HAMLET

HAMLET SEVERAL references from 1589 onwards witness the existence of a play about Hamlet, but Francis Meres did not attribute a play with this title to Shakespeare in 1598. The first clear reference to Shakespeare’s play is its entry in the Stationers’ Register on 26 July 1602 as The Revenge of Hamlet Prince [of] Denmark, when it was said to have been ‘lately acted by the Lord Chamberlain his servants’. It survives in three versions; their relationship is a matter of dispute on which views about when Shakespeare wrote his play, and in what form, depend. In 1603 appeared an inferior text apparently assembled from actors’ memories; it has only about 2,200 lines. In the following year, as if to put the record straight, James Roberts (to whom the play had been entered in 1602) published it as ‘newly imprinted and enlarged to almost as much again as it was, according to the true and perfect copy’. At about 3,800 lines, this is the longest version. The 1623 Folio offers a still different text, some 230 lines shorter than the 1604 version, differing verbally from that at many points, and including about 70 additional lines. It is our belief that Shakespeare wrote Hamlet about 1600, and revised it later; that the 1604 edition was printed from his original papers; that the Folio represents the revised version; and that the 1603 edition represents a very imperfect report of an abridged version of the revision. So our text is based on the Folio; passages present in the 1604 quarto but absent from the Folio are printed as Additional Passages because we believe that, however fine they may be in themselves, Shakespeare decided that the play as a whole would be better without them. The plot of Hamlet originates in a Scandinavian folk-tale told in the twelfth-century Danish History written in Latin by the Danish Saxo Grammaticus. François de Belleforest retold it in the fifth volume (1570) of his Histoires Tragiques, not translated into English until 1608. Saxo, through Belleforest, provided the basic story of a Prince of Denmark committed to revenge his father’s murder by his own brother (Claudius) who has married the dead man’s widow (Gertrude). As in Shakespeare, Hamlet pretends to be mad, kills his uncle’s counsellor (Polonius) while he is eavesdropping, rebukes his mother, is sent to England under the escort of two retainers (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern) who bear orders that he be put to death on arrival, finds the letter containing the orders and alters it so that it is the retainers who are executed, returns to Denmark, and kills the King. Belleforest’s story differs at some points from Shakespeare’s, and Shakespeare elaborates it, adding, for example, the Ghost of Hamlet’s father, the coming of the actors to Elsinore, the performance of the play through which Hamlet tests his uncle’s guilt, Ophelia’s madness and death, Laertes’ plot to revenge his father’s death, the grave-digger, Ophelia’s funeral, and the characters of Osric and Fortinbras. How much he owed to the lost Hamlet play we cannot tell; what is certain is that Shakespeare used his mastery of a wide range of diverse styles in both verse and prose, and his genius for dramatic effect, to create from these and other sources the most complex, varied, and exciting drama that had ever been seen on the English stage. Its popularity was instant and enduring. The play has had a profound influence on Western culture, and Shakespeare’s Hamlet has himself entered the world of myth.

THE PERSONS OF THE PLAY

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

Atto 1, Scena 1

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Barnardo and Francisco, two sentinels, at several doors
BARNARDO	Who’s there?
FRANCISCO	Nay, answer me. Stand and unfold yourself.
BARNARDO	Long live the King!
FRANCISCO	Barnardo?
BARNARDO	He.
FRANCISCO	You come most carefully upon your hour.
BARNARDO	’Tis now struck twelve. Get thee to bed, Francisco.
FRANCISCO	For this relief much thanks. ’Tis bitter cold, And I am sick at heart.
BARNARDO	Have you had quiet guard?
FRANCISCO	Not a mouse stirring.
BARNARDO	Well, good night. If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus, The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.
(didascalia)	Enter Horatio and Marcellus
FRANCISCO	I think I hear them.—Stand! Who’s there?
HORATIO	Friends to this ground.
MARCELLUS	And liegemen to the Dane.
FRANCISCO	Give you good night.
MARCELLUS	O farewell, honest soldier. Who hath relieved you?
FRANCISCO	Barnardo has my place. Give you good night. Exit
MARCELLUS	Holla, Barnardo!
BARNARDO	Say—what, is Horatio there?
HORATIO	A piece of him.
BARNARDO	Welcome, Horatio. Welcome, good Marcellus.
MARCELLUS	What, has this thing appeared again tonight?
BARNARDO	I have seen nothing.
MARCELLUS	Horatio says ’tis but our fantasy, And will not let belief take hold of him Touching this dreaded sight twice seen of us. Therefore I have entreated him along With us to watch the minutes of this night, That if again this apparition come He may approve our eyes and speak to it.
HORATIO	Tush, tush, ’twill not appear.
BARNARDO	Sit down a while, And let us once again assail your ears, That are so fortified against our story, What we two nights have seen.
HORATIO	Well, sit we down, And let us hear Barnardo speak of this.
BARNARDO	Last night of all, When yon same star that’s westward from the pole Had made his course t’illume that part of heaven Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself, The bell then beating one––
(didascalia)	Enter the Ghost in complete armour, holding a truncheon, with his beaver up
MARCELLUS	Peace, break thee off. Look where it comes again.
BARNARDO	In the same figure like the King that’s dead.
MARCELLUS	(to Horatio) Thou art a scholar—speak to it, Horatio.
BARNARDO	Looks it not like the King?—Mark it, Horatio.
HORATIO	Most like. It harrows me with fear and wonder.
BARNARDO	It would be spoke to.
MARCELLUS	Question it, Horatio.
HORATIO	(to the Ghost) What art thou that usurp’st this time of night, Together with that fair and warlike form In which the majesty of buried Denmark Did sometimes march? By heaven, I charge thee speak.
MARCELLUS	It is offended.
BARNARDO	See, it stalks away.
HORATIO	(to the Ghost) Stay, speak, speak, I charge thee speak. Exit Ghost
MARCELLUS	’Tis gone, and will not answer.
BARNARDO	How now, Horatio? You tremble and look pale. Is not this something more than fantasy? What think you on’t?
HORATIO	Before my God, I might not this believe Without the sensible and true avouch Of mine own eyes.
MARCELLUS	Is it not like the King?
HORATIO	As thou art to thyself. Such was the very armour he had on When he th‘ambitious Norway combated. So frowned he once when in an angry parley He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice. ’Tis strange.
MARCELLUS	Thus twice before, and just at this dead hour, With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch.
HORATIO	In what particular thought to work I know not, But in the gross and scope of my opinion This bodes some strange eruption to our state.
MARCELLUS	Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that knows, Why this same strict and most observant watch So nightly toils the subject of the land, And why such daily cast of brazen cannon, And foreign mart for implements of war, Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task Does not divide the Sunday from the week: What might be toward that this sweaty haste Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day, Who is’t that can inform me?
HORATIO	That can I— At least the whisper goes so: our last king, Whose image even but now appeared to us, Was as you know by Fortinbras of Norway, Thereto pricked on by a most emulate pride, Dared to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet— For so this side of our known world esteemed him— Did slay this Fortinbras, who by a sealed compact Well ratified by law and heraldry Did forfeit with his life all those his lands Which he stood seized on to the conqueror; Against the which a moiety competent Was gaged by our King, which had returned To the inheritance of Fortinbras Had he been vanquisher, as by the same cov‘nant And carriage of the article designed His fell to Hamlet. Now sir, young Fortinbras, Of unimproved mettle hot and full, Hath in the skirts of Norway here and there Sharked up a list of landless resolutes For food and diet to some enterprise That hath a stomach in’t, which is no other— And it doth well appear unto our state— But to recover of us by strong hand And terms compulsative those foresaid lands So by his father lost. And this, I take it, Is the main motive of our preparations, The source of this our watch, and the chief head Of this post-haste and rummage in the land.
(didascalia)	Enter the Ghost, as before
HORATIO	But soft, behold—lo where it comes again! I’ll cross it though it blast me.—Stay, illusion. The Ghost spreads his arms If thou hast any sound or use of voice, Speak to me. If there be any good thing to be done That may to thee do ease and grace to me, Speak to me. If thou art privy to thy country’s fate Which happily foreknowing may avoid, O speak! Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life Extorted treasure in the womb of earth— For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death— The cock crows Speak of it, stay and speak.—Stop it, Marcellus.
MARCELLUS	Shall I strike at it with my partisan?
HORATIO	Do, if it will not stand.
BARNARDO	’Tis here.
HORATIO	’Tis here.
(didascalia)	Exit Ghost
MARCELLUS	’Tis gone. We do it wrong, being so majestical, To offer it the show of violence, For it is as the air invulnerable, And our vain blows malicious mockery.
BARNARDO	It was about to speak when the cock crew.
HORATIO	And then it started like a guilty thing Upon a fearful summons. I have heard The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn, Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat Awake the god of day, and at his warning, Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, Th’extravagant and erring spirit hies To his confine; and of the truth herein This present object made probation.
MARCELLUS	It faded on the crowing of the cock. Some say that ever ’gainst that season comes Wherein our saviour’s birth is celebrated The bird of dawning singeth all night long; And then, they say, no spirit can walk abroad, The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike, No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, So hallowed and so gracious is the time.
HORATIO	So have I heard, and do in part believe it. But look, the morn in russet mantle clad Walks o’er the dew of yon high eastern hill. Break we our watch up, and by my advice Let us impart what we have seen tonight Unto young Hamlet; for upon my life, This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him. Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it, As needful in our loves, fitting our duty?
MARCELLUS	Let’s do’t, I pray; and I this morning know Where we shall find him most conveniently. Exeunt

Atto 1, Scena 2

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Flourish. Enter Claudius, King of Denmark, Gertrude the Queen, members of the Council, such as Polonius, his son Laertes and daughter Ophelia, Prince Hamlet dressed in black, with others
KING CLAUDIUS	Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother’s death The memory be green, and that it us befitted To bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdom To be contracted in one brow of woe, Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature That we with wisest sorrow think on him Together with remembrance of ourselves. Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen, Th‘imperial jointress of this warlike state, Have we as ’twere with a defeated joy, With one auspicious and one dropping eye, With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage, In equal scale weighing delight and dole, Taken to wife. Nor have we herein barred Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone With this affair along. For all, our thanks. Now follows that you know young Fortinbras, Holding a weak supposal of our worth, Or thinking by our late dear brother’s death Our state to be disjoint and out of frame, Co-leaguèd with the dream of his advantage, He hath not failed to pester us with message Importing the surrender of those lands Lost by his father, with all bonds of law, To our most valiant brother. So much for him.
(didascalia)	Enter Valtemand and Cornelius
KING CLAUDIUS	Now for ourself, and for this time of meeting, Thus much the business is: we have here writ To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras— Who, impotent and bed-rid, scarcely hears Of this his nephew’s purpose—to suppress His further gait herein, in that the levies, The lists, and full proportions are all made Out of his subject; and we here dispatch You, good Cornelius, and you, Valtemand, For bearers of this greeting to old Norway, Giving to you no further personal power To business with the King more than the scope Of these dilated articles allow. Farewell, and let your haste commend your duty.
VALTEMAND	In that and all things will we show our duty.
KING CLAUDIUS	We doubt it nothing, heartily farewell.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Valtemand and Cornelius
KING CLAUDIUS	And now, Laertes, what’s the news with you? You told us of some suit. What is’t, Laertes? You cannot speak of reason to the Dane And lose your voice. What wouldst thou beg, Laertes, That shall not be my offer, not thy asking? The head is not more native to the heart, The hand more instrumental to the mouth, Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father. What wouldst thou have, Laertes?
LAERTES	Dread my lord, Your leave and favour to return to France, From whence though willingly I came to Denmark To show my duty in your coronation, Yet now I must confess, that duty done, My thoughts and wishes bend again towards France And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon.
KING CLAUDIUS	Have you your father’s leave? What says Polonius?
POLONIUS	He hath, my lord, wrung from me my slow leave By laboursome petition, and at last Upon his will I sealed my hard consent. I do beseech you give him leave to go.
KING CLAUDIUS	Take thy fair hour, Laertes. Time be thine, And thy best graces spend it at thy will. But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son—
HAMLET	A little more than kin and less than kind.
KING CLAUDIUS	How is it that the clouds still hang on you?
HAMLET	Not so, my lord, I am too much i’th’ sun.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Good Hamlet, cast thy nightly colour off, And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. Do not for ever with thy vailèd lids Seek for thy noble father in the dust. Thou know‘st ’tis common—all that lives must die, Passing through nature to eternity.
HAMLET	Ay, madam, it is common.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	If it be, Why seems it so particular with thee?
HAMLET	Seems, madam? Nay, it is. I know not ‘seems’. ‘Tis not alone my inky cloak, good-mother, Nor customary suits of solemn black, Nor windy suspiration of forced breath, No, nor the fruitful river in the eye, Nor the dejected haviour of the visage, Together with all forms, moods, shows of grief That can denote me truly. These indeed ‘seem’, For they are actions that a man might play; But I have that within which passeth show— These but the trappings and the suits of woe.
KING CLAUDIUS	‘Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet, To give these mourning duties to your father; But you must know your father lost a father; That father lost, lost his; and the survivor bound In filial obligation for some term To do obsequious sorrow. But to persever In obstinate condolement is a course Of impious stubbornness, ’tis unmanly grief, It shows a will most incorrect to heaven, A heart unfortified, a mind impatient, An understanding simple and unschooled; For what we know must be, and is as common As any the most vulgar thing to sense, Why should we in our peevish opposition Take it to heart? Fie, ‘tis a fault to heaven, A fault against the dead, a fault to nature, To reason most absurd, whose common theme Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried From the first corpse till he that died today, ’This must be so’. We pray you throw to earth This unprevailing woe, and think of us As of a father; for let the world take note You are the most immediate to our throne, And with no less nobility of love Than that which dearest father bears his son Do I impart towards you. For your intent In going back to school in Wittenberg, It is most retrograde to our desire, And we beseech you bend you to remain Here in the cheer and comfort of our eye, Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet. I pray thee stay with us, go not to Wittenberg.
HAMLET	I shall in all my best obey you, madam.
KING CLAUDIUS	Why, ’tis a loving and a fair reply. Be as ourself in Denmark. (To Gertrude) Madam, come. This gentle and unforced accord of Hamlet Sits smiling to my heart; in grace whereof, No jocund health that Denmark drinks today But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell, And the King’s rouse the heavens shall bruit again, Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come, away.
(didascalia)	Flourish. pmlmmmExeunt all but Hamlet
HAMLET	O that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew, Or that the Everlasting had not fixed His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter! O God, O God, How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world! Fie on’t, ah fie, fie! ’Tis an unweeded garden That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature Possess it merely. That it should come to this— But two months dead—nay, not so much, not two— So excellent a king, that was to this Hyperion to a satyr, so loving to my mother That he might not beteem the winds of heaven Visit her face too roughly! Heaven and earth, Must I remember? Why, she would hang on him As if increase of appetite had grown By what it fed on, and yet within a month— Let me not think on’t; frailty, thy name is woman— A little month, or ere those shoes were old With which she followed my poor father’s body, Like Niobe, all tears, why she, even she— O God, a beast that wants discourse of reason Would have mourned longer!—married with mine uncle, My father’s brother, but no more like my father Than I to Hercules; within a month, Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears Had left the flushing of her gallèd eyes, She married. O most wicked speed, to post With such dexterity to incestuous sheets! It is not, nor it cannot come to good. But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue.
(didascalia)	Enter Horatio, Marcellus, and Barnardo
HORATIO	Hail to your lordship.
HAMLET	I am glad to see you well. Horatio—or I do forget myself.
HORATIO	The same, my lord, and your poor servant ever.
HAMLET	Sir, my good friend; I’ll change that name with you. And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio?— Marcellus.
MARCELLUS	My good lord.
HAMLET	I am very glad to see you. (To Barnardo) Good even, sir.— But what in faith make you from Wittenberg?
HORATIO	A truant disposition, good my lord.
HAMLET	I would not have your enemy say so, Nor shall you do mine ear that violence To make it truster of your own report Against yourself. I know you are no truant. But what is your affair in Elsinore? We’ll teach you to drink deep ere you depart.
HORATIO	My lord, I came to see your father’s funeral.
HAMLET	I prithee do not mock me, fellow-student; I think it was to see my mother’s wedding.
HORATIO	Indeed, my lord, it followed hard upon.
HAMLET	Thrift, thrift, Horatio. The funeral baked meats Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables. Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven Ere I had ever seen that day, Horatio. My father—methinks I see my father.
HORATIO	O where, my lord?
HAMLET	In my mind’s eye, Horatio.
HORATIO	I saw him once. A was a goodly king.
HAMLET	A was a man. Take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again.
HORATIO	My lord, I think I saw him yesternight.
HAMLET	Saw? Who?
HORATIO	My lord, the King your father.
HAMLET	The King my father?
HORATIO	Season your admiration for a while With an attent ear till I may deliver, Upon the witness of these gentlemen, This marvel to you.
HAMLET	For God’s love let me hear!
HORATIO	Two nights together had these gentlemen, Marcellus and Barnardo, on their watch, In the dead waste and middle of the night, Been thus encountered. A figure like your father, Armed at all points exactly, cap-à-pie, Appears before them, and with solemn march Goes slow and stately by them. Thrice he walked By their oppressed and fear-surprised eyes
(didascalia)	Within his truncheon’s length, whilst they distilled
HORATIO	Almost to jelly with the act of fear Stand dumb and speak not to him. This to me In dreadful secrecy impart they did, And I with them the third night kept the watch, Where, as they had delivered, both in time, Form of the thing, each word made true and good, The apparition comes. I knew your father; These hands are not more like.
HAMLET	But where was this?
MARCELLUS	My lord, upon the platform where we watched.
HAMLET	Did you not speak to it?
HORATIO	My lord, I did, But answer made it none; yet once methought It lifted up it head and did address Itself to motion like as it would speak, But even then the morning cock crew loud, And at the sound it shrunk in haste away And vanished from our sight.
HAMLET	’Tis very strange.
HORATIO	As I do live, my honoured lord, ’tis true, And we did think it writ down in our duty To let you know of it.
HAMLET	Indeed, indeed, sirs; but this troubles me.— Hold you the watch tonight?
BARNARDO	and MARCELLUS We do, my lord.
HAMLET	Armed, say you?
BARNARDO	and MARCELLUS Armed, my lord.
HAMLET	From top to toe?
BARNARDO	and MARCELLUS My lord, from head to foot.
HAMLET	Then saw you not his face.
HORATIO	O yes, my lord, he wore his beaver up.
HAMLET	What looked he? Frowningly?
HORATIO	A countenance more In sorrow than in anger.
HAMLET	Pale or red?
HORATIO	Nay, very pale.
HAMLET	And fixed his eyes upon you?
HORATIO	Most constantly.
HAMLET	I would I had been there.
HORATIO	It would have much amazed you.
HAMLET	Very like, very like. Stayed it long?
HORATIO	While one with moderate haste might tell a hundred.
BARNARDO	and MARCELLUS Longer, longer.
HORATIO	Not when I saw’t.
HAMLET	His beard was grizzly, no?
HORATIO	It was as I have seen it in his life, A sable silvered.
HAMLET	I’ll watch tonight. Perchance ‘Twill walk again.
HORATIO	I warrant you it will.
HAMLET	If it assume my noble father’s person I’ll speak to it though hell itself should gape And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all, If you have hitherto concealed this sight, Let it be treble in your silence still, And whatsoever else shall hap tonight, Give it an understanding but no tongue. I will requite your loves. So fare ye well. Upon the platform ’twixt eleven and twelve I’ll visit you.
ALL THREE	Our duty to your honour.
HAMLET	Your love, as mine to you. Farewell.
(didascalia)	Exeunt all but Hamlet
HAMLET	My father’s spirit in arms! All is not well. I doubt some foul play. Would the night were come. Till then, sit still, my soul. Foul deeds will rise, Though all the earth o’erwhelm them, to men’s eyes.
(didascalia)	Exit

