CLAUDIUS      Come, Gertrude, we’ll call up our wisest friends And let them know both what we mean to do And what’s untimely done. [            ] Whose whisper o’er the world’s diameter, As level as the cannon to his blank, Transports his poisoned shot, may miss our name And hit the woundless air. O come away, My soul is full of discord and dismay. (Exeunt.)     (4.1.38-45) Claudius […]

CLAUDIUS      O Gertrude, come away. The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch But we will ship him hence, and this vile deed We must with all our majesty and skill Both countenance and excuse. Ho, Guildenstern! Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Friends both, go join you with some further aid: Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain And from his […]

CLAUDIUS      But so much was our love, We would not understand what was most fit, But like the owner of a foul disease, To keep it from divulging, let it feed Even on the pith of life. Where is he gone? GERTRUDE     To draw apart the body he hath killed, O’er whom – his very madness like some ore Among a mineral of metals base Shows itself pure […]

CLAUDIUS                  O heavy deed! It had been so with us had we been there. His liberty is full of threats to all, To you yourself, to us, to everyone. Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answered? It will be laid to us whose providence Should have kept short, restrained and out of haunt This mad young man.            (4.1.12-19) O heavy deed! That’s a disaster! But Claudius […]

Enter CLAUDIUS with ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. CLAUDIUS      There’s matter in these sighs, these profound heaves. You must translate; ’tis fit we understand them. Where is your son? GERTRUDE     Bestow this place on us a little while. [Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.] Ah, mine own lord, what have I seen tonight! CLAUDIUS      What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet? GERTRUDE     Mad as the sea and wind when both contend Which is the mightier. In his lawless fit, […]

HAMLET                                 Let it work. For ’tis the sport to have the enginer Hoist with his own petard, and’t shall go hard But I will delve one yard below their mines And blow them at the moon. O, ’tis most sweet When in one line two crafts directly meet. This man shall set me packing; I’ll lug the guts into the neighbour room. Mother, goodnight indeed. This […]

GERTRUDE    Be thou assured, if words be made of breath And breath of life, I have no life to breathe What thou hast said to me. HAMLET         I must to England – you know that. GERTRUDE    Alack, I had forgot; ’tis so concluded on. HAMLET         There’s letters sealed and my two schoolfellows – Whom I will […]

HAMLET         ’Twere good you let him know, For who that’s but a queen – fair, sober, wise – Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib, Such dear concernings hide? Who would do so? No, in despite of sense and secrecy Unpeg the basket on the house’s top, Let the birds fly and like the famous ape To try […]

GERTRUDE                            What shall I do? HAMLET         Not this, by no means, that I bid you do – Let the bloat King tempt you again to bed, Pinch wanton on your cheek, call you his mouse And let him for a pair of reechy kisses, Or paddling in your neck with his damned fingers, Make you to ravel all this matter out That I essentially am […]

HAMLET                     For this same lord I do repent, but heaven hath pleased it so To punish me with this, and this with me, That I must be their scourge and minister. I will bestow him and will answer well The death I gave him. So again goodnight. I must be cruel only to be kind. This bad begins and worse remains behind. […]