William Shakespeare - William Shakespeare - Complete Works

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 am 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.

HORATIO and MARCELLUS.

[ Within. ] My lord, my lord.

MARCELLUS.

[ Within. ] Lord Hamlet.

HORATIO.

[ Within. ] Heaven secure him.

HAMLET.

So be it!

MARCELLUS.

[ Within. ] Illo, 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 and MARCELLUS.

Ay, by heaven, my lord.

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 desires shall point you,—

For every man hath business and desire,

Such as it is;—and for my 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 tonight.

HORATIO and MARCELLUS.

My lord, we will not.

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. [ Cries under the stage. ] Swear.

HAMLET.

Ha, 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’ th’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 head-shake,

Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase,

As ‘Well, we know’, or ‘We could and if we would’,

Or ‘If we list to speak’; or ‘There be and 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. So, gentlemen,

With all my love I do commend me to you;

And what so poor a man as Hamlet is

May do t’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. ]

ACT II

Enter POLONIUS and REYNALDO.

POLONIUS.

Give him this money and these notes, Reynaldo.

REYNALDO.

I will, my lord.

POLONIUS.

You shall do marvellous wisely, good Reynaldo,

Before you visit him, to make inquiry

Of his behaviour.

REYNALDO.

My lord, I did intend it.

POLONIUS.

Marry, well said; very well said. Look you, sir,

Enquire 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.

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?

POLONIUS.

Ay, or drinking, fencing, swearing,

Quarrelling, drabbing. You may go so far.

REYNALDO.

My lord, that would dishonour him.

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—

POLONIUS.

Wherefore should you do this?

REYNALDO.

Ay, my lord, I would know that.

POLONIUS.

Marry, sir, here’s my drift,

And I believe it is a fetch of warrant.

You laying these slight sullies on my son,

As ’twere a thing a little soil’d i’ th’ 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 assur’d

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.

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.’