HAMLET         My pulse as yours doth temperately keep time

And makes as healthful music. It is not madness

That I have uttered. Bring me to the test

And I the matter will reword, which madness

Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace

Lay not that flattering unction to your soul

That not your trespass but my madness speaks.

It will but skin and film the ulcerous place

Whiles rank corruption mining all within

Infects unseen.           (3.4.138-147)

I’m not seeing things, and I’m not mad, retorts Hamlet, my pulse as yours doth temperately keep time and makes as healthful music. I’m every bit as well and sane as you. I’m not mad! It is not madness that I have uttered; I’ve been telling the truth! Bring me to the test and I the matter will reword, which madness would gambol from. Look, test me, try me with any form of words—a cognitive test! a memory test!—and I’ll repeat it back, word for word. I couldn’t do that if I were mad, could I? And I certainly wouldn’t volunteer to be tested. I’m as sane as you are. (Hmmmm.)

And then he switches again, stern, moralising, vivid, anguished, and he calls her mother once again. Mother, for love of grace lay not that flattering unction to your soul that not your trespass but my madness speaks. Don’t tell yourself that I’m mad, for heaven’s sake, and don’t tell yourself that everything’s OK, that you’ve done the right thing, that you’re not in deep, deep moral and spiritual danger. You can’t sanitise and moisturise your way out of this one, the wound’s too deep, the poison too deadly. And yes, some of this is your fault. If you keep ignoring me, keep saying and thinking that I’m mad, that you don’t need to take me seriously, well, it will be skin and film the ulcerous place—it’ll merely gloss over the problem, a temporary fix, whiles rank corruption mining all within infects unseen. You need to drain the abscess once and for all, otherwise it’ll just get worse and worse, rotting you from the inside. You can’t just keep putting a fresh dressing on it, spraying some perfume around and hoping for the best.