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 […]

CLAUDIUS      What if this cursed hand Were thicker than itself with brother’s blood? Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy But to confront the visage of offence? And what’s in prayer but this twofold force – To be forestalled ere we come to fall Or pardoned, being down? Then I’ll look up: My fault is past.         (3.3.43-51) […]

CLAUDIUS      O, my offence is rank: it smells to heaven; It hath the primal eldest curse upon’t – A brother’s murder. Pray can I not: Though inclination be as sharp as will, My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent And like a man to double business bound I stand in pause where I shall first begin And both neglect.      […]

(Enter POLONIUS.) POLONIUS      My lord, he’s going to his mother’s closet. Behind the arras I’ll convey myself To hear the process. I’ll warrant she’ll tax him home And, as you said – and wisely was it said – ’Tis meet that some more audience than a mother (Since nature makes them partial) should o’er-hear The speech of vantage. Fare you well, my liege, I’ll call upon you ere you go […]

CLAUDIUS      Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy voyage For we will fetters put about this fear Which now goes too free-footed. ROSENCRANTZ                      We will haste us. (Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.)      (3.3.24-26) A tiny fragment, as Claudius ignores Rosencrantz’s long, grovelling protestation of loyalty and service: get on with it then, he says. Arm you, I pray you, to this […]

ROSENCRANTZ The single and peculiar life is bound With all the strength and armour of the mind To keep itself from noyance; but much more That spirit upon whose weal depends and rests The lives of many. The cess of majesty Dies not alone, but like a gulf doth draw What’s near it with it; or it is a massy wheel Fixed on the summit of the highest mount To whose huge spokes ten thousand […]

Enter CLAUDIUS, ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. CLAUDIUS      I like him not, nor stands it safe with us To let his madness range. Therefore prepare you. I your commission will forthwith dispatch And he to England shall along with you. The terms of our estate may not endure Hazard so near us as doth hourly grow Out of his brows. GUILDENSTERN        We will ourselves provide. Most holy and religious fear it is To keep those many many bodies safe […]

HAMLET         O heart, lose not thy nature. Let not ever The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom – Let me be cruel, not unnatural: I will speak daggers to her but use none. My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites. How in my words somever she be shent To give them seals never my soul consent. (Exit.)              (3.2.383-389) Hamlet knows he’s on the verge of […]