Atto 1, Scena 3

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Laertes and Ophelia, his sister
LAERTES	My necessaries are inbarqued. Farewell. And, sister, as the winds give benefit And convoy is assistant, do not sleep But let me hear from you.
OPHELIA	Do you doubt that?
LAERTES	For Hamlet and the trifling of his favour, Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood, A violet in the youth of primy nature, Forward not permanent, sweet not lasting, The perfume and suppliance of a minute, No more.
OPHELIA	No more but so?
LAERTES	Think it no more. For nature crescent does not grow alone In thews and bulk, but as his temple waxes The inward service of the mind and soul Grows wide withal. Perhaps he loves you now, And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch The virtue of his will; but you must fear, His greatness weighed, his will is not his own, For he himself is subject to his birth. He may not, as unvalued persons do, Carve for himself, for on his choice depends The sanity and health of the whole state; And therefore must his choice be circumscribed Unto the voice and yielding of that body Whereof he is the head. Then if he says he loves you, It fits your wisdom so far to believe it As he in his peculiar sect and force May give his saying deed, which is no further Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal. Then weigh what loss your honour may sustain If with too credent ear you list his songs, Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open To his unmastered importunity. Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister, And keep within the rear of your affection, Out of the shot and danger of desire. The chariest maid is prodigal enough If she unmask her beauty to the moon. Virtue itself scapes not calumnious strokes. The canker galls the infants of the spring Too oft before their buttons be disclosed, And in the morn and liquid dew of youth Contagious blastments are most imminent. Be wary then; best safety lies in fear; Youth to itself rebels, though none else near.
OPHELIA	I shall th’effect of this good lesson keep As watchman to my heart; but, good my brother, Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven Whilst like a puffed and reckless libertine Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads And recks not his own rede.
LAERTES	O fear me not.
(didascalia)	Enter Polonius
LAERTES	I stay too long—but here my father comes. A double blessing is a double grace; Occasion smiles upon a second leave.
POLONIUS	Yet here, Laertes? Aboard, aboard, for shame! The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail, And you are stayed for. There—my blessing with thee, And these few precepts in thy memory See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportioned thought his act. Be thou familiar but by no means vulgar. The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel, But do not dull thy palm with entertainment Of each new-hatched unfledged comrade. Beware Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in, Bear’t that th’opposèd may beware of thee. Give every man thine ear but few thy voice. Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgement. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not expressed in fancy; rich not gaudy; For the apparel oft proclaims the man, And they in France of the best rank and station Are of all most select and generous chief in that. Neither a borrower nor a lender be, For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. This above all—to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. Farewell—my blessing season this in thee.
LAERTES	Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord.
POLONIUS	The time invites you. Go; your servants tend.
LAERTES	Farewell, Ophelia, and remember well What I have said to you.
OPHELIA	’Tis in my memory locked, And you yourself shall keep the key of it.
LAERTES	Farewell.
(didascalia)	Exit
POLONIUS	What is’t, Ophelia, he hath said to you?
OPHELIA	So please you, something touching the Lord Hamlet.
POLONIUS	Marry, well bethought. ‘Tis told me he hath very oft of late Given private time to you, and you yourself Have of your audience been most free and bounteous. If it be so—as so ’tis put on me, And that in way of caution—I must tell you You do not understand yourself so clearly As it behoves my daughter and your honour. What is between you? Give me up the truth.
OPHELIA	He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders Of his affection to me.
POLONIUS	Affection, pooh! You speak like a green girl Unsifted in such perilous circumstance. Do you believe his ‘tenders’ as you call them?
OPHELIA	I do not know, my lord, what I should think.
POLONIUS	Marry, I’ll teach you: think yourself a baby That you have ta’en his tenders for true pay, Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly, Or—not to crack the wind of the poor phrase, Running it thus—you’ll tender me a fool.
OPHELIA	My lord, he hath importuned me with love In honourable fashion—
POLONIUS	Ay, fashion you may call it. Go to, go to.
OPHELIA	And hath given countenance to his speech, my lord, With all the vows of heaven.
POLONIUS	Ay, springes to catch woodcocks. I do know When the blood burns how prodigal the soul Lends the tongue vows. These blazes, daughter, Giving more light than heat, extinct in both Even in their promise as it is a-making, You must not take for fire. From this time, daughter, Be somewhat scanter of your maiden presence. Set your entreatments at a higher rate Than a command to parley. For Lord Hamlet, Believe so much in him, that he is young, And with a larger tether may he walk Than may be given you. In few, Ophelia, Do not believe his vows, for they are brokers, Not of the dye which their investments show, But mere imploratators of unholy suits, Breathing like sanctified and pious bawds The better to beguile. This is for all— I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth Have you so slander any moment leisure As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet. Look to’t, I charge you. Come your ways.
OPHELIA	I shall obey, my lord.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Atto 1, Scena 4

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Prince Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus
HAMLET	The air bites shrewdly, it is very cold.
HORATIO	It is a nipping and an eager air.
HAMLET	What hour now?
HORATIO	I think it lacks of twelve.
MARCELLUS	No, it is struck.
HORATIO	Indeed? I heard it not. Then it draws near the season Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk.
(didascalia)	A flourish of trumpets, and two pieces of ordnance goes off
HORATIO	What does this mean, my lord?
HAMLET	The King doth wake tonight and takes his rouse, Keeps wassail, and the swagg’ring upspring reels, And as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out The triumph of his pledge.
HORATIO	Is it a custom?
HAMLET	Ay, marry is’t, And to my mind, though I am native here And to the manner born, it is a custom More honoured in the breach than the observance.
(didascalia)	Enter the Ghost, as before
HORATIO	Look, my lord, it comes.
HAMLET	Angels and ministers of grace defend us! Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned, Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell, Be thy intents wicked or charitable, Thou com’st in such a questionable shape That I will speak to thee. I’ll call thee Hamlet, King, father, royal Dane. O answer me! Let me not burst in ignorance, but tell Why thy canonized bones, hearsèd in death, Have burst their cerements, why the sepulchre Wherein we saw thee quietly enurned Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws To cast thee up again. What may this mean, That thou, dead corpse, again in complete steel, Revisitst thus the glimpses of the moon, Making night hideous, and we fools of nature So horridly to shake our disposition With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls? Say, why is this? Wherefore? What should we do? The Ghost beckons Hamlet
HORATIO	It beckons you to go away with it As if it some impartment did desire To you alone.
MARCELLUS	(to Hamlet) Look with what courteous action It wafts you to a more removed ground. But do not go with it.
HORATIO	(to Hamlet) No, by no means.
HAMLET	It will not speak. Then will I follow it.
HORATIO	Do not, my lord.
HAMLET	Why, what should be the fear? I do not set my life at a pin’s fee, And for my soul, what can it do to that, Being a thing immortal as itself? The Ghost beckons Hamlet It waves me forth again. I’ll follow it.
HORATIO	What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord, Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff That beetles o’er his base into the sea, And there assume some other horrible form Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason And draw you into madness? Think of it. The Ghost beckons Hamlet
HAMLET	It wafts me still. (To the Ghost) Go on, I’ll follow thee.
MARCELLUS	You shall not go, my lord.
HAMLET	Hold off your hand.
HORATIO	Be ruled. You shall not go.
HAMLET	My fate cries out, And makes each petty artere in this body As hardy as the Nemean lion’s nerve. The Ghost beckons Hamlet Still am I called. Unhand me, gentlemen. By heav’n, I’ll make a ghost of him that lets me. I say, away! (To the Ghost) Go on, I’ll follow thee.
(didascalia)	Exeunt the Ghost and Hamlet
HORATIO	He waxes desperate with imagination.
MARCELLUS	Let’s follow.’Tis not fit thus to obey him.
HORATIO	Have after. To what issue will this come?
MARCELLUS	Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
HORATIO	Heaven will direct it.
MARCELLUS	Nay, let’s follow him.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Atto 1, Scena 5

