploit,
- Drew on me here again.
-
-#KENT None of these rogues and cowards
- But Ajax is their fool.
-
-#CORNWALL Fetch forth the stocks!
- You stubborn ancient knave, you reverend braggart,
- We'll teach you--
-
-#KENT Sir, I am too old to learn:
- Call not your stocks for me: I serve the king;
- On whose employment I was sent to you:
- You shall do small respect, show too bold malice
- Against the grace and person of my master,
- Stocking his messenger.
-
-#CORNWALL Fetch forth the stocks! As I have life and honour,
- There shall he sit till noon.
-
-#REGAN Till noon! till night, my lord; and all night too.
-
-#KENT Why, madam, if I were your father's dog,
- You should not use me so.
-
-#REGAN Sir, being his knave, I will.
-
-#CORNWALL This is a fellow of the self-same colour
- Our sister speaks of. Come, bring away the stocks!
-
- [Stocks brought out]
-
-#GLOUCESTER Let me beseech your grace not to do so:
- His fault is much, and the good king his master
- Will cheque him for 't: your purposed low correction
- Is such as basest and contemned'st wretches
- For pilferings and most common trespasses
- Are punish'd with: the king must take it ill,
- That he's so slightly valued in his messenger,
- Should have him thus restrain'd.
-
-#CORNWALL I'll answer that.
-
-#REGAN My sister may receive it much more worse,
- To have her gentleman abused, assaulted,
- For following her affairs. Put in his legs.
-
- [#KENT is put in the stocks]
-
- Come, my good lord, away.
-
- [Exeunt all but #GLOUCESTER and #KENT]
-
-#GLOUCESTER I am sorry for thee, friend; 'tis the duke's pleasure,
- Whose disposition, all the world well knows,
- Will not be rubb'd nor stopp'd: I'll entreat for thee.
-
-#KENT Pray, do not, sir: I have watched and travell'd hard;
- Some time I shall sleep out, the rest I'll whistle.
- A good man's fortune may grow out at heels:
- Give you good morrow!
-
-#GLOUCESTER The duke's to blame in this; 'twill be ill taken.
-
- [Exit]
-
-#KENT Good king, that must approve the common saw,
- Thou out of heaven's benediction comest
- To the warm sun!
- Approach, thou beacon to this under globe,
- That by thy comfortable beams I may
- Peruse this letter! Nothing almost sees miracles
- But misery: I know 'tis from Cordelia,
- Who hath most fortunately been inform'd
- Of my obscured course; and shall find time
- From this enormous state, seeking to give
- Losses their remedies. All weary and o'erwatch'd,
- Take vantage, heavy eyes, not to behold
- This shameful lodging.
- Fortune, good night: smile once more: turn thy wheel!
-
- [Sleeps]
-
-
-
-
- #KING #LEAR
-
-
-ACT II
-
-
-
-SCENE III A wood.
-
-
- [Enter #EDGAR]
-
-#EDGAR I heard myself proclaim'd;
- And by the happy hollow of a tree
- Escaped the hunt. No port is free; no place,
- That guard, and most unusual vigilance,
- Does not attend my taking. Whiles I may 'scape,
- I will preserve myself: and am bethought
- To take the basest and most poorest shape
- That ever penury, in contempt of man,
- Brought near to beast: my face I'll grime with filth;
- Blanket my loins: elf all my hair in knots;
- And with presented nakedness out-face
- The winds and persecutions of the sky.
- The country gives me proof and precedent
- Of Bedlam beggars, who, with roaring voices,
- Strike in their numb'd and mortified bare arms
- Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary;
- And with this horrible object, from low farms,
- Poor pelting villages, sheep-cotes, and mills,
- Sometime with lunatic bans, sometime with prayers,
- Enforce their charity. Poor Turlygod! poor Tom!
- That's something yet: Edgar I nothing am.
-
- [Exit]
-
-
-
-
- #KING #LEAR
-
-
-ACT II
-
-
-
-SCENE IV Before #GLOUCESTER's castle. #KENT in the stocks.
