POLONIUS      O, I am slain! GERTRUDE                            O me, what hast thou done? HAMLET         Nay, I know not. Is it the King? GERTRUDE    O, what a rash and bloody deed is this! HAMLET         A bloody deed – almost as bad, good mother, As kill a king and marry with his brother. GERTRUDE    As kill a king? HAMLET         […]

GERTRUDE    Nay then, I’ll set those to you that can speak. HAMLET         Come, come, and sit you down. You shall not budge. You go not till I set you up a glass Where you may see the inmost part of you. GERTRUDE    What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murder me – Help, ho! POLONIUS      [behind the arras]      What […]

Enter HAMLET. HAMLET         Now, mother, what’s the matter? GERTRUDE     Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended. HAMLET         Mother, you have my father much offended. GERTRUDE     Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue. HAMLET         Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue. GERTRUDE     Why, how now, Hamlet! HAMLET                                             What’s the matter now? QUEEN           Have you forgot me? HAMLET                                             No, by the rood, not so. You are […]

Enter GERTRUDE and POLONIUS. POLONIUS      ’A will come straight. Look you lay home to him. Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear with, And that your grace hath screened and stood between Much heat and him. I’ll silence me even here. Pray you be round. GERTRUDE     I’ll warrant you, fear me not. Withdraw, I hear him coming. [Polonius hides behind the arras.]    (3.4.1-6) Closet scene, so-called! A closet isn’t a […]

HAMLET         Up sword, and know thou a more horrid hent When he is drunk asleep or in his rage, Or in th’incestuous pleasure of his bed, At game a-swearing, or about some act That has no relish of salvation in’t. Then trip him that his heels may kick at heaven And that his soul may be as damned and black As hell whereto it […]

HAMLET         ’A 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 ’Tis heavy with him. And am I then revenged To take him in the purging of his soul When he is fit and seasoned for his passage? No. [Sheathes sword.]            (3.3.80-87) Then fury and disgust and […]

HAMLET         Now might I do it. But now ’a is a-praying. And now I’ll do it [Draws sword.] – and so ’a goes to heaven, And so am I revenged! That would be scanned: A villain kills my father, and for that I, his sole son, do this same villain send To heaven. Why, this is base and silly, not revenge.      (3.3.73-79) Quite by chance, it seems, here’s Hamlet. Speculations about […]

CLAUDIUS      O wretched state, O bosom black as death, O limed soul that struggling to be free Art more engaged. Help, angels, make assay. Bow, stubborn knees, and heart with strings of steel Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe. All may be well.         (3.3.67-72) Claudius’s cry of anguish reaches its climax: O wretched state! O bosom black as death! I […]

CLAUDIUS      In the corrupted currents of this world Offence’s gilded hand may shove by justice, And oft ’tis seen the wicked prize itself Buys out the law; but ’tis not so above: There is no shuffling, there the action lies In his true nature, and we ourselves compelled Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults To give in evidence. What then? What rests? Try what repentance can – what […]

CLAUDIUS      But O, what form of prayer Can serve my turn: ‘Forgive me my foul murder’? That cannot be, since I am still possessed Of those effects for which I did the murder, My crown, mine own ambition and my Queen. May one be pardoned and retain th’offence?          (3.3.51-56) Claudius realises what a bind he’s in—and it’s desperately human. But […]