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter the Ghost, and Prince Hamlet following
HAMLET	Whither wilt thou lead me? Speak. I’ll go no further.
GHOST	Mark me.
HAMLET	I will.
GHOST	My hour is almost come When I to sulph’rous and tormenting flames Must render up myself.
HAMLET	Alas, poor ghost!
GHOST	Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing To what I shall unfold.
GHOST	So art thou to revenge when thou shalt hear.
HAMLET	What?
GHOST	I am thy father’s spirit, Doomed for a certain term to walk the night, And for the day confined to fast in fires Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid To tell the secrets of my prison-house I could a tale unfold whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, Make thy two eyes like stars start from their spheres, Thy knotty and combined locks to part, And each particular hair to stand on end Like quills upon the fretful porcupine. But this eternal blazon must not be To ears of flesh and blood. List, Hamlet, list, O list! If thou didst ever thy dear father love—
HAMLET	O God!
GHOST	Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.
HAMLET	Murder?
GHOST	Murder most foul, as in the best it is, But this most foul, strange, and unnatural.
HAMLET	Haste, haste me to know it, that with wings as swift As meditation or the thoughts of love May sweep to my revenge.
GHOST	I find thee apt, And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed That rots itself in ease on Lethe wharf Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear. ’Tis given out that, sleeping in mine orchard, A serpent stung me. So the whole ear of Denmark Is by a forged process of my death Rankly abused. But know, thou noble youth, The serpent that did sting thy father’s life Now wears his crown.
HAMLET	O my prophetic soul! Mine uncle?
GHOST	Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast, With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts— O wicked wit and gifts, that have the power So to seduce!—won to his shameful lust The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen. O Hamlet, what a falling off was there!— From me, whose love was of that dignity That it went hand-in-hand even with the vow I made to her in marriage, and to decline Upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor To those of mine. But virtue, as it never will be moved, Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven, So lust, though to a radiant angel linked, Will sate itself in a celestial bed, And prey on garbage. But soft, methinks I scent the morning’s air. Brief let me be. Sleeping within mine orchard, My custom always in the afternoon, Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial, And in the porches of mine ears did pour The leperous distilment, whose effect Holds such an enmity with blood of man That swift as quicksilver it courses through The natural gates and alleys of the body, And with a sudden vigour it doth posset And curd, like eager droppings into milk, The thin and wholesome blood. So did it mine; And a most instant tetter barked about, Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust, All my smooth body. Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother’s hand Of life, of crown, of queen at once dispatched, Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin, Unhouseled, dis-appointed, unaneled, No reck’ning made, but sent to my account With all my imperfections on my head. O horrible, O horrible, most horrible! If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not. Let not the royal bed of Denmark be A couch for luxury and damned incest. But howsoever thou pursuest this act, Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive Against thy mother aught. Leave her to heaven, And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge To prick and sting her. Fare thee well at once. The glow-worm shows the matin to be near, And gins to pale his uneffectual fire. Adieu, adieu, Hamlet. Remember me. Exit
HAMLET	O all you host of heaven! Oearth! What else? And shall I couple hell? O fie! Hold, hold, my heart, And you, my sinews, grow not instant old, But bear me stiffly up. Remember thee? Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat In this distracted globe. Remember thee? Yea, from the table of my memory I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records, All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past, That youth and observation copied there, And thy commandment all alone shall live
(didascalia)	Within the book and volume of my brain
HAMLET	Unmixed with baser matter. Yes, yes, by heaven. O most pernicious woman! O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain! My tables, My tables—meet it is I set it down That one may smile and smile and be a villain. At least I’m sure it may be so in Denmark. He writes So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word: It is ‘Adieu, adieu, remember me’. I have sworn’t.
HORATIO	and MARCELLUS (within) My lord, my lord.
(didascalia)	Enter Horatio and Marcellus
MARCELLUS	(calling) Lord Hamlet! 115
HORATIO	Heaven secure him.
HAMLET	So be it.
HORATIO	(calling) Illo, ho, ho, my lord.
HAMLET	Hillo, ho, ho, boy; come, bird, come.
MARCELLUS	How is’t, my noble lord?
HORATIO	(to Hamlet) What news, my lord?
HAMLET	O wonderful!
HORATIO	Good my lord, tell it.
HAMLET	No, you’ll reveal it.
HORATIO	Not I, my lord, by heaven.
MARCELLUS	Nor I, my lord.
HAMLET	How say you then, would heart of man once think it? But you’ll be secret?
HORATIO	and MARCELLUS Ay, by heav’n, my lord.
HAMLET	There’s ne’er a villain dwelling in all Denmark But he’s an arrant knave.
HORATIO	There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave To tell us this.
HAMLET	Why, right, you are i’th’ right, And so without more circumstance at all I hold it fit that we shake hands and part, You as your business and desires shall point you— For every man has business and desire, Such as it is—and for mine own poor part, Look you, I’ll go pray.
HORATIO	These are but wild and whirling words, my lord.
HAMLET	I’m sorry they offend you, heartily, Yes, faith, heartily.
HORATIO	There’s no offence, my lord.
HAMLET	Yes, by Saint Patrick, but there is, Horatio, And much offence, too. Touching this vision here, It is an honest ghost, that let me tell you. For your desire to know what is between us, O’ermaster’t as you may. And now, good friends, As you are friends, scholars, and soldiers, Give me one poor request.
HORATIO	What is’t, my lord? We will.
HAMLET	Never make known what you have seen tonight.
HORATIO	and MARCELLUS My lord, we will not.
HAMLET	Nay, but swear’t.
HORATIO	In faith, my lord, not I.
MARCELLUS	Nor I, my lord, in faith.
HAMLET	Upon my sword.
MARCELLUS	We have sworn, my lord, already.
HAMLET	Indeed, upon my sword, indeed. The Ghost cries under the stage
GHOST	Swear.
HAMLET	Ah ha, boy, sayst thou so? Art thou there, truepenny?— Come on. You hear this fellow in the cellarage. Consent to swear.
HORATIO	Propose the oath, my lord.
HAMLET	Never to speak of this that you have seen, Swear by my sword.
GHOST	(under the stage) Swear.
(didascalia)	They swear
HAMLET	Hic et ubique? Then we’ll shift our ground.— Come hither, gentlemen, And lay your hands again upon my sword. Never to speak of this that you have heard, Swear by my sword.
GHOST	(under the stage) Swear.
(didascalia)	They swear
HAMLET	Well said, old mole. Canst work i’th’ earth so fast? A worthy pioneer.—Once more remove, good friends.
HORATIO	O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!
HAMLET	And therefore as a stranger give it welcome. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in our philosophy. But come, Here as before, never, so help you mercy, How strange or odd soe‘er I bear myself— As I perchance hereafter shall think meet To put an antic disposition on— That you at such time seeing me never shall, With arms encumbered thus, or this headshake, Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase As ‘Well, we know’ or ‘We could an if we would’, Or ‘If we list to speak’, or ‘There be, an if they might’, Or such ambiguous giving out, to note That you know aught of me—this not to do, So grace and mercy at your most need help you, swear.
GHOST	(under the stage) Swear.
(didascalia)	They swear
HAMLET	Rest, rest, perturbed spirit.—So, gentlemen, With all my love I do commend me to you, And what so poor a man as Hamlet is May do t’express his love and friending to you, God willing, shall not lack. Let us go in together, And still your fingers on your lips, I pray. The time is out of joint. O cursed spite That ever I was born to set it right! Nay, come, let’s go together. Exeunt