-
-
- [Enter #KING #LEAR, #Fool, and #Gentleman]
-
-#KING #LEAR 'Tis strange that they should so depart from home,
- And not send back my messenger.
-
-#Gentleman As I learn'd,
- The night before there was no purpose in them
- Of this remove.
-
-#KENT Hail to thee, noble master!
-
-#KING #LEAR Ha!
- Makest thou this shame thy pastime?
-
-#KENT No, my lord.
-
-#Fool Ha, ha! he wears cruel garters. Horses are tied
- by the heads, dogs and bears by the neck, monkeys by
- the loins, and men by the legs: when a man's
- over-lusty at legs, then he wears wooden
- nether-stocks.
-
-#KING #LEAR What's he that hath so much thy place mistook
- To set thee here?
-
-#KENT It is both he and she;
- Your son and daughter.
-
-#KING #LEAR No.
-
-#KENT Yes.
-
-#KING #LEAR No, I say.
-
-#KENT I say, yea.
-
-#KING #LEAR No, no, they would not.
-
-#KENT Yes, they have.
-
-#KING #LEAR By Jupiter, I swear, no.
-
-#KENT By Juno, I swear, ay.
-
-#KING #LEAR They durst not do 't;
- They could not, would not do 't; 'tis worse than murder,
- To do upon respect such violent outrage:
- Resolve me, with all modest haste, which way
- Thou mightst deserve, or they impose, this usage,
- Coming from us.
-
-#KENT My lord, when at their home
- I did commend your highness' letters to them,
- Ere I was risen from the place that show'd
- My duty kneeling, came there a reeking post,
- Stew'd in his haste, half breathless, panting forth
- From Goneril his mistress salutations;
- Deliver'd letters, spite of intermission,
- Which presently they read: on whose contents,
- They summon'd up their meiny, straight took horse;
- Commanded me to follow, and attend
- The leisure of their answer; gave me cold looks:
- And meeting here the other messenger,
- Whose welcome, I perceived, had poison'd mine,--
- Being the very fellow that of late
- Display'd so saucily against your highness,--
- Having more man than wit about me, drew:
- He raised the house with loud and coward cries.
- Your son and daughter found this trespass worth
- The shame which here it suffers.
-
-#Fool Winter's not gone yet, if the wild-geese fly that way.
- Fathers that wear rags
- Do make their children blind;
- But fathers that bear bags
- Shall see their children kind.
- Fortune, that arrant whore,
- Ne'er turns the key to the poor.
- But, for all this, thou shalt have as many dolours
- for thy daughters as thou canst tell in a year.
-
-#KING #LEAR O, how this mother swells up toward my heart!
- Hysterica passio, down, thou climbing sorrow,
- Thy element's below! Where is this daughter?
-
-#KENT With the earl, sir, here within.
-
-#KING #LEAR Follow me not;
- Stay here.
-
- [Exit]
-
-#Gentleman Made you no more offence but what you speak of?
-
-#KENT None.
- How chance the king comes with so small a train?
-
-#Fool And thou hadst been set i' the stocks for that
- question, thou hadst well deserved it.
-
-#KENT Why, fool?
-
-#Fool We'll set thee to school to an ant, to teach thee
- there's no labouring i' the winter. All that follow
- their noses are led by their eyes but blind men; and
- there's not a nose among twenty but can smell him
- that's stinking. Let go thy hold when a great wheel
- runs down a hill, lest it break thy neck with
- following it: but the great one that goes up the
- hill, let him draw thee after. When a wise man
- gives thee better counsel, give me mine again: I
- would have none but knaves follow it, since a fool gives it.
- That sir which serves and seeks for gain,
- And follows but for form,
- Will pack when it begins to rain,
- And leave thee in the storm,
- But I will tarry; the fool will stay,
- And let the wise man fly:
- The knave turns fool that runs away;
- The fool no knave, perdy.
-
-#KENT Where learned you this, fool?
