QUEEN           Good gentlemen, he hath much talked of you And sure I am two men there is 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 […]

CLAUDIUS                  I entreat you both That, being of so young days brought up with him And sith so neighboured to his youth and haviour, 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 opened lies within our remedy.           (2.2.10-18) This is […]

Flourish. Enter KING and QUEEN, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern [and other Courtiers] KING   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 th’exterior nor the inward man Resembles that it was. What it should be More than his father’s death, that thus […]

POLONIUS                  That hath made him mad. I am sorry that with better heed and judgement I had not quoted him. I feared he did but trifle And meant to wrack 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, […]

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 passions 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 […]

OPHELIA                    Long stayed 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 turned He seemed to find […]

POLONIUS      Mad for thy love? OPHELIA                    My lord, I do not know, But truly I do fear it. 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 […]

Enter OPHELIA. POLONIUS                  How now, Ophelia, what’s the matter? OPHELIA        O my lord, my lord, I have been so affrighted. POLONIUS      With what, i’th’ 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 fouled, Ungartered and down-gyved to his ankle, Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other, […]

POLONIUS                  See you now Your bait of falsehood take 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. POLONIUS                              God buy ye, fare ye well. REYNALDO    Good my […]

POLONIUS      And then, sir, does ’a this, ’a 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’. POLONIUS      At ‘closes in the consequence’, ay, marry. He closes thus: ‘I know the gentleman, I saw him yesterday, or th’other day, Or then, or then, with such or such, and as you […]