Atto 2, Scena 1

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter old Polonius with his man Reynaldo
POLONIUS	Give him this money and these notes, Reynaldo.
REYNALDO	I will, my lord.
POLONIUS	You shall do marv’lous wisely, good Reynaldo, Before you visit him to make enquire Of his behaviour.
REYNALDO	My lord, I did intend it.
POLONIUS	Marry, well said, very well said. Look you, sir, Enquire me first what Danskers are in Paris, And how, and who, what means, and where they keep, What company, at what expense; and finding By this encompassment and drift of question That they do know my son, come you more nearer Than your particular demands will touch it. Take you, as ‘twere, some distant knowledge of him, As thus: ‘I know his father and his friends, And in part him’—do you mark this, Reynaldo?
REYNALDO	Ay, very well, my lord.
POLONIUS	‘And in part him, but’, you may say, ‘not well, But if’t be he I mean, he’s very wild, Addicted so and so’; and there put on him What forgeries you please—marry, none so rank As may dishonour him, take heed of that— But, sir, such wanton, wild, and usual slips As are companions noted and most known To youth and liberty.
REYNALDO	As gaming, my lord?
POLONIUS	Ay, or drinking, fencing, swearing, Quarrelling, drabbing—you may go so far.
REYNALDO	My lord, that would dishonour him.
POLONIUS	Faith, no, as you may season it in the charge. You must not put another scandal on him, That he is open to incontinency. That’s not my meaning—but breathe his faults so quaintly That they may seem the taints of liberty, The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind, A savageness in unreclaimed blood, Of general assault.
REYNALDO	But, my good lord—
POLONIUS	Wherefore should you do this?
REYNALDO	Ay, my lord. I would know that.
POLONIUS	Marry, sir, here’s my drift, And I believe it is a fetch of warrant: You laying these slight sullies on my son, As ‘twere a thing a little soiled i’th’ working, Mark you, your party in converse, him you would sound, Having ever seen in the prenominate crimes The youth you breathe of guilty, be assured He closes with you in this consequence: ‘Good sir’, or so, or ‘friend’, or ‘gentleman’, According to the phrase and the addition Of man and country.
REYNALDO	Very good, my lord.
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’, at ‘friend, Or so’, and ‘gentleman’.
POLONIUS	At ‘closes in the consequence’—ay, marry, He closes with you thus: ‘I know the gentleman, I saw him yesterday’—or t‘other day, Or then, or then—’with such and such, and, as you say, There was a gaming, there o‘ertook in ’s rouse, There falling out at tennis’, or perchance ‘I saw him enter such a house of sale’, Videlicet, a brothel, or so forth. See you now, Your bait of falsehood takes 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 b’wi’ ye. Fare ye well.
REYNALDO	Good my lord.
POLONIUS	Observe his inclination in yourself.
REYNALDO	I shall, my lord.
POLONIUS	And let him ply his music.
REYNALDO	Well, my lord.
(didascalia)	Enter Ophelia
POLONIUS	Farewell.
(didascalia)	Exit Reynaldo
POLONIUS	How now, Ophelia, what’s the matter?
OPHELIA	Alas, my lord, I have been so affrighted.
POLONIUS	With what, i’th’ name of God?
OPHELIA	My lord, as I was sewing in my chamber, Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced, No hat upon his head, his stockings fouled, Ungartered, and down-gyvèd to his ankle, Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other, And with a look so piteous in purport As if he had been loosed out of hell To speak of horrors, he comes before me.
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 As a would draw it. 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 That 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 his way without his eyes, For out o’ doors he went without their help, And to the last bended their light on me.
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 passion 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 you did command I did repel his letters and denied His access to me.
POLONIUS	That hath made him mad. I am sorry that with better speed and judgement I had not quoted him. I feared he did but trifle And meant to wreck 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, being kept close, might move More grief to hide than hate to utter love. Exeunt
(didascalia)	2.2 Flourish. Enter King Claudius and Queen Gertrude, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, with others
KING CLAUDIUS	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 I call it, Since not th‘exterior nor the inward man Resembles that it was. What it should be, More than his father’s death, that thus hath put him So much from th’understanding of himself, I cannot deem of. I entreat you both That, being of so young days brought up with him, And since so neighboured to his youth and humour, 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 occasions you may glean, Whether aught to us unknown afflicts him thus That, opened, lies within our remedy.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	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 a while For the supply and profit of our hope, Your visitation shall receive such thanks As fits a king’s remembrance.
ROSENCRANTZ	Both your majesties Might, by the sovereign power you have of us, Put your dread pleasures more into command Than to entreaty.
GUILDENSTERN	But we both obey, And here give up ourselves in the full bent To lay our service freely at your feet To be commanded.
KING CLAUDIUS	Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz. And I beseech you instantly to visit My too-much changed son.—Go, some of ye, And bring the gentlemen where Hamlet is.
GUILDENSTERN	Heavens make our presence and our practices Pleasant and helpful to him.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Ay, amen!
(didascalia)	Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern with others Enter Polonius
POLONIUS	Th’ambassadors from Norway, my good lord, Are joyfully returned.
KING CLAUDIUS	Thou still hast been the father of good news.
POLONIUS	Have I, my lord? Assure you, my good liege, I hold my duty, as I hold my soul, Both to my God and to my gracious King. And I do think—or else this brain of mine Hunts not the trail of policy so sure As it hath used to do—that I have found The very cause of Hamlet’s lunacy.
KING CLAUDIUS	O speak of that, that I do long to hear!
POLONIUS	Give first admittance to th’ambassadors. My news shall be the fruit to that great feast.
KING CLAUDIUS	Thyself do grace to them, and bring them in.
(didascalia)	Exit Polonius
KING CLAUDIUS	He tells me, my sweet queen, that he hath found The head and source of all your son’s distemper.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	I doubt it is no other but the main— His father’s death and our o’er-hasty marriage.
KING CLAUDIUS	Well, we shall sift him.
(didascalia)	Enter Polonius, Valtemand, and Cornelius Welcome, my good friends.
KING CLAUDIUS	Say, Valtemand, what from our brother Norway?
VALTEMAND	Most fair return of greetings and desires. Upon our first he sent out to suppress His nephew’s levies, which to him appeared To be a preparation ‘gainst the Polack; But better looked into, he truly found It was against your highness; whereat grieved That so his sickness, age, and impotence Was falsely borne in hand, sends out arrests On Fortinbras, which he, in brief, obeys, Receives rebuke from Norway, and, in fine, Makes vow before his uncle never more To give th’essay of arms against your majesty; Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy, Gives him three thousand crowns in annual fee And his commission to employ those soldiers So levied as before, against the Polack, With an entreaty herein further shown, He gives a letter to Claudius That it might please you to give quiet pass Through your dominions for his enterprise On such regards of safety and allowance As therein are set down.
KING CLAUDIUS	It likes us well, And at our more considered time we’ll read, Answer, and think upon this business. Meantime we thank you for your well-took labour. Go to your rest; at night we’ll feast together. Most welcome home.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Valtemand and Cornelius
POLONIUS	This business is very well ended. My liege, and madam, to expostulate What majesty should be, what duty is, Why day is day, night night, and time is time, Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time. Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit, And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief. Your noble son is mad— ‘Mad’ call I it, for to define true madness, What is’t but to be nothing else but mad? But let that go.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	More matter with less art.
POLONIUS	Madam, I swear I use no art at all. That he is mad, ‘tis true; ’tis true ‘tis pity, And pity ’tis ‘tis true—a foolish figure, But farewell it, for I will use no art. Mad let us grant him, then; and now remains That we find out the cause of this effect— Or rather say ’the cause of this defect‘, For this effect defective comes by cause. Thus it remains, and the remainder thus. Perpend. I have a daughter—have whilst she is mine— Who in her duty and obedience, mark, Hath given me this. Now gather and surmise. He reads a letter ’To the celestial and my soul’s idol, the most beautified Ophelia‘—that’s an ill phrase, a vile phrase, ‘beautified’ is a vile phrase. But you shall hear—‘these in her excellent white bosom, these’.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Came this from Hamlet to her?
POLONIUS	Good madam, stay a while. I will be faithful. ‘Doubt thou the stars are fire, Doubt that the sun doth move, Doubt truth to be a liar, But never doubt I love. O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers. I have not art to reckon my groans. But that I love thee best, O most best, believe it. Adieu. Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this machine is to him, Hamlet.’ This in obedience hath my daughter showed me, And more above hath his solicitings, As they fell out by time, by means, and place, All given to mine ear.
KING CLAUDIUS	But how hath she Received his love?
POLONIUS	What do you think of me?
KING CLAUDIUS	As of a man faithful and honourable.
POLONIUS	I would fain prove so. But what might you think, When I had seen this hot love on the wing, As I perceived it—I must tell you that— Before my daughter told me, what might you, Or my dear majesty your queen here, think, If I had played the desk or table-book, Or given my heart a winking mute and dumb, Or looked upon this love with idle sight— What might you think? No, I went round to work, And my young mistress thus I did bespeak: ‘Lord Hamlet is a prince out of thy star. This must not be’. And then I precepts gave her, That she should lock herself from his resort, Admit no messengers, receive no tokens; Which done, she took the fruits of my advice, And he, repulsèd-a short tale to make— Fell into a sadness, then into a fast, Thence to a watch, thence into a weakness, Thence to a lightness, and, by this declension, Into the madness wherein now he raves, And all we wail for.
KING CLAUDIUS	(to Gertrude) Do you think ’tis this?
QUEEN GERTRUDE	It may be; very likely.
POLONIUS	Hath there been such a time—I’d fain know that— That I have positively said ‘ ’Tis so’ When it proved otherwise?
KING CLAUDIUS	Not that I know.
POLONIUS	(touching his head, then his shoulder) Take this from this if this be otherwise. If circumstances lead me I will find Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed
(didascalia)	Within the centre.
KING CLAUDIUS	How may we try it further?
POLONIUS	You know sometimes he walks four hours together Here in the lobby.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	So he does indeed.
POLONIUS	At such a time I’ll loose my daughter to him. (To Claudius) Be you and I behind an arras then. Mark the encounter. If he love her not, And be not from his reason fall’n thereon, Let me be no assistant for a state, But keep a farm and carters.
KING CLAUDIUS	We will try it.
(didascalia)	Enter Prince Hamlet, madly attired, reading on a book
QUEEN GERTRUDE	But look where sadly the poor wretch comes reading.
POLONIUS	Away, I do beseech you both, away. I’ll board him presently. O give me leave.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Claudius and Gertrude
POLONIUS	How does my good Lord Hamlet?
HAMLET	Well, God-‘a’-mercy.
POLONIUS	Do you know me, my lord?
HAMLET	Excellent, excellent well. You’re a fishmonger.
POLONIUS	Not I, my lord.
HAMLET	Then I would you were so honest a man.
POLONIUS	Honest, my lord?
HAMLET	Ay, sir. To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.
POLONIUS	That’s very true, my lord.
HAMLET	For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a good kissing carrion—have you a daughter?
POLONIUS	I have, my lord.
HAMLET	Let her not walk i’th’ sun. Conception is a blessing, but not as your daughter may conceive. Friend, look to’t.
POLONIUS	(aside) How say you by that? Still harping on my daughter. Yet he knew me not at first—a said I was a fishmonger. A is far gone, far gone, and truly, in my youth I suffered much extremity for love, very near this. I’ll speak to him again.—What do you read, my lord?
HAMLET	Words, words, words.
POLONIUS	What is the matter, my lord?
HAMLET	Between who?
POLONIUS	I mean the matter you read, my lord.
HAMLET	Slanders, sir; for the satirical slave says here that old men have grey beards, that their faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber, or plum-tree gum, and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams. All which, sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down; for you yourself, sir, should be old as I am—if, like a crab, you could go backward.
POLONIUS	(aside) Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.—Will you walk out of the air, my lord?
HAMLET	Into my grave.
POLONIUS	Indeed, that is out o’th’ air. (Aside) How pregnant sometimes his replies are! A happiness that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity could not so prosperously be delivered of. I will leave him, and suddenly contrive the means of meeting between him and my daughter.—My lord, I will take my leave of you.
HAMLET	You cannot, sir, take from me anything that I will more willingly part withal—except my life, my life, my life.
POLONIUS	(going) Fare you well, my lord.
(didascalia)	HAMLET These tedious old fools! Enter Guildenstern and Rosencrantz
POLONIUS	You go to seek the Lord Hamlet. There he is.
ROSENCRANTZ	God save you, sir.
(didascalia)	GUILDENSTERN to Polonius Mine honoured lord. Exit Polonius
ROSENCRANTZ	(to Hamlet) My most dear lord.
HAMLET	My ex’llent good friends. How dost thou, Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz—good lads, how do ye both?
ROSENCRANTZ	As the indifferent children of the earth.
GUILDENSTERN	Happy in that we are not over-happy, On Fortune’s cap we are not the very button.
HAMLET	Nor the soles of her shoe?
ROSENCRANTZ	Neither, my lord.
HAMLET	Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of her favour?
GUILDENSTERN	Faith, her privates we.
HAMLET	In the secret parts of Fortune? O, most true, she is a strumpet. What’s the news?
ROSENCRANTZ	None, my lord, but that the world’s grown honest.
HAMLET	Then is doomsday near. But your news is not true. Let me question more in particular. What have you, my good friends, deserved at the hands of Fortune that she sends you to prison hither?
GUILDENSTERN	Prison, my lord?
HAMLET	Denmark’s a prison.
ROSENCRANTZ	Then is the world one.
HAMLET	A goodly one, in which there are many confines, wards, and dungeons, Denmark being one o’th’ worst.
ROSENCRANTZ	We think not so, my lord.
HAMLET	Why, then ’tis none to you, for there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. To me it is a prison.
ROSENCRANTZ	Why, then your ambition makes it one; ’tis too narrow for your mind.
HAMLET	O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.
GUILDENSTERN	Which dreams indeed are ambition; for the very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.
HAMLET	A dream itself is but a shadow.
ROSENCRANTZ	Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality that it is but a shadow’s shadow.
HAMLET	Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and outstretched heroes the beggars’ shadows. Shall we to th’ court? For, by my fay, I cannot reason.
ROSENCRANTZ	and GUILDENSTERN We’ll wait upon you.
HAMLET	No such matter. I will not sort you with the rest of my servants, for, to speak to you like an honest man, I am most dreadfully attended. But in the beaten way of friendship, what make you at Elsinore?
ROSENCRANTZ	To visit you, my lord, no other occasion.
HAMLET	Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks, but I thank you; and sure, dear friends, my thanks are too dear a halfpenny. Were you not sent for? Is it your own inclining? Is it a free visitation? Come, deal justly with me. Come, come. Nay, speak. 278
GUILDENSTERN	What should we say, my lord?
HAMLET	Why, anything—but to th’ purpose. You were sent for, and there is a kind of confession in your looks which your modesties have not craft enough to colour. I know the good King and Queen have sent for you.
ROSENCRANTZ	To what end, my lord?
HAMLET	That you must teach me. But let me conjure you by the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy of our youth, by the obligation of our ever-preserved love, and by what more dear a better proposer could charge you withal, be even and direct with me whether you were sent for or no.
ROSENCRANTZ	(to Guildenstern) What say you?
HAMLET	Nay then, I have an eye of you—if you love me, hold not off.
GUILDENSTERN	My lord, we were sent for.
HAMLET	I will tell you why. So shall my anticipation prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the King and Queen moult no feather. I have of late—but wherefore I know not—tost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercise; and indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory. This most excellent canopy the air, look you, this brave o’erhanging, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire—why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god—the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals! And yet to me what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me—no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.
ROSENCRANTZ	My lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts.
HAMLET	Why did you laugh, then, when I said ‘Man delights not me’?
ROSENCRANTZ	To think, my lord, if you delight not in man what lenten entertainment the players shall receive from you. We coted them on the way, and hither are they coming to offer you service.
HAMLET	He that plays the King shall be welcome; his majesty shall have tribute of me. The adventurous Knight shall use his foil and target, the Lover shall not sigh gratis, the Humorous Man shall end his part in peace, the Clown shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickled o’th’ sear, and the Lady shall say her mind freely, or the blank verse shall halt for’t. What players are they?
ROSENCRANTZ	Even those you were wont to take delight in, the tragedians of the city.
HAMLET	How chances it they travel? Their residence both in reputation and profit was better both ways.
ROSENCRANTZ	I think their inhibition comes by the means of the late innovation.
HAMLET	Do they hold the same estimation they did when I was in the city? Are they so followed?
ROSENCRANTZ	No, indeed, they are not.
HAMLET	How comes it? Do they grow rusty?
ROSENCRANTZ	Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace. But there is, sir, an eyrie of children, little eyases, that cry out on the top of question and are most tyrannically clapped for’t. These are now the fashion, and so berattle the common stages—so they call them—that many wearing rapiers are afraid of goose-quills, and dare scarce come thither.
HAMLET	What, are they children? Who maintains ’em? How are they escoted? Will they pursue the quality no longer than they can sing? Will they not say afterwards, if they should grow themselves to common players—as it is like most will, if their means are not better—their writers do them wrong to make them exclaim against their own succession?
ROSENCRANTZ	Faith, there has been much to-do on both sides, and the nation holds it no sin to tarre them to controversy. There was for a while no money bid for argument unless the poet and the player went to cuffs in the question.
HAMLET	Is’t possible?
GUILDENSTERN	O, there has been much throwing about of brains.
HAMLET	Do the boys carry it away?
ROSENCRANTZ	Ay, that they do, my lord, Hercules and his load too.
HAMLET	It is not strange; for mine uncle is King of Denmark, and those that would make mows at him while my father lived give twenty, forty, an hundred ducats apiece for his picture in little. ’Sblood, there is something in this more than natural, if philosophy could find it out.
(didascalia)	A flourish for the Players
GUILDENSTERN	There are the players.
HAMLET	Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands, come. Th’appurtenance of welcome is fashion and ceremony. Let me comply with you in the garb, lest my extent to the players—which, I tell you, must show fairly outward—shoutd more appear like entertainment than yours.
(didascalia)	He shakes hands with them
HAMLET	You are welcome. But my uncle-father and aunt-mother are deceived.
GUILDENSTERN	In what, my dear lord?
HAMLET	I am but mad north-north-west; when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw.
(didascalia)	Enter Polonius
POLONIUS	Well be with you, gentlemen.
HAMLET	(aside) Hark you, Guildenstern, and you too—at each ear a hearer—that great baby you see there is not yet out of his swathing-clouts.
ROSENCRANTZ	(aside) Haply he’s the second time come to them, for they say an old man is twice a child.
HAMLET	(aside) I will prophesy he comes to tell me of the players. Mark it.—You say right, sir, for o’ Monday morning, ’twas so indeed.
POLONIUS	My lord, I have news to tell you.
HAMLET	My lord, I have news to tell you. When Roscius was an actor in Rome—
POLONIUS	The actors are come hither, my lord.
HAMLET	BUZZ, buzz.
POLONIUS	Upon mine honour—
HAMLET	Then came each actor on his ass.
POLONIUS	The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastorical-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral, scene individable or poem unlimited. Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light. For the law of writ and the liberty, these are the only men.
HAMLET	O Jephthah, judge of Israel, what a treasure hadst thou!
POLONIUS	What a treasure had he, my lord?
HAMLET	Why, ‘One fair daughter and no more, The which he loved passing well’.
POLONIUS	(aside) Still on my daughter.
HAMLET	Am I not i’th’ right, old Jephthah?
POLONIUS	If you call me Jephthah, my lord, I have a daughter that I love passing well.
HAMLET	Nay, that follows not.
POLONIUS	What follows then, my lord?
HAMLET	Why ‘As by lot God wot’, and then you know ‘It came to pass As most like it was’— the first row of the pious chanson will show you more, for look where my abridgements come.
(didascalia)	Enter four or five Players
HAMLET	You’re welcome, masters, welcome all.—Iam glad to see thee well.—Welcome, good friends.—O, my old friend! Thy face is valanced since I saw thee last. Com‘st thou to beard me in Denmark?—What, my young lady and mistress. By’r Lady, your ladyship is nearer heaven than when I saw you last by the altitude of a chopine. Pray God your voice, like a piece of uncurrent gold, be not cracked within the ring.—Masters, you are all welcome. We’ll e‘en to’t like French falc’ners, fly at anything we see. We’ll have a speech straight. Come, give us a taste of your quality. Come, a passionate speech.
FIRST PLAYER	What speech, my good lord?
HAMLET	I heard thee speak me a speech once, but it was never acted, or, if it was, not above once; for the play, I remember, pleased not the million. ‘Twas caviare to the general. But it was—as I received it, and others whose judgements in such matters cried in the top of mine—an excellent play, well digested in the scenes, set down with as much modesty as cunning. I remember one said there was no sallets in the lines to make the matter savoury, nor no matter in the phrase that might indict the author of affectation, but called it an honest method, as wholesome as sweet, and by very much more handsome than fine. One speech in it I chiefly loved, ’twas Aeneas’ tale to Dido, and thereabout of it especially where he speaks of Priam’s slaughter. If it live in your memory, begin at this line—let me see, let me see: ‘The rugged Pyrrhus, like th’Hyrcanian beast‘—’tis not so. It begins with Pyrrhus—‘The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms, Black as his purpose, did the night resemble When he lay couched in the ominous horse, Hath now this dread and black complexion smeared With heraldry more dismal. Head to foot Now is he total gules, horridly tricked With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, Baked and impasted with the parching streets, That lend a tyrranous and damned light To their vile murders. Roasted in wrath and fire, And thus o’er-sizèd with coagulate gore, With eyes like carbuncles the hellish Pyrrhus Old grandsire Priam seeks’ So, proceed you.
POLONIUS	Fore God, my lord, well spoken, with good accent and good discretion.
FIRST PLAYER	‘Anon he finds him, Striking too short at Greeks. His antique sword, Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls, Repugnant to command. Unequal match, Pyrrhus at Priam drives, in rage strikes wide; But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword Th‘unnervèd father falls. Then senseless Ilium, Seeming to feel his blow, with flaming top Stoops to his base, and with a hideous crash Takes prisoner Pyrrhus’ ear. For lo, his sword, Which was declining on the milky head Of reverend Priam, seemed i’th’ air to stick. So, as a painted tyrant, Pyrrhus stood, And, like a neutral to his will and matter, Did nothing. But as we often see against some storm A silence in the heavens, the rack stand still, The bold winds speechless, and the orb below As hush as death, anon the dreadful thunder Doth rend the region: so, after Pyrrhus’ pause, A rousèd vengeance sets him new a-work; And never did the Cyclops’ hammers fall On Mars his armour, forged for proof eterne, With less remorse than Pyrrhus’ bleeding sword Now falls on Priam. Out, out, thou strumpet Fortune! All you gods, In general synod, take away her power, Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel, And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven, As low as to the fiends!’
POLONIUS	This is too long.
HAMLET	It shall to the barber’s, with your beard. (To First Player) Prithee, say on. He’s for a jig or a tale of bawdry, or he sleeps. Say on, come to Hecuba.
FIRST PLAYER	‘But who, O who had seen the mobbled queen’—
HAMLET	‘The mobbled queen’?
POLONIUS	That’s good; ‘mobbled queen’ is good.
FIRST PLAYER	‘Run barefoot up and down, threat’ning the flames With bisson rheum; a clout upon that head Where late the diadem stood, and for a robe, About her lank and all o‘er-teemèd loins, A blanket in th’alarm of fear caught up— Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steeped, ‘Gainst Fortune’s state would treason have pronounced. But if the gods themselves did see her then, When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport In mincing with his sword her husband’s limbs, The instant burst of clamour that she made— Unless things mortal move them not at all— Would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven, And passion in the gods.’
POLONIUS	Look whe’er he has not turned his colour, and has tears in ’s eyes. (To First Player) Prithee, no more.
HAMLET	(to First Player) ’Tis well. I’ll have thee speak out the rest soon. (To Polonius) Good my lord, will you see the players well bestowed? Do ye hear?—let them be well used, for they are the abstracts and brief chronicles of the time. After your death you were better have a bad epitaph than their ill report while you live.
POLONIUS	My lord, I will use them according to their desert.
HAMLET	God’s bodykins, man, much better. Use every man after his desert, and who should scape whipping? Use them after your own honour and dignity—the less they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty. Take them in.
POLONIUS	(to Players) Come, sirs. Exit
HAMLET	(to Players) Follow him, friends. We’ll hear a play tomorrow. Dost thou hear me, old friend? Can you play the murder of Gonzago?
(didascalia)	PLAYERS Ay, my lord.
HAMLET	We’ll ha’t tomorrow night. You could for a need study a speech of some dozen or sixteen lines which I would set down and insert in’t, could ye not?
(didascalia)	PLAYERS Ay, my lord.
(didascalia)	HAMLET Very well. Follow that lord, and look you mock him not. Exeunt Players My good friends, I’ll leave you till night. You are welcome to Elsinore.
ROSENCRANTZ	Good my lord.
HAMLET	Ay, so. God b‘wi’ ye. Exeunt all but Hamlet Now I am alone. O, what a rogue and peasant slave am Il Is it not monstrous that this player here, But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, Could force his soul so to his whole conceit That from her working all his visage wanned, Tears in his eyes, distraction in ’s aspect, A broken voice, and his whole function suiting With forms to his conceit? And all for nothing. For Hecuba! What’s Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, That he should weep for her? What would he do Had he the motive and the cue for passion That I have? He would drown the stage with tears, And cleave the general ear with horrid speech, Make mad the guilty and appal the free, Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed The very faculty of eyes and ears. Yet I, A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause, And can say nothing—no, not for a king Upon whose property and most dear life A damned defeat was made. Am I a coward? Who calls me villain, breaks my pate across, Plucks off my beard and blows it in my face, Tweaks me by th’ nose, gives me the lie i’th’ throat As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this? Ha? ‘Swounds, I should take it; for it cannot be But I am pigeon-livered and lack gall To make oppression bitter, or ere this I should ’a’ fatted all the region kites With this slave’s offal. Bloody, bawdy villain! Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain! O, vengeance!— Why, what an ass am I? Ay, sure, this is most brave, That I, the son of the dear murdered, Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words And fall a-cursing like a very drab, A scullion! Fie upon‘t, foh!—About, my brain. I have heard that guilty creatures sitting at a play Have by the very cunning of the scene Been struck so to the soul that presently They have proclaimed their malefactions; For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak With most miraculous organ. I’ll have these players Play something like the murder of my father Before mine uncle. I’ll observe his looks, I’ll tent him to the quick. If a but blench, I know my course. The spirit that I have seen May be the devil, and the devil hath power T’assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps, Out of my weakness and my melancholy— As he is very potent with such spirits— Abuses me to damn me. I’ll have grounds More relative than this. The play’s the thing Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King.
(didascalia)	Exit