-
-#Fool Not i' the stocks, fool.
-
- [Re-enter #KING #LEAR with #GLOUCESTER]
-
-#KING #LEAR Deny to speak with me? They are sick? they are weary?
- They have travell'd all the night? Mere fetches;
- The images of revolt and flying off.
- Fetch me a better answer.
-
-#GLOUCESTER My dear lord,
- You know the fiery quality of the duke;
- How unremoveable and fix'd he is
- In his own course.
-
-#KING #LEAR Vengeance! plague! death! confusion!
- Fiery? what quality? Why, Gloucester, Gloucester,
- I'ld speak with the Duke of Cornwall and his wife.
-
-#GLOUCESTER Well, my good lord, I have inform'd them so.
-
-#KING #LEAR Inform'd them! Dost thou understand me, man?
-
-#GLOUCESTER Ay, my good lord.
-
-#KING #LEAR The king would speak with Cornwall; the dear father
- Would with his daughter speak, commands her service:
- Are they inform'd of this? My breath and blood!
- Fiery? the fiery duke? Tell the hot duke that--
- No, but not yet: may be he is not well:
- Infirmity doth still neglect all office
- Whereto our health is bound; we are not ourselves
- When nature, being oppress'd, commands the mind
- To suffer with the body: I'll forbear;
- And am fall'n out with my more headier will,
- To take the indisposed and sickly fit
- For the sound man. Death on my state! wherefore
-
- [Looking on #KENT]
-
- Should he sit here? This act persuades me
- That this remotion of the duke and her
- Is practise only. Give me my servant forth.
- Go tell the duke and 's wife I'ld speak with them,
- Now, presently: bid them come forth and hear me,
- Or at their chamber-door I'll beat the drum
- Till it cry sleep to death.
-
-#GLOUCESTER I would have all well betwixt you.
-
- [Exit]
-
-#KING #LEAR O me, my heart, my rising heart! but, down!
-
-#Fool Cry to it, nuncle, as the cockney did to the eels
- when she put 'em i' the paste alive; she knapped 'em
- o' the coxcombs with a stick, and cried 'Down,
- wantons, down!' 'Twas her brother that, in pure
- kindness to his horse, buttered his hay.
-
- [Enter #CORNWALL, #REGAN, #GLOUCESTER, and Servants]
-
-#KING #LEAR Good morrow to you both.
-
-#CORNWALL Hail to your grace!
-
- [#KENT is set at liberty]
-
-#REGAN I am glad to see your highness.
-
-#KING #LEAR Regan, I think you are; I know what reason
- I have to think so: if thou shouldst not be glad,
- I would divorce me from thy mother's tomb,
- Sepulchring an adultress.
-
- [To #KENT]
-
- O, are you free?
- Some other time for that. Beloved Regan,
- Thy sister's naught: O Regan, she hath tied
- Sharp-tooth'd unkindness, like a vulture, here:
-
- [Points to his heart]
-
- I can scarce speak to thee; thou'lt not believe
- With how depraved a quality--O Regan!
-
-#REGAN I pray you, sir, take patience: I have hope.
- You less know how to value her desert
- Than she to scant her duty.
-
-#KING #LEAR Say, how is that?
-
-#REGAN I cannot think my sister in the least
- Would fail her obligation: if, sir, perchance
- She have restrain'd the riots of your followers,
- 'Tis on such ground, and to such wholesome end,
- As clears her from all blame.
-
-#KING #LEAR My curses on her!
-
-#REGAN O, sir, you are old.
- Nature in you stands on the very verge
- Of her confine: you should be ruled and led
- By some discretion, that discerns your state
- Better than you yourself. Therefore, I pray you,
- That to our sister you do make return;
- Say you have wrong'd her, sir.
-
-#KING #LEAR Ask her forgiveness?
- Do you but mark how this becomes the house:
- 'Dear daughter, I confess that I am old;
-
- [Kneeling]
-
- Age is unnecessary: on my knees I beg
- That you'll vouchsafe me raiment, bed, and food.'
