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A Room in the Castle. | |
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Enter KING, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN. | |
King. I like him not, nor stands it safe with us | |
To let his madness range. Therefore prepare you; | |
I your commission will forthwith dispatch, | 5 |
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. | |
Guil. We will ourselves provide. | 10 |
Most holy and religious fear it is | |
To keep those many many bodies safe | |
That live and feed upon your majesty. | |
Ros. The single and peculiar life is bound | |
With all the strength and armour of the mind | 15 |
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 | |
Whats near it with it; it is a massy wheel, | 20 |
Fixd on the summit of the highest mount, | |
To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things | |
Are mortisd and adjoind; which, when it falls, | |
Each small annexment, petty consequence, | |
Attends the boisterous ruin. Never alone | 25 |
Did the king sigh, but with a general groan. | |
King. Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy voyage; | |
For we will fetters put upon this fear, | |
Which now goes too free-footed. | |
Ros. & Guil We will haste us. [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. | 30 |
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Enter POLONIUS. | |
Pol. My lord, hes going to his mothers closet: | |
Behind the arras Ill convey myself | |
To hear the process; Ill warrant shell tax him home; | |
And, as you said, and wisely was it said, | 35 |
Tis meet that some more audience than a mother, | |
Since nature makes them partial, should oer-hear | |
The speech, of vantage. Fare you well, my liege: | |
Ill call upon you ere you go to bed | |
And tell you what I know. | 40 |
King. Thanks, dear my lord. [Exit POLONIUS. | |
O! my offence is rank, it smells to heaven; | |
It hath the primal eldest curse upon t; | |
A brothers murder! Pray can I not, | |
Though inclination be as sharp as will: | 45 |
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 brothers blood, | 50 |
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 whats in prayer but this two-fold force, | |
To be forestalled, ere we come to fall, | 55 |
Or pardond, being down? Then, Ill 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 possessd | |
Of those effects for which I did the murder, | 60 |
My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen. | |
May one be pardond and retain the offence? | |
In the corrupted currents of this world | |
Offences gilded hand may shove by justice, | |
And oft tis seen the wicked prize itself | 65 |
Buys out the law; but tis not so above; | |
There is no shuffling, there the action lies | |
In his true nature, and we ourselves compelld | |
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults | |
To give in evidence. What then? what rests? | 70 |
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; | 75 |
Bow, stubborn knees; and heart with strings of steel | |
Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe. | |
All may be well. [Retires and kneels. | |
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Enter HAMLET. | |
Ham. Now might I do it pat, now he is praying; | 80 |
And now Ill do t: and so he goes to heaven; | |
And so am I revengd. That would be scannd: | |
A villain kills my father; and for that, | |
I, his sole son, do this same villain send | |
To heaven. | 85 |
Why, 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 | 90 |
Tis heavy with him. And am I then revengd, | |
To take him in the purging of his soul, | |
When he is fit and seasond for his passage? | |
No. | |
Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent; | 95 |
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, | 100 |
And that his soul may be as damnd and black | |
As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays: | |
This physic but prolongs thy sickly days. [Exit. | |
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The KING rises and advances. | |
King. My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: | 105 |
Words without thoughts never to heaven go. [Exit. | |
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