Atto 3, Scena 1

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter King Claudius, Queen Gertrude, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and lords
KING CLAUDIUS	(to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern) And can you by no drift of circumstance Get from him why he puts on this confusion, Grating so harshly all his days of quiet With turbulent and dangerous lunacy?
ROSENCRANTZ	He does confess he feels himself distracted, But from what cause a will by no means speak.
GUILDENSTERN	Nor do we find him forward to be sounded, But with a crafty madness keeps aloof When we would bring him on to some confession Of his true state.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Did he receive you well?
ROSENCRANTZ	Most like a gentleman.
GUILDENSTERN	But with much forcing of his disposition.
ROSENCRANTZ	Niggard of question, but of our demands Most free in his reply.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Did you assay him To any pastime?
ROSENCRANTZ	Madam, it so fell out that certain players We o’er-raught on the way. Of these we told him, And there did seem in him a kind of joy To hear of it. They are about the court, And, as I think, they have already order This night to play before him.
POLONIUS	’Tis most true, And he beseeched me to entreat your majesties To hear and see the matter.
KING CLAUDIUS	With all my heart; and it doth much content me To hear him so inclined.—Good gentlemen, Give him a further edge, and drive his purpose on To these delights.
ROSENCRANTZ	We shall, my lord.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
KING CLAUDIUS	Sweet Gertrude, leave us too, For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither, That he, as ‘twere by accident, may here Affront Ophelia. Her father and myself, lawful espials, Will so bestow ourselves that, seeing unseen, We may of their encounter frankly judge, And gather by him, as he is behaved, If’t be th’affliction of his love or no That thus he suffers for.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	I shall obey you. And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish That your good beauties be the happy cause Of Hamlet’s wildness; so shall I hope your virtues Will bring him to his wonted way again, To both your honours.
OPHELIA	Madam, I wish it may.
(didascalia)	Exit Gertrude
POLONIUS	Ophelia, walk you here.—Gracious, so please you, We will bestow ourselves.—Read on this book, That show of such an exercise may colour Your loneliness. We are oft to blame in this: ‘Tis too much proved that with devotion’s visage And pious action we do sugar o’er The devil himself.
KING CLAUDIUS	O, ’tis too true. (Aside) How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience. The harlot’s cheek, beautied with plast’ring art, Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it Than is my deed to my most painted word. O heavy burden!
POLONIUS	I hear him coming. Let’s withdraw, my lord.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Claudius and Polonius
(didascalia)	Enter Prince Hamlet
HAMLET	To be, or not to be; that is the question: Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And, by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep— No more, and by a sleep to say we end The heartache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to—’tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep. To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there’s the rub, For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil Must give us pause. There’s the respect That makes calamity of so long life, For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, Th‘oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely, The pangs of disprized love, the law’s delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of th’unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? Who would these fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscovered country from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pith and moment With this regard their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action. Soft you, now, The fair Ophelia!—Nymph, in thy orisons Be all my sins remembered.
OPHELIA	Good my lord, How does your honour for this many a day?
HAMLET	I humbly thank you, well, well, well.
OPHELIA	My lord, I have remembrances of yours That I have longed long to redeliver. I pray you now receive them.
HAMLET	No, no, I never gave you aught.
OPHELIA	My honoured lord, you know right well you did, And with them words of so sweet breath composed As made the things more rich. Their perfume lost, Take these again; for to the noble mind Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind. There, my lord.
HAMLET	Ha, ha? Are you honest?
OPHELIA	My lord.
HAMLET	Are you fair?
OPHELIA	What means your lordship?
HAMLET	That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should admit no discourse to your beauty.
OPHELIA	Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty?
HAMLET	Ay, truly, for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness. This was sometime a paradox, but now the time gives it proof. I did love you once.
OPHELIA	Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.
HAMLET	You should not have believed me, for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it. I loved you not.
OPHELIA	I was the more deceived.
HAMLET	Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest, but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me. I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offences at my beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I do crawling between heaven and earth? We are arrant knaves, all. Believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery. Where’s your father?
OPHELIA	At home, my lord.
HAMLET	Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the fool nowhere but in ’s own house. Farewell.
OPHELIA	O help him, you sweet heavens!
HAMLET	If thou dost marry, I’ll give thee this plague for thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery, go, farewell. Or if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go, and quickly, too. Farewell.
OPHELIA	O heavenly powers, restore him!
HAMLET	I have heard of your paintings, too, well enough. God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another. You jig, you amble, and you lisp, and nickname God’s creatures, and make your wantonness your ignorance. Go to, I’ll no more on’t. It hath made me mad. I say we will have no more marriages. Those that are married already—all but one—shall live. The rest shall keep as they are. To a nunnery, go. Exit
OPHELIA	O what a noble mind is here o‘erthrown! The courtier’s, soldier‘s, scholar’s eye, tongue, sword, Th’expectancy and rose of the fair state, The glass of fashion and the mould of form, Th‘observed of all observers, quite, quite, down! And I, of ladies most deject and wretched, That sucked the honey of his music vows, Now see that noble and most sovereign reason Like sweet bells jangled out of tune and harsh; That unmatched form and feature of blown youth Blasted with ecstasy. O woe is me, T’have seen what I have seen, see what I see!
(didascalia)	Enter King Claudius and Polonius
KING CLAUDIUS	Love? His affections do not that way tend, Nor what he spake, though it lacked form a little, Was not like madness. There’s something in his soul O’er which his melancholy sits on brood, And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose Will be some danger; which to prevent I have in quick determination Thus set it down: he shall with speed to England For the demand of our neglected tribute. Haply the seas and countries different, With variable objects, shall expel This something-settled matter in his heart, Whereon his brains still beating puts him thus From fashion of himself. What think you on’t?
POLONIUS	It shall do well. But yet do I believe The origin and commencement of this grief Sprung from neglected love.—How now, Ophelia? You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet said; We heard it all.—My lord, do as you please, But, if you hold it fit, after the play Let his queen mother all alone entreat him To show his griefs. Let her be round with him, And I’ll be placed, so please you, in the ear Of all their conference. If she find him not, To England send him, or confine him where Your wisdom best shall think.
KING CLAUDIUS	It shall be so. Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Atto 3, Scena 2

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Prince Hamlet and two or three of the Players
HAMLET	Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you—trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I had as lief the town-crier had spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and as I may say the whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious, periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb shows and noise. I would have such a fellow whipped for o’erdoing Termagant. It out-Herods Herod. Pray you avoid it. A PLAYER I warrant your honour.
HAMLET	Be not too tame, neither; but let your own discretion be your tutor. Suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this special observance: that you o‘erstep not the modesty of nature. For anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is to hold as ’twere the mirror up to nature, to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure. Now this overdone, or come tardy off, though it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the censure of the which one must in your allowance o’erweigh a whole theatre of others. O, there be players that I have seen play, and heard others praise, and that highly, not to speak it profanely, that neither having the accent of Christians nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor no man, have so strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of nature’s journeymen had made men, and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably. A PLAYER I hope we have reformed that indifferently with us, sir.
HAMLET	O, reform it altogether. And let those that play your clowns speak no more than is set down for them; for there be of them that will themselves laugh to set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too, though in the mean time some necessary question of the play be then to be considered. That’s villainous, and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. Go make you ready. Exeunt Players
(didascalia)	Enter Polonius, Guildenstern, and Rosencrantz
HAMLET	(To Polonius) How now, my lord? Will the King hear this piece of work?
POLONIUS	And the Queen too, and that presently. HAMLET Bid the players make haste. Exit Polonius Will you two help to hasten them?
ROSENCRANTZ	and GUILDENSTERN We will, my lord.
(didascalia)	Exeunt
HAMLET	What ho, Horatio!
(didascalia)	Enter Horatio
HORATIO	Here, sweet lord, at your service.
HAMLET	Horatio, thou art e‘en as just a man As e’er my conversation coped withal.
HORATIO	O my dear lord—
HAMLET	Nay, do not think I flatter; For what advancement may I hope from thee, That no revenue hast but thy good spirits To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be flattered? No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp, And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee Where thrift may follow feigning. Dost thou hear?— Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice And could of men distinguish, her election Hath sealed thee for herself; for thou hast been As one in suff‘ring all that suffers nothing, A man that Fortune’s buffets and rewards Hath ta’en with equal thanks; and blest are those Whose blood and judgement are so well commingled That they are not a pipe for Fortune’s finger To sound what stop she please. Give me that man That is not passion’s slave, and I will wear him In my heart’s core, ay, in my heart of heart, As I do thee. Something too much of this. There is a play tonight before the King. One scene of it comes near the circumstance Which I have told thee of my father’s death. I prithee, when thou seest that act afoot, Even with the very comment of thy soul Observe mine uncle. If his occulted guilt Do not itself unkennel in one speech, It is a damned ghost that we have seen, And my imaginations are as foul As Vulcan’s stithy. Give him heedful note, For I mine eyes will rivet to his face, And after, we will both our judgements join To censure of his seeming.
HORATIO	Well, my lord. If a steal aught the whilst this play is playing And scape detecting, I will pay the theft.
(didascalia)	Sound a flourish
HAMLET	They are coming to the play. I must be idle. Get you a place.
(didascalia)	Danish march. Enter King Claudius, Queen
HAMLET	Gertrude, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and other lords attendant, with the
(didascalia)	King’s guard carrying torches
KING CLAUDIUS	How fares our cousin Hamlet?
HAMLET	Excellent, i’faith, of the chameleon’s dish. I eat the air, promise-crammed. You cannot feed capons so.
KING CLAUDIUS	I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet. These words are not mine.
HAMLET	No, nor mine now. (To Polonius) My lord, you played once i’th’ university, you say.
POLONIUS	That I did, my lord, and was accounted a good actor.
HAMLET	And what did you enact?
POLONIUS	I did enact Julius Caesar. I was killed i’th’ Capitol. Brutus killed me.
HAMLET	It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf there.—Be the players ready?
ROSENCRANTZ	Ay, my lord, they stay upon your patience.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Come hither, my good Hamlet. Sit by me.
HAMLET	No, good-mother, here’s mettle more attractive. He sits by Ophelia
POLONTUS	(aside) O ho, do you mark that?
HAMLET	(to Ophelia) Lady, shall I lie in your lap?
OPHELIA	No, my lord.
HAMLET	I mean my head upon your lap?
OPHELIA	Ay, my lord.
HAMLET	Do you think I meant country matters?
OPHELIA	I think nothing, my lord.
HAMLET	That’s a fair thought to lie between maids’ legs.
OPHELIA	What is, my lord?
HAMLET	No thing.
OPHELIA	You are merry, my lord.
HAMLET	Who, I?
OPHELIA	Ay, my lord.
HAMLET	O God, your only jig-maker! What should a man do but be merry? For look you how cheerfully my mother looks, and my father died within ’s two hours.
OPHELIA	Nay, ’tis twice two mqnths, my lord. 122
HAMLET	So long? Nay then, let the devil wear black, for I’ll have a suit of sables. O heavens, die two months ago and not forgotten yet! Then there’s hope a great man’s memory may outlive his life half a year. But, by‘r Lady, a must build churches then, or else shall a suffer not thinking on, with the hobby-horse, whose epitaph is ‘For O, for O, the hobby-horse is forgot.’
(didascalia)	Hautboys play. The dumb show enters. Enter a King
HAMLET	and a Queen very lovingly, the Queen embracing him. She kneels and makes show of protestation unto him. He takes her up and declines his head upon her neck. He lays him down upon a bank of flowers. She, seeing him asleep, leaves him. Anon comes in a fellow, takes off his crown, kisses it, and pours poison in the King’s ears, and exits. The Queen returns, finds the King dead, and makes passionate action. The poisoner, with some two or three mutes, comes in again, seeming to lament with her. The dead body is carried away. The poisoner woos the Queen with gifts. She seems loath and unwilling a while, but in the end accepts his love. Exeunt the Players
OPHELIA	What means this, my lord?
HAMLET	Marry, this is miching malhecho. That means mischief.
OPHELIA	Belike this show imports the argument of the play. Enter Prologue
HAMLET	We shall know by this fellow. The players cannot keep counsel, they’ll tell all.
OPHELIA	Will a tell us what this show meant?
HAMLET	Ay, or any show that you’ll show him. Be not you ashamed to show, he’ll not shame to tell you what it means.
OPHELIA	You are naught, you are naught. I’ll mark the play.
PROLOGUE	For us and for our tragedy Here stooping to your clemency, We beg your hearing patiently. Exit
HAMLET	Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring?
OPHELIA	’Tis brief, my lord.
HAMLET	As woman’s love.
(didascalia)	Enter the Player King and his Queen
PLAYER KING	Full thirty times hath Phoebus’ cart gone round Neptune’s salt wash and Tellus’ orbèd ground, And thirty dozen moons with borrowed sheen About the world have times twelve thirties been Since love our hearts and Hymen did our hands Unite commutual in most sacred bands.
PLAYER QUEEN	So many journeys may the sun and moon Make us again count o’er ere love be done. But woe is me, you are so sick of late, So far from cheer and from your former state, That I distrust you. Yet, though I distrust, Discomfort you my lord it nothing must. For women’s fear and love holds quantity, In neither aught, or in extremity. Now what my love is, proof hath made you know, And as my love is sized, my fear is so.
PLAYER KING	Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly too. My operant powers their functions leave to do, And thou shalt live in this fair world behind, Honoured, beloved; and haply one as kind For husband shalt thou—
PLAYER QUEEN	O, confound the rest! Such love must needs be treason in my breast. In second husband let me be accurst; None wed the second but who killed the first.
HAMLET	Wormwood, wormwood.
PLAYER QUEEN	The instances that second marriage move Are base respects of thrift, but none of love. A second time I kill my husband dead When second husband kisses me in bed.
PLAYER KING	I do believe you think what now you speak; But what we do determine oft we break. Purpose is but the slave to memory, Of violent birth but poor validity, Which now like fruit unripe sticks on the tree, But fall unshaken when they mellow be. Most necessary ‘tis that we forget To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt. What to ourselves in passion we propose, The passion ending, doth the purpose lose. The violence of either grief or joy Their own enactures with themselves destroy. Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament; Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident. This world is not for aye, nor ’tis not strange That even our loves should with our fortunes change; For ’tis a question left us yet to prove Whether love lead fortune or else fortune love. The great man down, you mark his favourite flies; The poor advanced makes friends of enemies. And hitherto doth love on fortune tend, For who not needs shall never lack a friend, And who in want a hollow friend doth try Directly seasons him his enemy. But orderly to end where I begun, Our wills and fates do so contrary run That our devices still are overthrown; Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own. So think thou wilt no second husband wed; But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead.
PLAYER QUEEN	Nor earth to me give food, nor heaven light, Sport and repose lock from me day and night, Each opposite that blanks the face of joy Meet what I would have well and it destroy, Both here and hence pursue me lasting strife If, once a widow, ever I be wife.
HAMLET	If she should break it now!
PLAYER KING	(to Player Queen) ’Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here a while. My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile The tedious day with sleep.
PLAYER QUEEN	Sleep rock thy brain, And never come mischance between us twain. Player King sleeps. Player Queen exits
HAMLET	(to Gertrude) Madam, how like you this play?
QUEEN GERTRUDE	The lady protests too much, methinks.
HAMLET	O, but she’ll keep her word.
KING CLAUDIUS	Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in’t?
HAMLET	No, no, they do but jest, poison in jest. No offence i’th’ world.
KING CLAUDIUS	What do you call the play?
HAMLET	The Mousetrap. Marry, how? Tropically. This play is the image of a murder done in Vienna. Gonzago is the Duke’s name, his wife Baptista. You shall see anon. ’Tis a knavish piece of work; but what o’ that? Your majesty, and we that have free souls, it touches us not. Let the galled jade wince, our withers are unwrung.
(didascalia)	Enter Player Lucianus
HAMLET	This is one Lucianus, nephew to the King.
OPHELIA	You are as good as a chorus, my lord.
HAMLET	I could interpret between you and your love if I could see the puppets dallying.
OPHELIA	You are keen, my lord, you are keen.
HAMLET	It would cost you a groaning to take off mine edge.
OPHELIA	Still better, and worse.
HAMLET	So you mis-take your husbands. (To Lucianus) Begin, murderer. Pox, leave thy damnable faces and begin. Come: ‘the croaking raven doth bellow for revenge’.
PLAYER LUCIANUS	Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing, Confederate season, else no creature seeing; Thou mixture rank of midnight weeds collected, With Hecate’s ban thrice blasted, thrice infected, Thy natural magic and dire property On wholesome life usurp immediately. He pours the poison in the Player King’s ear
HAMLET	A poisons him i’th’ garden for ’s estate. His name’s Gonzago. The story is extant, and writ in choice Italian. You shall see anon how the murderer gets the love of Gonzago’s wife.
OPHELIA	The King rises.
HAMLET	What, frighted with false fire?
QUEEN GERTRUDE	(to Claudius) How fares my lord? POLONIUSGive o’er the play.
(didascalia)	KING CLAUDIUS Give me some light. Away. COURTIERS Lights, lights, lights!
(didascalia)	Exeunt all but Hamlet and Horatio
HAMLET	Why, let the stricken deer go weep, The hart ungallèd play, For some must watch, while some must sleep, So runs the world away. Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers, if the rest of my fortunes turn Turk with me, with two Provençal roses on my razed shoes, get me a fellowship in a cry of players, sir?
HORATIO	Half a share.
HAMLET	A whole one, I. For thou dost know, O Damon dear, This realm dismantled was Of Jove himself, and now reigns here A very, very—pajock.
HORATIO	You might have rhymed.
HAMLET	O good Horatio, I’ll take the Ghost’s word for a thousand pound. Didst perceive?
HORATIO	Very well, my lord.
HAMLET	Upon the talk of the pois’ning?
HORATIO	I did very well note him.
(didascalia)	Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
HAMLET	Ah ha! Come, some music, come, the recorders, For if the King like not the comedy, Why then, belike he likes it not, pardie. Come, some music.
GUILDENSTERN	Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you.
HAMLET	Sir, a whole history.
GUILDENSTERN	The King, sir—
HAMLET	Ay, sir, what of him?
GUILDENSTERN	Is in his retirement marvellous distempered.
HAMLET	With drink, sir?
GUILDENSTERN	No, my lord, rather with choler.
HAMLET	Your wisdom should show itself more richer to signify this to his doctor, for for me to put him to his purgation would perhaps plunge him into far more choler.
GUILDENSTERN	Good my lord, put your discourse into some frame, and start not so wildly from my affair.
HAMLET	I am tame, sir. Pronounce.
GUILDENSTERN	The Queen your mother, in most great affliction of spirit, hath sent me to you.
HAMLET	You are welcome.
GUILDENSTERN	Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the right breed. If it shall please you to make me a wholesome answer, I will do your mother’s commandment; if not, your pardon and my return shall be the end of my business.
HAMLET	Sir, I cannot.
GUILDENSTERN	What, my lord?
HAMLET	Make you a wholesome answer. My wit’s diseased. But, sir, such answers as I can make, you shall command; or rather, as you say, my mother. Therefore no more, but to the matter. My mother, you say?
ROSENCRANTZ	Then thus she says: your behaviour hath struck her into amazement and admiration.
HAMLET	O wonderful son, that can so astonish a mother! But is there no sequel at the heels of this mother’s admiration?
ROSENCRANTZ	She desires to speak with you in her closet ere you go to bed. 319
HAMLET	We shall obey, were she ten times our mother. Have you any further trade with us?
ROSENCRANTZ	My lord, you once did love me.
HAMLET	So I do still, by these pickers and stealers.
ROSENCRANTZ	Good my lord, what is your cause of distemper? You do freely bar the door of your own liberty if you deny your griefs to your friend.
HAMLET	Sir, I lack advancement.
ROSENCRANTZ	How can that be when you have the voice of the King himself for your succession in Denmark?
HAMLET	Ay, but ‘while the grass grows …’—the proverb is something musty.
(didascalia)	Enter one with a recorder
HAMLET	O, the recorder. Let me see. (To Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, taking them aside) To withdraw with you, why do you go about to recover the wind of me as if you would drive me into a toil?
GUILDENSTERN	O my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is too unmannerly.
HAMLET	I do not well understand that. Will you play upon this pipe?
GUILDENSTERN	My lord, I cannot.
HAMLET	I pray you.
GUILDENSTERN	Believe me, I cannot.
HAMLET	I do beseech you.
GUILDENSTERN	I know no touch of it, my lord.
HAMLET	’Tis as easy as lying. Govern these ventages with your fingers and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most excellent music. Look you, these are the stops.
GUILDENSTERN	But these cannot I command to any utterance of harmony. I have not the skill.
HAMLET	Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me! You would play upon me, you would seem to know my stops, you would pluck out the heart of my mystery, you would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass; and there is much music, excellent voice in this little organ, yet cannot you make it speak. ’Sblood, do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, you cannot play upon me.
(didascalia)	Enter Polonius
HAMLET	God bless you, sir.
POLONIUS	My lord, the Queen would speak with you, and presently.
HAMLET	Do you see yonder cloud that’s almost in shape of a camel?
POLONIUS	By th’ mass, and ’tis: like a camel, indeed.
HAMLET	Methinks it is like a weasel.
POLONIUS	It is backed like a weasel.
HAMLET	Or like a whale.
POLONIUS	Very like a whale.
HAMLET	Then will I come to my mother by and by. (Aside) They fool me to the top of my bent. (To Polonius) I will come by and by.
POLONIUS	I will say so.
HAMLET	’By and by’ is easily said. Exit Polonius Leave me, friends.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
HAMLET	’Tis now the very witching time of night, When churchyards yawn, and hell itself breathes out Contagion to this world. Now could I drink hot blood, And do such bitter business as the day Would quake to look on. Soft, now to my mother. 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