-
-#REGAN Good sir, no more; these are unsightly tricks:
- Return you to my sister.
-
-#KING #LEAR [Rising] Never, Regan:
- She hath abated me of half my train;
- Look'd black upon me; struck me with her tongue,
- Most serpent-like, upon the very heart:
- All the stored vengeances of heaven fall
- On her ingrateful top! Strike her young bones,
- You taking airs, with lameness!
-
-#CORNWALL Fie, sir, fie!
-
-#KING #LEAR You nimble lightnings, dart your blinding flames
- Into her scornful eyes! Infect her beauty,
- You fen-suck'd fogs, drawn by the powerful sun,
- To fall and blast her pride!
-
-#REGAN O the blest gods! so will you wish on me,
- When the rash mood is on.
-
-#KING #LEAR No, Regan, thou shalt never have my curse:
- Thy tender-hefted nature shall not give
- Thee o'er to harshness: her eyes are fierce; but thine
- Do comfort and not burn. 'Tis not in thee
- To grudge my pleasures, to cut off my train,
- To bandy hasty words, to scant my sizes,
- And in conclusion to oppose the bolt
- Against my coming in: thou better know'st
- The offices of nature, bond of childhood,
- Effects of courtesy, dues of gratitude;
- Thy half o' the kingdom hast thou not forgot,
- Wherein I thee endow'd.
-
-#REGAN Good sir, to the purpose.
-
-#KING #LEAR Who put my man i' the stocks?
-
- [Tucket within]
-
-#CORNWALL What trumpet's that?
-
-#REGAN I know't, my sister's: this approves her letter,
- That she would soon be here.
-
- [Enter #OSWALD]
-
- Is your lady come?
-
-#KING #LEAR This is a slave, whose easy-borrow'd pride
- Dwells in the fickle grace of her he follows.
- Out, varlet, from my sight!
-
-#CORNWALL What means your grace?
-
-#KING #LEAR Who stock'd my servant? Regan, I have good hope
- Thou didst not know on't. Who comes here? O heavens,
-
- [Enter #GONERIL]
-
- If you do love old men, if your sweet sway
- Allow obedience, if yourselves are old,
- Make it your cause; send down, and take my part!
-
- [To #GONERIL]
-
- Art not ashamed to look upon this beard?
- O Regan, wilt thou take her by the hand?
-
-#GONERIL Why not by the hand, sir? How have I offended?
- All's not offence that indiscretion finds
- And dotage terms so.
-
-#KING #LEAR O sides, you are too tough;
- Will you yet hold? How came my man i' the stocks?
-
-#CORNWALL I set him there, sir: but his own disorders
- Deserved much less advancement.
-
-#KING #LEAR You! did you?
-
-#REGAN I pray you, father, being weak, seem so.
- If, till the expiration of your month,
- You will return and sojourn with my sister,
- Dismissing half your train, come then to me:
- I am now from home, and out of that provision
- Which shall be needful for your entertainment.
-
-#KING #LEAR Return to her, and fifty men dismiss'd?
- No, rather I abjure all roofs, and choose
- To wage against the enmity o' the air;
- To be a comrade with the wolf and owl,--
- Necessity's sharp pinch! Return with her?
- Why, the hot-blooded France, that dowerless took
- Our youngest born, I could as well be brought
- To knee his throne, and, squire-like; pension beg
- To keep base life afoot. Return with her?
- Persuade me rather to be slave and sumpter
- To this detested groom.
-
- [Pointing at #OSWALD]
-
-#GONERIL At your choice, sir.
-
-#KING #LEAR I prithee, daughter, do not make me mad:
- I will not trouble thee, my child; farewell:
- We'll no more meet, no more see one another:
- But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter;
- Or rather a disease that's in my flesh,
- Which I must needs call mine: thou art a boil,
- A plague-sore, an embossed carbuncle,
- In my corrupted blood. But I'll not chide thee;
- Let shame come when it will, I do not call it:
- I do not bid the thunder-bearer shoot,
- Nor tell tales of thee to high-judging Jove:
- Mend when thou canst; be better at thy leisure:
- I can be patient; I can stay with Regan,
- I and my hundred knights.
