HAMLET                     Refrain tonight

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 shame the devil or throw him out

With wondrous potency. Once more goodnight,

And when you are desirous to be blessed

I’ll blessing beg of you.          (3.4.163-170)

Hamlet continues to tell his mother what to do, or rather what not to do: don’t sleep with That Man tonight—or ever again, ideally. Refrain tonight—it’s an oddly coy turn of phrase—and that shall lend a kind of easiness to the next abstinence, the next more easy. Look, one day at a time, and pretty soon you’ll be used to it, saying no to your husband, sleeping alone. Easy! For use almost can change the stamp of nature—a body can get used to anything and, more importantly, can be morally altered, fundamentally changed, by their actions, especially if those actions become habits, whether good or bad—use, habit, custom, can either shame the devil or throw him out with wondrous potency. Change is possible! Start small! (Hamlet is sounding like a particularly intense motivational speaker, or an AA stalwart; he’s high on moral superiority and, even more, pumped with adrenaline after yelling at his mother, seeing his father’s ghost again, and killing Polonius.) Once more goodnight—really going now—and when you are desirous to be blessed, I’ll blessing beg of you. Prig: if you behave yourself, Hamlet says to his mother, then I’ll start honouring you again, as a good son should.