Atto 3, Scena 3

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter King Claudius, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern
KING 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 dangerous as doth hourly grow Out of his lunacies.
GUILDENSTERN	We will ourselves provide. Most holy and religious fear it is To keep those many many bodies safe That live and feed upon your majesty.
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 cease of majesty
(didascalia)	Dies not alone, but like a gulf doth draw
ROSENCRANTZ	What’s near it with it. It is a massy wheel Fixed on the summit of the highest mount, To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things Are mortised and adjoined, which when it falls Each small annexment, petty consequence, Attends the boist’rous ruin. Never alone Did the King sigh, but with a general groan.
KING CLAUDIUS	Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy voyage, For we will fetters put upon this fear Which now goes too free-footed.
ROSENCRANTZ	and GUILDENSTERN We will haste us.
(didascalia)	Exeunt both
(didascalia)	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’erhear The speech of vantage. Fare you well, my liege. I’ll call upon you ere you go to bed, And tell you what I know.
KING CLAUDIUS	Thanks, dear my lord.
(didascalia)	Exit Polonius
KING 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. 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-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? 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 can it not? Yet what can it when one cannot repent? 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. He kneels.
(didascalia)	Enter Prince Hamlet behind him
HAMLET	Now might I do it pat, now a is praying, And now I’ll do‘t,
(didascalia)	He draws his sword
HAMLET	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. O, this is hire and salary, not revenge! 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. He sheathes his sword Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hint. When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage, Or in th‘incestuous pleasure of his bed, At gaming, 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 goes. My mother stays. This physic but prolongs thy sickly days.
(didascalia)	Exit
KING CLAUDIUS	My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. Words without thoughts never to heaven go.
(didascalia)	Exit

Atto 3, Scena 4

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Queen 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 e’en here. Pray you be round with him.
HAMLET	(within) Mother, mother, mother!
QUEEN GERTRUDE	I’ll warr’nt you. Fear me not. Withdraw; I hear him coming. Polonius hides behind the arras.
(didascalia)	Enter Prince Hamlet
HAMLET	Now, mother, what’s the matter?
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended,.
HAMLET	Mother, you have my father much offended.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.
HAMLET	Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Why, how now, Hamlet?
HAMLET	What’s the matter now?
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Have you forgot me?
HAMLET	No, by the rood, not so. You are the Queen, your husband’s brother’s wife. But—would you were not so—you are my mother.
QUEEN 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.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murder me? Help, help, ho!
POLONIUS	(behind the arras) What ho! Help, help, help!
HAMLET	How now, a rat? Dead for a ducat, dead. He thrusts his sword through the arras
POLONIUS	O, I am slain!
QUEEN GERTRUDE	(to Hamlet) O me, what hast thou done?
HAMLET	Nay, I know not. Is it the King?
QUEEN 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.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	As kill a king?
HAMLET	Ay, lady, ’twas my word. (To Polonius) Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell. I took thee for thy better. Take thy fortune. Thou find’st to be too busy is some danger.— Leave wringing of your hands. Peace, sit you down, And let me wring your heart; for so I shall If it be made of penetrable stuff, If damned custom have not brassed it so That it is proof and bulwark against sense.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	What have I done, that thou dar’st wag thy tongue In noise so rude against me?
HAMLET	Such an act That blurs the grace and blush of modesty, Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the rose From the fair forehead of an innocent love And sets a blister there, makes marriage vows As false as dicers’ oaths—O, such a deed As from the body of contraction plucks The very soul, and sweet religion makes A rhapsody of words. Heaven’s face doth glow, Yea, this solidity and compound mass With tristful visage, as against the doom, Is thought-sick at the act.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Ay me, what act, That roars so loud and thunders in the index?
HAMLET	Look here upon this picture, and on this, The counterfeit presentment of two brothers. See what a grace was seated on this brow— Hyperion’s curls, the front of Jove himself, An eye like Mars, to threaten or command, A station like the herald Mercury New lighted on a heaven-kissing hill; A combination and a form indeed Where every god did seem to set his seal To give the world assurance of a man. This was your husband. Look you now what follows. Here is your husband, like a mildewed ear Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes? Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed, And batten on this moor? Ha, have you eyes? You cannot call it love, for at your age The heyday in the blood is tame, it’s humble, And waits upon the judgement; and what judgement Would step from this to this? What devil was’t That thus hath cozened you at hood-man blind? O shame, where is thy blush? Rebellious hell, If thou canst mutine in a matron’s bones, To flaming youth let virtue be as wax And melt in her own fire. Proclaim no shame When the compulsive ardour gives the charge, Since frost itself as actively doth burn, And reason panders will.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	O Hamlet, speak no more! Thou turn’st mine eyes into my very soul, And there I see such black and grained spots As will not leave their tinct.
HAMLET	Nay, but to live In the rank sweat of an enseamèd bed, Stewed in corruption, honeying and making love Over the nasty sty—
QUEEN GERTRUDE	O, speak to me no more! These words like daggers enter in mine ears. No more, sweet Hamlet.
HAMLET	A murderer and a villain, A slave that is not twenti’th part the tithe Of your precedent lord, a vice of kings, A cutpurse of the empire and the rule, That from a shelf the precious diadem stole And put it in his pocket—
QUEEN GERTRUDE	No more.
HAMLET	A king of shreds and patches—
(didascalia)	Enter the Ghost in his nightgown
HAMLET	Save me and hover o’er me with your wings, You heavenly guards! (To the Ghost) What would you, gracious figure? 95
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Alas, he’s mad.
HAMLET	(to the Ghost) Do you not come your tardy son to chide, That, lapsed in time and passion, lets go by Th’important acting of your dread command? O, say!
GHOST	Do not forget. This visitation Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose. But look, amazement on thy mother sits. O, step between her and her fighting soul. Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works. Speak to her, Hamlet.
HAMLET	How is it with you, lady?
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Alas, how is’t with you, That you do bend your eye on vacancy, And with th‘incorporal air do hold discourse? Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep, And, as the sleeping soldiers in th’alarm, Your bedded hair, like life in excrements, Start up and stand on end. O gentle son, Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper Sprinkle cool patience! Whereon do you look?
HAMLET	On him, on him. Look you how pale he glares. His form and cause conjoined, preaching to stones, Would make them capable. (To the Ghost) Do not look upon me, Lest with this piteous action you convert My stern effects. Then what I have to do Will want true colour—tears perchance for blood.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	To whom do you speak this?
HAMLET	Do you see nothing there?
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Nothing at all, yet all that is I see.
HAMLET	Nor did you nothing hear?
QUEEN GERTRUDE	No, nothing but ourselves.
HAMLET	Why, look you there. Look how it steals away. My father, in his habit as he lived. Look where he goes even now out at the portal.
(didascalia)	Exit the Ghost
QUEEN GERTRUDE	This is the very coinage of your brain. This bodiless creation ecstasy Is very cunning in.
HAMLET	Ecstasy? My pulse as yours doth temperately keep time, And makes as healthful music. It is not madness That I have uttered. Bring me to the test, And I the matter will reword, which madness Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace Lay not a flattering unction to your soul That not your trespass but my madness speaks. It will but skin and film the ulcerous place Whilst rank corruption, mining all within, Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven; Repent what’s past, avoid what is to come, And do not spread the compost o’er the weeds To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue, For in the fatness of these pursy times Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg, Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain!
HAMLET	O, throw away the worser part of it, And live the purer with the other half! Good night—but go not to mine uncle’s bed. Assume a virtue if you have it not. Refrain tonight, And that shall lend a kind of easiness To the next abstinence. Once more, good night; And when you are desirous to be blest, I’ll blessing beg of you. 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, good night. I must be cruel only to be kind. Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.
QUEEN 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 not in madness, But mad in craft. ’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 conclusions in the basket creep, And break your own neck down.
QUEEN 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?
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Alack, I had forgot. ’Tis so concluded on.
HAMLET	This man shall set me packing. I’ll lug the guts into the neighbour room. Mother, good night indeed. This counsellor Is now most still, most secret, and most grave, Who was in life a foolish prating knave.— Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you.— Good night, mother. Exit, tugging in Polonius

Atto 4, Scena 1

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter King Claudius to Queen Gertrude
KING CLAUDIUS	There’s matter in these sighs, these profound heaves; You must translate. ’Tis fit we understand them. Where is your son?
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Ah, my good lord, what have I seen tonight!
KING CLAUDIUS	What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet?
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Mad as the sea and wind when both contend Which is the mightier. In his lawless fit, Behind the arras hearing something stir, He whips his rapier out and cries ‘A rat, a ratl’, And in his brainish apprehension kills The unseen good old man.
KING 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. 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?
QUEEN 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—a weeps for what is done.
KING 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, Guildensternl
(didascalia)	Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
KING CLAUDIUS	Friends both, go join you with some further aid. Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain, And from his mother’s closet hath he dragged him. Go seek him out, speak fair, and bring the body Into the chapel. I pray you haste in this.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
KING CLAUDIUS	Come, Gertrude, we’ll call up our wisest friends To let them know both what we mean to do And what’s untimely done. O, come away! My soul is full of discord and dismay.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Atto 4, Scena 2

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Prince Hamlet
HAMLET	Safely stowed.
ROSENCRANTZ	and GUILDENSTERN (within) Hamlet, Lord Hamlet!
HAMLET	What noise? Who calls on Hamlet?
(didascalia)	Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
HAMLET	O, here they come.
ROSENCRANTZ	What have you done, my lord, with the dead body?
HAMLET	Compounded it with dust, whereto ’tis kin.
ROSENCRANTZ	Tell us where ’tis, that we may take it thence And bear it to the chapel.
HAMLET	Do not believe it.
ROSENCRANTZ	Believe what?
HAMLET	That I can keep your counsel and not mine own. Besides, to be demanded of a sponge—what replication should be made by the son of a king?
ROSENCRANTZ	Take you me for a sponge, my lord?
HAMLET	Ay, sir, that soaks up the King’s countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the King best service in the end. He keeps them, like an ape an apple in the corner of his jaw, first mouthed to be last swallowed. When he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again.
ROSENCRANTZ	I understand you not, my lord.
HAMLET	I am glad of it. A knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear.
ROSENCRANTZ	My lord, you must tell us where the body is, and go with us to the King.
HAMLET	The body is with the King, but the King is not with the body. The King is a thing—
GUILDENSTERN	A thing, my lord?
HAMLET	Of nothing. Bring me to him. Hide fox, and all after.
(didascalia)	Exit running, pursued by the others