-
-#REGAN Not altogether so:
- I look'd not for you yet, nor am provided
- For your fit welcome. Give ear, sir, to my sister;
- For those that mingle reason with your passion
- Must be content to think you old, and so--
- But she knows what she does.
-
-#KING #LEAR Is this well spoken?
-
-#REGAN I dare avouch it, sir: what, fifty followers?
- Is it not well? What should you need of more?
- Yea, or so many, sith that both charge and danger
- Speak 'gainst so great a number? How, in one house,
- Should many people, under two commands,
- Hold amity? 'Tis hard; almost impossible.
-
-#GONERIL Why might not you, my lord, receive attendance
- From those that she calls servants or from mine?
-
-#REGAN Why not, my lord? If then they chanced to slack you,
- We could control them. If you will come to me,--
- For now I spy a danger,--I entreat you
- To bring but five and twenty: to no more
- Will I give place or notice.
-
-#KING #LEAR I gave you all--
-
-#REGAN And in good time you gave it.
-
-#KING #LEAR Made you my guardians, my depositaries;
- But kept a reservation to be follow'd
- With such a number. What, must I come to you
- With five and twenty, Regan? said you so?
-
-#REGAN And speak't again, my lord; no more with me.
-
-#KING #LEAR Those wicked creatures yet do look well-favour'd,
- When others are more wicked: not being the worst
- Stands in some rank of praise.
-
- [To #GONERIL]
-
- I'll go with thee:
- Thy fifty yet doth double five and twenty,
- And thou art twice her love.
-
-#GONERIL Hear me, my lord;
- What need you five and twenty, ten, or five,
- To follow in a house where twice so many
- Have a command to tend you?
-
-#REGAN What need one?
-
-#KING #LEAR O, reason not the need: our basest beggars
- Are in the poorest thing superfluous:
- Allow not nature more than nature needs,
- Man's life's as cheap as beast's: thou art a lady;
- If only to go warm were gorgeous,
- Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear'st,
- Which scarcely keeps thee warm. But, for true need,--
- You heavens, give me that patience, patience I need!
- You see me here, you gods, a poor old man,
- As full of grief as age; wretched in both!
- If it be you that stir these daughters' hearts
- Against their father, fool me not so much
- To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger,
- And let not women's weapons, water-drops,
- Stain my man's cheeks! No, you unnatural hags,
- I will have such revenges on you both,
- That all the world shall--I will do such things,--
- What they are, yet I know not: but they shall be
- The terrors of the earth. You think I'll weep
- No, I'll not weep:
- I have full cause of weeping; but this heart
- Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws,
- Or ere I'll weep. O fool, I shall go mad!
-
- [Exeunt #KING #LEAR, #GLOUCESTER, #KENT, and #Fool]
-
- [Storm and tempest]
-
-#CORNWALL Let us withdraw; 'twill be a storm.
-
-#REGAN This house is little: the old man and his people
- Cannot be well bestow'd.
-
-#GONERIL 'Tis his own blame; hath put himself from rest,
- And must needs taste his folly.
-
-#REGAN For his particular, I'll receive him gladly,
- But not one follower.
-
-#GONERIL So am I purposed.
- Where is my lord of Gloucester?
-
-#CORNWALL Follow'd the old man forth: he is return'd.
-
- [Re-enter #GLOUCESTER]
-
-#GLOUCESTER The king is in high rage.
-
-#CORNWALL Whither is he going?
-
-#GLOUCESTER He calls to horse; but will I know not whither.
-
-#CORNWALL 'Tis best to give him way; he leads himself.
-
-#GONERIL My lord, entreat him by no means to stay.
-
-#GLOUCESTER Alack, the night comes on, and the bleak winds
- Do sorely ruffle; for many miles about
- There's scarce a bush.