Atto 4, Scena 3

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter King Claudius
KING CLAUDIUS	I have sent to seek him, and to find the body. How dangerous is it that this man goes loose! Yet must not we put the strong law on him. He’s loved of the distracted multitude, Who like not in their judgement but their eyes, And where ‘tis so, th’offender’s scourge is weighed, But never the offence. To bear all smooth and even, This sudden sending him away must seem Deliberate pause. Diseases desperate grown By desperate appliance are relieved, Or not at all.
(didascalia)	Enter Rosencrantz
KING CLAUDIUS	How now, what hath befall’n?
ROSENCRANTZ	Where the dead body is bestowed, my lord, We cannot get from him.
KING CLAUDIUS	But where is he?
ROSENCRANTZ	Without, my lord, guarded to know your pleasure.
KING CLAUDIUS	Bring him before us.
ROSENCRANTZ	Ho, Guildenstern! Bring in my lord.
(didascalia)	Enter Prince Hamlet and Guildenstern
KING CLAUDIUS	Now, Hamlet, where’s Polonius?
HAMLET	At supper.
KING CLAUDIUS	At supper? Where?
HAMLET	Not where he eats, but where a is eaten. A certain convocation of politic worms are e’en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet. We fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots. Your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service—two dishes, but to one table. That’s the end.
KING CLAUDIUS	Alas, alas!
HAMLET	A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.
KING CLAUDIUS	What dost thou mean by this?
HAMLET	Nothing but to show you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar. 31
KING CLAUDIUS	Where is Polonius?
HAMLET	In heaven. Send thither to see. If your messenger find him not there, seek him i’th’ other place yourself. But indeed, if you find him not this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby. 36
(didascalia)	KING CLAUDIUS to Rosencrantz Go seek him there.
(didascalia)	HAMLET to Rosencrantz A will stay till ye come.
(didascalia)	Exit Rosencrantz
KING CLAUDIUS	Hamlet, this deed of thine, for thine especial safety— Which we do tender as we dearly grieve For that which thou hast done—must send thee hence With fiery quickness. Therefore prepare thyself. The barque is ready, and the wind at help, Th’associates tend, and everything is bent For England.
HAMLET	For England?
KING CLAUDIUS	Ay, Hamlet.
HAMLET	Good.
KING CLAUDIUS	So is it if thou knew’st our purposes.
HAMLET	I see a cherub that sees them. But come, for England. Farewell, dear mother.
KING CLAUDIUS	Thy loving father, Hamlet.
HAMLET	My mother. Father and mother is man and wife, man and wife is one flesh, and so my mother. Come, for England. Exit
(didascalia)	KING CLAUDIUS to Guildenstern
HAMLET	Follow him at foot. Tempt him with speed aboard. 56 Delay it not. I’ll have him hence tonight. Away, for everything is sealed and done That else leans on th’affair. Pray you, make haste.
(didascalia)	Exit Guildenstern
HAMLET	And, England, if my love thou hold‘st at aught— As my great power thereof may give thee sense, Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red After the Danish sword, and thy free awe Pays homage to us—thou mayst not coldly set Our sovereign process, which imports at full, By letters conjuring to that effect, The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England, For like the hectic in my blood he rages, And thou must cure me. Till I know ’tis done, Howe‘er my haps, my joys were ne’er begun.
(didascalia)	Exit

Atto 4, Scena 4

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Fortinbras with an army over the stage
FORTINBRAS	Go, captain, from me greet the Danish king. Tell him that by his licence Fortinbras Claims the conveyance of a promised march Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous. If that his majesty would aught with us, We shall express our duty in his eye, And let him know so.
CAPTAIN	I will do’t, my lord.
(didascalia)	Exit
FORTINBRAS	Go safely on.
(didascalia)	Exeunt marching

Atto 4, Scena 5

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Queen Gertrude and Horatio
QUEEN GERTRUDE	I will not speak with her.
HORATIO	She is importunate, Indeed distraught. Her mood will needs be pitied.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	What would she have?
HORATIO	She speaks much of her father, says she hears There’s tricks i’th’ world, and hems, and beats her heart, Spurns enviously at straws, speaks things in doubt That carry but half sense. Her speech is nothing, Yet the unshapèd use of it doth move The hearers to collection. They aim at it, And botch the words up fit to their own thoughts, Which, as her winks and nods and gestures yield them, Indeed would make one think there might be thought, Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	’Twere good she were spoken with, for she may strew Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds. Let her come in.
(didascalia)	Horatio withdraws to admit Ophelia
QUEEN GERTRUDE	To my sick soul, as sin’s true nature is, Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss. So full of artless jealousy is guilt, It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.
(didascalia)	Enter Ophelia mad, her hair down, with a lute
OPHELIA	Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark?
QUEEN GERTRUDE	How now, Ophelia?
OPHELIA	(sings) How should I your true love know From another one?— By his cockle hat and staff, And his sandal shoon.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Alas, sweet lady, what imports this song?
OPHELIA	Say you? Nay, pray you, mark. (Sings) He is dead and gone, lady, He is dead and gone. At his head a grass-green turf, At his heels a stone.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Nay, but Ophelia—
OPHELIA	Pray you, mark. (Sings) White his shroud as the mountain snow—
(didascalia)	Enter King Claudius
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Alas, look here, my lord.
OPHELIA	(sings) Larded with sweet flowers, Which bewept to the grave did—not—go With true-love showers.
KING CLAUDIUS	How do ye, pretty lady?
OPHELIA	Well, God’ield you. They say the owl was a baker’s daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be. God be at your table!
KING CLAUDIUS	(to Gertrude) Conceit upon her father.
OPHELIA	Pray you, let’s have no words of this, but when they ask you what it means, say you this. (Sings) Tomorrow is Saint Valentine’s day, All in the morning betime, And I a maid at your window To be your Valentine. Then up he rose, and donned his clothes, And dupped the chamber door; Let in the maid, that out a maid Never departed more.
KING CLAUDIUS	Pretty Ophelia—
OPHELIA	Indeed, la? Without an oath, I’ll make an end on’t. (Sings) By Gis, and by Saint Charity, Alack, and fie for shame! Young men will do’t if they come to‘t, By Cock, they are to blame. Quoth she ‘Before you tumbled me, You promised me to wed.’ So would I ‘a’ done, by yonder sun, An thou hadst not come to my bed.
KING CLAUDIUS	(to Gertrude) How long hath she been thus?
OPHELIA	I hope all will be well. We must be patient. But I cannot choose but weep to think they should lay him i’th’ cold ground. My brother shall know of it. And so I thank you for your good counsel. Come, my coach! Good night, ladies, good night, sweet ladies, good night, good night. Exit
KING CLAUDIUS	(to Horatio) Follow her close. Give her good watch, I pray you.
(didascalia)	Exit Horatio
KING CLAUDIUS	O, this is the poison of deep grief! It springs All from her father’s death. O Gertrude, Gertrude, When sorrows come they come not single spies, But in battalions. First, her father slain; Next, your son gone, and he most violent author Of his own just remove; the people muddied, Thick and unwholesome in their thoughts and whispers For good Polonius’ death; and we have done but greenly In hugger-mugger to inter him; poor Ophelia Divided from herself and her fair judgement, Without the which we are pictures or mere beasts; Last, and as much containing as all these, Her brother is in secret come from France, Feeds on this wonder, keeps himself in clouds, And wants not buzzers to infect his ear With pestilent speeches of his father’s death; Wherein necessity, of matter beggared, Will nothing stick our persons to arraign In ear and ear. O my dear Gertrude, this, Like to a murd’ring-piece, in many places Gives me superfluous death.
(didascalia)	A noise within
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Alack, what noise is this?
KING CLAUDIUS	Where is my Switzers? Let them guard the door.
(didascalia)	Enter a Messenger
KING CLAUDIUS	What is the matter?
MESSENGER	Save yourself, my lord. The ocean, overpeering of his list, Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste Than young Laertes, in a riotous head, O‘erbears your officers. The rabble call him lord, And, as the world were now but to begin, Antiquity forgot, custom not known, The ratifiers and props of every word, They cry ‘Choose we! Laertes shall be king.’ Caps, hands, and tongues applaud it to the clouds, ‘Laertes shall be king, Laertes king.’
QUEEN GERTRUDE	How cheerfully on the false trail they cry!
(didascalia)	A noise within
QUEEN GERTRUDE	O, this is counter, you false Danish dogs!
KING CLAUDIUS	The doors are broke.
(didascalia)	Enter Laertes with his followers at the door
LAERTES	Where is the King?—Sirs, stand you all without.
ALL HIS FOLLOWERS	No, let’s come in.
LAERTES	I pray you, give me leave.
ALL HIS FOLLOWERS	We will, we will.
LAERTES	I thank you. Keep the door.
(didascalia)	exeunt followers
LAERTES	O thou vile king, Give me my father.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Calmly, good Laertes.
LAERTES	That drop of blood that’s calm proclaims me bastard, Cries cuckold to my father, brands the harlot Even here between the chaste unsmirchèd brow Of my true mother.
KING CLAUDIUS	What is the cause, Laertes, That thy rebellion looks so giant-like?— Let him go, Gertrude. Do not fear our person. There’s such divinity doth hedge a king That treason can but peep to what it would, Acts little of his will.—Tell me, Laertes, Why thou art thus incensed.—Let him go, Gertrude.— Speak, man.
LAERTES	Where is my father?
KING CLAUDIUS	Dead.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	(to Laertes) But not by him.
KING CLAUDIUS	Let him demand his fill.
LAERTES	How came he dead? I’ll not be juggled with. To hell, allegiance! Vows to the blackest devil! Conscience and grace to the profoundest pit! I dare damnation. To this point I stand, That both the worlds I give to negligence, Let come what comes. Only I’ll be revenged Most throughly for my father.
KING CLAUDIUS	Who shall stay you?
LAERTES	My will, not all the world; And for my means, I’ll husband them so well They shall go far with little.
KING CLAUDIUS	Good Laertes, If you desire to know the certainty Of your dear father’s death, is’t writ in your revenge That, sweepstake, you will draw both friend and foe, Winner and loser?
LAERTES	None but his enemies.
KING CLAUDIUS	Will you know them then?
LAERTES	To his good friends thus wide I’ll ope my arms, And, like the kind life-rend’ring pelican, Repast them with my blood.
KING CLAUDIUS	Why, now you speak Like a good child and a true gentleman. That I am guiltless of your father’s death, And am most sensibly in grief for it, It shall as level to your judgement pierce As day does to your eye.
(didascalia)	A noise within
VOICES	(within) Let her come in.
LAERTES	How now, what noise is that?
(didascalia)	Enter Ophelia as before
LAERTES	O heat dry up my brains! Tears seven times salt Burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye! By heaven, thy madness shall be paid by weight Till our scale turns the beam. O rose of May, Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia! O heavens, is’t possible a young maid’s wits Should be as mortal as an old man’s life? Nature is fine in love, and where ’tis fine It sends some precious instance of itself After the thing it loves.
OPHELIA	(sings) They bore him barefaced on the bier, Hey non nony, nony, hey nony, And on his grave rained many a tear— Fare you well, my dove.
LAERTES	Hadst thou thy wits and didst persuade revenge, It could not move thus.
OPHELIA	You must sing ‘Down, a-down’, and you, ‘Call him a-down-a’. O, how the wheel becomes it! It is the false steward that stole his master’s daughter. LAERTES This nothing’s more than matter.
OPHELIA	There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance. Pray, love, remember. And there is pansies; that’s for thoughts.
LAERTES	A document in madness—thoughts and remembrance fitted.
OPHELIA	There’s fennel for you, and columbines. There’s rue for you, and here’s some for me. We may call it herb-grace o’ Sundays. O, you must wear your rue with a difference. There’s a daisy. I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died. They say a made a good end. (Sings) For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy.
LAERTES	Thought and affliction, passion, hell itself She turns to favour and to prettiness.
OPHELIA	(sings) And will a not come again, And will a not come again? No, no, he is dead, Go to thy death-bed, He never will come again. His beard as white as snow, All flaxen was his poll. He is gone, he is gone, And we cast away moan. God ‘a’ mercy on his soul. And of all Christian souls, I pray God. God b’wi’ ye.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Ophelia and Gertrude
LAERTES	Do you see this, O God?
KING CLAUDIUS	Laertes, I must commune with your grief, Or you deny me right. Go but apart, Make choice of whom your wisest friends you will, And they shall hear and judge ’twixt you and me. If by direct or by collateral hand They find us touched, we will our kingdom give, Our crown, our life, and all that we call ours, To you in satisfaction. But if not, Be you content to lend your patience to us, And we shall jointly labour with your soul To give it due content.
LAERTES	Let this be so. His means of death, his obscure burial— No trophy, sword, nor hatchment o‘er his bones, No noble rite nor formal ostentation— Cry to be heard, as ’twere from heaven to earth, That I must call’t in question.
KING CLAUDIUS	So you shall; And where th’offence is, let the great axe fall. I pray you go with me.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Atto 4, Scena 6

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Horatio with a Servant
HORATIO	What are they that would speak with me?
SERVANT	Sailors, sir. They say they have letters for you.
HORATIO	Let them come in.
(didascalia)	Exit Servant
HORATIO	I do not know from what part of the world I should be greeted if not from Lord Hamlet.
(didascalia)	Enter Sailors
HORATIO	A SAILOR God bless you, sir.
HORATIO	Let him bless thee too. A SAILOR A shall, sir, an’t please him. There’s a letter for you, sir. It comes from th’ambassador that was bound for England—if your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is.
HORATIO	(reads) ‘Horatio, when thou shalt have overlooked this, give these fellows some means to the King. They have letters for him. Ere we were two days old at sea, a pirate of very warlike appointment gave us chase. Finding ourselves too slow of sail, we put on a compelled valour, and in the grapple I boarded them. On the instant they got clear of our ship, so I alone became their prisoner. They have dealt with me like thieves of mercy; but they knew what they did: I am to do a good turn for them. Let the King have the letters I have sent, and repair thou to me with as much haste as thou wouldst fly death. I have words to speak in thine ear will make thee dumb, yet are they much too light for the bore of the matter. These good fellows will bring thee where I am. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern hold their course for England. Of them I have much to tell thee. Farewell. He that thou knowest thine, Hamlet.’ Come, I will give you way for these your letters, And do’t the speedier that you may direct me To him from whom you brought them. Exeunt