-
-#REGAN O, sir, to wilful men,
- The injuries that they themselves procure
- Must be their schoolmasters. Shut up your doors:
- He is attended with a desperate train;
- And what they may incense him to, being apt
- To have his ear abused, wisdom bids fear.
-
-#CORNWALL Shut up your doors, my lord; 'tis a wild night:
- My Regan counsels well; come out o' the storm.
-
- [Exeunt]
-
-
-
- #KING #LEAR
-
-
-ACT III
-
-
-
-SCENE I A heath.
-
-
- [Storm still. Enter #KENT and a #Gentleman, meeting]
-
-#KENT Who's there, besides foul weather?
-
-#Gentleman One minded like the weather, most unquietly.
-
-#KENT I know you. Where's the king?
-
-#Gentleman Contending with the fretful element:
- Bids the winds blow the earth into the sea,
- Or swell the curled water 'bove the main,
- That things might change or cease; tears his white hair,
- Which the impetuous blasts, with eyeless rage,
- Catch in their fury, and make nothing of;
- Strives in his little world of man to out-scorn
- The to-and-fro-conflicting wind and rain.
- This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch,
- The lion and the belly-pinched wolf
- Keep their fur dry, unbonneted he runs,
- And bids what will take all.
-
-#KENT But who is with him?
-
-#Gentleman None but the fool; who labours to out-jest
- His heart-struck injuries.
-
-#KENT Sir, I do know you;
- And dare, upon the warrant of my note,
- Commend a dear thing to you. There is division,
- Although as yet the face of it be cover'd
- With mutual cunning, 'twixt Albany and Cornwall;
- Who have--as who have not, that their great stars
- Throned and set high?--servants, who seem no less,
- Which are to France the spies and speculations
- Intelligent of our state; what hath been seen,
- Either in snuffs and packings of the dukes,
- Or the hard rein which both of them have borne
- Against the old kind king; or something deeper,
- Whereof perchance these are but furnishings;
- But, true it is, from France there comes a power
- Into this scatter'd kingdom; who already,
- Wise in our negligence, have secret feet
- In some of our best ports, and are at point
- To show their open banner. Now to you:
- If on my credit you dare build so far
- To make your speed to Dover, you shall find
- Some that will thank you, making just report
- Of how unnatural and bemadding sorrow
- The king hath cause to plain.
- I am a gentleman of blood and breeding;
- And, from some knowledge and assurance, offer
- This office to you.
-
-#Gentleman I will talk further with you.
-
-#KENT No, do not.
- For confirmation that I am much more
- Than my out-wall, open this purse, and take
- What it contains. If you shall see Cordelia,--
- As fear not but you shall,--show her this ring;
- And she will tell you who your fellow is
- That yet you do not know. Fie on this storm!
- I will go seek the king.
-
-#Gentleman Give me your hand: have you no more to say?
-
-#KENT Few words, but, to effect, more than all yet;
- That, when we have found the king,--in which your pain
- That way, I'll this,--he that first lights on him
- Holla the other.
-
- [Exeunt severally]
-
-
-
-
- #KING #LEAR
-
-
-ACT III
-
-
-
-SCENE II Another part of the heath. Storm still.
-
-
- [Enter #KING #LEAR and #Fool]
-
-#KING #LEAR Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
- You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
- Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks!
- You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,
- Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
- Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
- Smite flat the thick rotundity o' the world!
- Crack nature's moulds, an germens spill at once,
- That make ingrateful man!
-
-#Fool O nuncle, court holy-water in a dry
- house is better than this rain-water out o' door.
- Good nuncle, in, and ask thy daughters' blessing:
- here's a night pities neither wise man nor fool.
-
-#KING #LEAR Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! spout, rain!
- Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters:
- I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness;
- I never gave you kingdom, call'd you children,
- You owe me no subscription: then let fall
- Your horrible pleasure: here I stand, your slave,
- A poor, infirm, weak, and despised old man:
- But yet I call you servile ministers,
- That have with two pernicious daughters join'd
- Your high engender'd battles 'gainst a head
- So old and white as this. O! O! 'tis foul!
-
-#Fool He that has a house to put's head in has a good
- head-piece.
- The cod-piece that will house
- Before the head has any,
- The head and he shall louse;
- So beggars marry many.
- The man that makes his toe
- What he his heart should make
- Shall of a corn cry woe,
- And turn his sleep to wake.
- For there was never yet fair woman but she made
- mouths in a glass.
-
-#KING #LEAR No, I will be the pattern of all patience;
- I will say nothing.
-
- [Enter #KENT]
-
-#KENT Who's there?
-
-#Fool Marry, here's grace and a cod-piece; that's a wise
- man and a fool.
-
-#KENT Alas, sir, are you here? things that love night
- Love not such nights as these; the wrathful skies
- Gallow the very wanderers of the dark,
- And make them keep their caves: since I was man,
- Such sheets of fire, such bursts of horrid thunder,
- Such groans of roaring wind and rain, I never
- Remember to have heard: man's nature cannot carry
- The affliction nor the fear.
-
-#KING #LEAR Let the great gods,
- That keep this dreadful pother o'er our heads,
- Find out their enemies now. Tremble, thou wretch,
- That hast within thee undivulged crimes,
- Unwhipp'd of justice: hide thee, thou bloody hand;
- Thou perjured, and thou simular man of virtue
- That art incestuous: caitiff, to pieces shake,
- That under covert and convenient seeming
- Hast practised on man's life: close pent-up guilts,
- Rive your concealing continents, and cry
- These dreadful summoners grace. I am a man
- More sinn'd against than sinning.
-
-#KENT Alack, bare-headed!
- Gracious my lord, hard by here is a hovel;
- Some friendship will it lend you 'gainst the tempest:
- Repose you there; while I to this hard house--
- More harder than the stones whereof 'tis raised;
- Which even but now, demanding after you,
- Denied me to come in--return, and force
- Their scanted courtesy.
-
-#KING #LEAR My wits begin to turn.
- Come on, my boy: how dost, my boy? art cold?
- I am cold myself. Where is this straw, my fellow?
- The art of our necessities is strange,
- That can make vile things precious. Come,
- your hovel.
- Poor fool and knave, I have one part in my heart
- That's sorry yet for thee.
-
-#Fool [Singing]
-
- He that has and a little tiny wit--
- With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,--
- Must make content with his fortunes fit,
- For the rain it raineth every day.
-
-#KING #LEAR True, my good boy. Come, bring us to this hovel.
-
- [Exeunt #KING #LEAR and #KENT]
-
-#Fool This is a brave night to cool a courtezan.
- I'll speak a prophecy ere I go:
- When priests are more in word than matter;
- When brewers mar their malt with water;
- When nobles are their tailors' tutors;
- No heretics burn'd, but wenches' suitors;
- When every case in law is right;
- No squire in debt, nor no poor knight;
- When slanders do not live in tongues;
- Nor cutpurses come not to throngs;
- When usurers tell their gold i' the field;
- And bawds and whores do churches build;
- Then shall the realm of Albion
- Come to great confusion:
- Then comes the time, who lives to see't,
- That going shall be used with feet.
- This prophecy Merlin shall make; for I live before his time.
-
- [Exit]
-
-
-
-
- #KING #LEAR
-
-
-ACT III
-
-
-
-SCENE III Gloucester's castle.
-
-
- [Enter #GLOUCESTER and #EDMUND]
-
-#GLOUCESTER Alack, alack, Edmund, I like not this unnatural
- dealing. When I desire their leave that I might
- pity him, they took from me the use of mine own
- house; charged me, on pain of their perpetual
- displeasure, neither to speak of him, entreat for
- him, nor any way sustain him.
-
-#EDMUND Most savage and unnatural!
-
-#GLOUCESTER Go to; say you nothing. There's a division betwixt
- the dukes; and a worse matter than that: I have
- received a letter this night; 'tis dangerous to be
- spoken; I have locked the letter in my closet:
- these injuries the king now bears will be revenged
- home; there's part of a power already footed: we
- must incline to the king. I will seek him, and
- privily relieve him: go you and maintain talk with
- the duke, that my charity be not of him perceived:
- if he ask for me. I am ill, and gone to bed.
- Though I die for it, as no less is threatened me,
- the king my old master must be relieved. There is
- some strange thing toward, Edmund; pray you, be careful.
-
- [Exit]
-
-#EDMUND This courtesy, forbid thee, shall the duke
- Instantly know; and of that letter too:
- This seems a fair deserving, and must draw me
- That which my father loses; no less than all:
- The younger rises when the old doth fall.
-
- [Exit]
-
-
-
-
- #KING #LEAR
-
-
-ACT III
-
-
-
-SCENE IV The heath. Before a hovel.
-
-
- [Enter #KING #LEAR, #KENT, and #Fool]
-
-#KENT Here is the place, my lord; good my lord, enter:
- The tyranny of the open night's too rough
- For nature to endure.
-
- [Storm still]
-
-#KING #LEAR Let me alone.
-
-#KENT Good my lord, enter here.
-
-#KING #LEAR Wilt break my heart?
-
-#KENT I had rather break mine own. Good my lord, enter.
-
-#KING #LEAR Thou think'st 'tis much that this contentious storm
- Invades us to the skin: so 'tis to thee;
- But where the greater malady is fix'd,
- The lesser is scarce felt. Thou'ldst shun a bear;
- But if thy flight lay toward the raging sea,
- Thou'ldst meet the bear i' the mouth. When the
- mind's free,
- The body's delicate: the tempest in my mind
- Doth from my senses take all feeling else
- Save what beats there. Filial ingratitude!
- Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand
- For lifting food to't? But I will punish home:
- No, I will weep no more. In such a night
- To shut me out! Pour on; I will endure.
- In such a night as this! O Regan, Goneril!
- Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave all,--
- O, that way madness lies; let me shun that;
- No more of that.
-
-#KENT Good my lord, enter here.
-
-#KING #LEAR Prithee, go in thyself: seek thine own ease:
- This tempest will not give me leave to ponder
- On things would hurt me more. But I'll go in.
-
- [To the #Fool]
-
- In, boy; go first. You houseless poverty,--
- Nay, get thee in. I'll pray, and then I'll sleep.
-
- [#Fool goes in]
-
- Poor naked wretches, whereso'er you are,
- That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
- How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,
- Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you
- From seasons such as these? O, I have ta'en
- Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp;
- Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,
- That thou mayst shake the superflux to them,
- And show the heavens more just.
-
-#EDGAR [Within] Fathom and half, fathom and half! Poor Tom!
-
- [The #Fool runs out from the hovel]
-
-#Fool Come not in here, nuncle, here's a spirit
- Help me, help me!
-
-#KENT Give me thy hand. Who's there?
-
-#Fool A spirit, a spirit: he says his name's poor Tom.
-
-#KENT What art thou that dost grumble there i' the straw?
- Come forth.
-
- [Enter #EDGAR disguised as a mad man]
-
-#EDGAR Away! the foul fiend follows me!
- Through the sharp hawthorn blows the cold wind.
- Hum! go to thy cold bed, and warm thee.
-
-#KING #LEAR Hast thou given all to thy two daughters?
- And art thou come to this?
-
-#EDGAR Who gives any thing to poor Tom? whom the foul
- fiend hath led through fire and through flame, and
- through ford and whirlipool e'er bog and quagmire;
- that hath laid knives under his pillow, and halters
- in his pew; set ratsbane by his porridge; made film
- proud of heart, to ride on a bay trotting-horse over
- four-inched bridges, to course his own shadow for a
- traitor. Bless thy five wits! Tom's a-cold,--O, do
... 81491 lines suppressed ...
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