Atto 4, Scena 7

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter King Claudius and Laertes
KING CLAUDIUS	Now must your conscience my acquittance seal, And you must put me in your heart for friend, Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear, That he which hath your noble father slain Pursued my life.
LAERTES	It well appears. But tell me Why you proceeded not against these feats, So crimeful and so capital in nature, As by your safety, wisdom, all things else, You mainly were stirred up.
KING CLAUDIUS	O, for two special reasons, Which may to you perhaps seem much unsinewed, And yet to me they’re strong. The Queen his mother Lives almost by his looks; and for myself— My virtue or my plague, be it either which— She’s so conjunctive to my life and soul That, as the star moves not but in his sphere, I could not but by her. The other motive Why to a public count I might not go Is the great love the general gender bear him, Who, dipping all his faults in their affection, Would, like the spring that turneth wood to stone, Convert his guilts to graces; so that my arrows, Too slightly timbered for so loud a wind, Would have reverted to my bow again, And not where I had aimed them.
LAERTES	And so have I a noble father lost, A sister driven into desp’rate terms, Who has, if praises may go back again, Stood challenger, on mount, of all the age For her perfections. But my revenge will come.
KING CLAUDIUS	Break not your sleeps for that. You must not think That we are made of stuff so flat and dull That we can let our beard be shook with danger, And think it pastime. You shortly shall hear more. I loved your father, and we love ourself. And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine—
(didascalia)	Enter a Messenger with letters
KING CLAUDIUS	How now? What news?
MESSENGER	Letters, my lord, from Hamlet. This to your majesty; this to the Queen.
KING CLAUDIUS	From Hamlet? Who brought them?
MESSENGER	Sailors, my lord, they say. I saw them not. They were given me by Claudio. He received them.
KING CLAUDIUS	Laertes, you shall hear them.—Leave us.
(didascalia)	Exit Messenger
KING CLAUDIUS	(Reads) ‘High and mighty, you shall know I am set naked on your kingdom. Tomorrow shall I beg leave to see your kingly eyes, when I shall, first asking your pardon, thereunto recount th’occasions of my sudden and more strange return. Hamlet.’ What should this mean? Are all the rest come back? Or is it some abuse, and no such thing?
LAERTES	Know you the hand?
KING CLAUDIUS	’Tis Hamlet’s character. ‘Naked’—and in a postscript here he says ‘Alone’. Can you advise me?
LAERTES	I’m lost in it, my lord. But let him come. It warms the very sickness in my heart That I shall live and tell him to his teeth, ‘Thus diddest thou’.
KING CLAUDIUS	If it be so, Laertes— As how should it be so, how otherwise?— Will you be ruled by me?
LAERTES	If so you’ll not o’errule me to a peace.
KING CLAUDIUS	To thine own peace. If he be now returned, As checking at his voyage, and that he means No more to undertake it, I will work him To an exploit, now ripe in my device, Under the which he shall not choose but fall; And for his death no wind of blame shall breathe; But even his mother shall uncharge the practice And call it accident. Some two months since Here was a gentleman of Normandy. I’ve seen myself, and served against, the French, And they can well on horseback; but this gallant Had witchcraft in’t. He grew into his seat, And to such wondrous doing brought his horse As had he been incorpsed and demi-natured With the brave beast. So far he passed my thought That I in forgery of shapes and tricks Come short of what he did.
LAERTES	A Norman was’t?
KING CLAUDIUS	A Norman.
LAERTES	Upon my life, Lamord.
KING CLAUDIUS	The very same.
LAERTES	I know him well. He is the brooch indeed, And gem, of all the nation.
KING CLAUDIUS	He made confession of you, And gave you such a masterly report For art and exercise in your defence, And for your rapier most especially, That he cried out ‘twould be a sight indeed If one could match you. Sir, this report of his Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy That he could nothing do but wish and beg Your sudden coming o’er to play with him. Now, out of this—
LAERTES	What out of this, my lord?
KING CLAUDIUS	Laertes, was your father dear to you? Or are you like the painting of a sorrow, A face without a heart?
LAERTES	Why ask you this?
KING CLAUDIUS	Not that I think you did not love your father, But that I know love is begun by time, And that I see, in passages of proof, Time qualifies the spark and fire of it. Hamlet comes back. What would you undertake To show yourself your father’s son in deed More than in words?
LAERTES	To cut his throat i’th’ church.
KING CLAUDIUS	No place indeed should murder sanctuarize. Revenge should have no bounds. But, good Laertes, Will you do this?—keep close within your chamber. Hamlet returned shall know you are come home. We’ll put on those shall praise your excellence, And set a double varnish on the fame The Frenchman gave you; bring you, in fine, together, And wager on your heads. He, being remiss, Most generous, and free from all contriving, Will not peruse the foils; so that with ease, Or with a little shuffling, you may choose A sword unbated, and, in a pass of practice, Requite him for your father.
LAERTES	I will do’t, And for that purpose I’ll anoint my sword. I bought an unction of a mountebank So mortal that, but dip a knife in it, Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare, Collected from all simples that have virtue Under the moon, can save the thing from death That is but scratched withal. I’ll touch my point With this contagion, that if I gall him slightly, It may be death.
KING CLAUDIUS	Let’s further think of this; Weigh what convenience both of time and means May fit us to our shape. If this should fail, And that our drift look through our bad performance, ‘Twere better not essayed. Therefore this project Should have a back or second that might hold If this should blast in proof. Soft, let me see. We’ll make a solemn wager on your cunnings … I ha’t! When in your motion you are hot and dry— As make your bouts more violent to that end— And that he calls for drink, I’ll have prepared him A chalice for the nonce, whereon but sipping, If he by chance escape your venomed stuck, Our purpose may hold there.—
(didascalia)	Enter Queen Gertrude
KING CLAUDIUS	How now, sweet Queen?
QUEEN GERTRUDE	One woe doth tread upon another’s heel, So fast they follow. Your sister’s drowned, Laertes.
LAERTES	Drowned? O, where?
QUEEN GERTRUDE	There is a willow grows aslant a brook That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream. Therewith fantastic garlands did she make Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples, That liberal shepherds give a grosser name, But our cold maids do dead men’s fingers call them. There on the pendent boughs her crownet weeds Clamb’ring to hang, an envious sliver broke, When down the weedy trophies and herself Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide, And mermaid-like a while they bore her up; Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes, As one incapable of her own distress, Or like a creature native and endued Unto that element. But long it could not be Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay To muddy death.
LAERTES	Alas, then is she drowned.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Drowned, drowned.
LAERTES	Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia, And therefore I forbid my tears. But yet It is our trick; nature her custom holds, Let shame say what it will. He weeps When these are gone, The woman will be out. Adieu, my lord. I have a speech of fire that fain would blaze, But that this folly douts it.
(didascalia)	Exit
KING CLAUDIUS	Let’s follow, Gertrude. How much I had to do to calm his rage! Now fear I this will give it start again; Therefore let’s follow.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Atto 5, Scena 1

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter two Clowns carrying a spade and a pickaxe
FIRST CLOWN	Is she to be buried in Christian burial that wilfully seeks her own salvation?
SECOND CLOWN	I tell thee she is, and therefore make her grave straight. The coroner hath sat on her, and finds it Christian burial.
FIRST CLOWN	How can that be unless she drowned herself in her own defence?
SECOND CLOWN	Why, ’tis found so.
FIRST CLOWN	It must be se offendendo, it cannot be else; for here lies the point: if I drown myself wittingly, it argues an act; and an act hath three branches: it is to act, to do, and to perform. Argal she drowned herself wittingly.
SECOND CLOWN	Nay, but hear you, Goodman Delver.
FIRST CLOWN	Give me leave. Here lies the water—good. Here stands the man—good. If the man go to this water and drown himself, it is, will he nill he, he goes. Mark you that. But if the water come to him and drown him, he drowns not himself; argal he that is not guilty of his own death shortens not his own life.
SECOND CLOWN	But is this law?
FIRST CLOWN	Ay, marry, is’t: coroner’s quest law.
SECOND CLOWN	Will you ha’ the truth on’t? If this had not been a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out o’ Christian burial.
FIRST CLOWN	Why, there thou sayst, and the more pity that great folk should have count’nance in this world to drown or hang themselves more than their even Christian. Come, my spade. There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers, and gravemakers; they hold up Adam’s profession.
(didascalia)	First Clown digs
SECOND CLOWN	Was he a gentleman?
FIRST CLOWN	A was the first that ever bore arms.
SECOND CLOWN	Why, he had none.
FIRST CLOWN	What, art a heathen? How dost thou understand the Scripture? The Scripture says Adam digged. Could he dig without arms? I’ll put another question to thee. If thou answerest me not to the purpose, confess thyself—
SECOND CLOWN	Go to.
FIRST CLOWN	What is he that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter?
SECOND CLOWN	The gallows-maker; for that frame outlives a thousand tenants.
FIRST CLOWN	I like thy wit well, in good faith. The gallows does well. But how does it well? It does well to those that do ill. Now thou dost ill to say the gallows is built stronger than the church, argal the gallows may do well to thee. To’t again, come.
SECOND CLOWN	‘Who builds stronger than a mason, a shipwright, or a carpenter?’
FIRST CLOWN	Ay, tell me that, and unyoke.
SECOND CLOWN	Marry, now I can tell.
FIRST CLOWN	To’t.
SECOND CLOWN	Mass, I cannot tell.
(didascalia)	Enter Prince Hamlet and Horatio afar off
FIRST CLOWN	Cudgel thy brains no more about it, for your dull ass will not mend his pace with beating; and when you are asked this question next, say ‘a grave-maker’; the houses that he makes lasts till doomsday. Go, get thee to Johan. Fetch me a stoup of liquor.
(didascalia)	Exit Second Clown
FIRST CLOWN	(Sings) In youth when I did love, did love, Methought it was very sweet To contract-O-the time for-a-my behove, O methought there-a-was nothing-a-meet.
HAMLET	Has this fellow no feeling of his business that a sings at grave-making?
HORATIO	Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness.
HAMLET	‘Tis e’en so; the hand of little employment hath the daintier sense.
FIRST CLOWN	(sings) But age with his stealing steps Hath caught me in his clutch, And hath shipped me intil the land, As if I had never been such.
(didascalia)	He throws up a skull
HAMLET	That skull had a tongue in it and could sing once. How the knave jowls it to th’ ground as if ‘twere Cain’s jawbone, that did the first murder! This might be the pate of a politician which this ass o’er-offices, one that would circumvent God, might it not? HORATIO It might, my lord.
HAMLET	Or of a courtier, which could say ‘Good morrow, sweet lord. How dost thou, good lord?’ This might be my lord such a one, that praised my lord such a one’s horse when a meant to beg it, might it not?
HORATIO	Ay, my lord.
HAMLET	Why, e‘en so, and now my lady Worm’s, chapless, and knocked about the mazard with a sexton’s spade. Here’s fine revolution, an we had the trick to see’t. Did these bones cost no more the breeding but to play at loggats with ’em? Mine ache to think on’t.
FIRST CLOWN	(sings) A pickaxe and a spade, a spade, For and a shrouding-sheet; O, a pit of clay for to be made For such a guest is meet.
(didascalia)	He throws up another skull
HAMLET	There’s another. Why might not that be the skull of a lawyer? Where be his quiddits now, his quillets, his cases, his tenures, and his tricks? Why does he suffer this rude knave now to knock him about the sconce with a dirty shovel, and will not tell him of his action of battery? H‘m! This fellow might be in ’s time a great buyer of land, with his statutes, his recognizances, his fines, his double vouchers, his recoveries. Is this the fine of his fines and the recovery of his recoveries, to have his fine pate full of fine dirt? Will his vouchers vouch him no more of his purchases, and double ones too, than the length and breadth of a pair of indentures? The very conveyances of his lands will hardly lie in this box; and must th’inheritor himself have no more, ha?
HORATIO	Not a jot more, my lord.
HAMLET	Is not parchment made of sheepskins?
HORATIO	Ay, my lord, and of calf-skins too.
HAMLET	They are sheep and calves that seek out assurance in that. I will speak to this fellow. (To the First Clown) Whose grave’s this, sirrah?
FIRST CLOWN	Mine, sir. (Sings) O, a pit of clay for to be made For such a guest is meet.
HAMLET	I think it be thine indeed, for thou liest in’t.
FIRST CLOWN	You lie out on‘t, sir, and therefore it is not yours. For my part, I do not lie in’t, and yet it is mine.
HAMLET	Thou dost lie in‘t, to be in’t and say ’tis thine. ’Tis for the dead, not for the quick; therefore thou liest.
FIRST CLOWN	‘Tis a quick lie, sir, ’twill away again from me to you.
HAMLET	What man dost thou dig it for?
FIRST CLOWN	For no man, sir.
HAMLET	What woman, then?
FIRST CLOWN	For none, neither.
HAMLET	Who is to be buried in’t?
FIRST CLOWN	One that was a woman, sir; but, rest her soul, she’s dead.
HAMLET	How absolute the knave is! We must speak by the card, or equivocation will undo us. By the Lord, Horatio, these three years I have taken note of it. The age is grown so picked that the toe of the peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier he galls his kibe. (To the First Clown) How long hast thou been a grave-maker?
FIRST CLOWN	Of all the days i‘th’ year I came to’t that day that our last King Hamlet o’ercame Fortinbras.
HAMLET	How long is that since?
FIRST CLOWN	Cannot you tell that? Every fool can tell that. It was the very day that young Hamlet was born—he that was mad and sent into England.
HAMLET	Ay, marry, why was he sent into England?
FIRST CLOWN	Why, because a was mad. A shall recover his wits there; or if a do not, ’tis no great matter there.
HAMLET	Why?
FIRST CLOWN	’Twill not be seen in him there. There the men are as mad as he.
HAMLET	How came he mad?
FIRST CLOWN	Very strangely, they say.
HAMLET	How strangely?
FIRST CLOWN	Faith, e’en with losing his wits.
HAMLET	Upon what ground?
FIRST CLOWN	Why, here in Denmark. I have been sexton here, man and boy, thirty years.
HAMLET	How long will a man lie i’th’ earth ere he rot?
FIRST CLOWN	I’faith, if a be not rotten before a die—as we have many pocky corpses nowadays, that will scarce hold the laying in—a will last you some eight year or nine year. A tanner will last you nine year.
HAMLET	Why he more than another?
FIRST CLOWN	Why, sir, his hide is so tanned with his trade that a will keep out water a great while, and your water is a sore decayer of your whoreson dead body. Here’s a skull, now. This skull has lain in the earth three-and-twenty years.
HAMLET	Whose was it?
FIRST CLOWN	A whoreson mad fellow’s it was. Whose do you think it was?
HAMLET	Nay, I know not.
FIRST CLOWN	A pestilence on him for a mad rogue—a poured a flagon of Rhenish on my head once! This same skull, sir, was Yorick’s skull, the King’s jester.
HAMLET	This?
FIRST CLOWN	E’en that.
HAMLET	Let me see. He takes the skull Alas, poor Yorick. I knew him, Horatio—a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred my imagination is! My gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now, your gambols, your songs, your flashes of merriment that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now to mock your own grinning? Quite chop-fallen? Now get you to my lady’s chamber and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come. Make her laugh at that. Prithee, Horatio, tell me one thing.
HORATIO	What’s that, my lord?
HAMLET	Dost thou think Alexander looked o’ this fashion i’th’ earth?
HORATIO	E’en so.
HAMLET	And smelt so? Pah!
(didascalia)	He throws the skull down
HORATIO	E’en so, my lord.
HAMLET	To what base uses we may return, Horatio! Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander till a find it stopping a bung-hole?
HORATIO	’Twere to consider too curiously to consider so.
HAMLET	No, faith, not a jot; but to follow him thither with modesty enough, and likelihood to lead it, as thus: Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth into dust, the dust is earth, of earth we make loam, and why of that loam whereto he was converted might they not stop a beer-barrel? Imperial Caesar, dead and turned to clay, Might stop a hole to keep the wind away. O, that that earth which kept the world in awe Should patch a wall t’expel the winter’s flaw! But soft, but soft; aside. Hamlet and Horatio stand aside. Enter King Claudius, Queen Gertrude, Laertes, and a coffin, with a Priest and lords attendant Here comes the King, The Queen, the courtiers—who is that they follow, And with such maimed rites? This doth betoken The corpse they follow did with desp‘rate hand Fordo it own life. ’Twas of some estate. Couch we a while, and mark.
LAERTES	What ceremony else?
HAMLET	(aside to Horatio) That is Laertes, a very noble youth. Mark.
LAERTES	What ceremony else?
PRIEST	Her obsequies have been as far enlarged As we have warrantise. Her death was doubtful, And but that great command o’ersways the order She should in ground unsanctified have lodged Till the last trumpet. For charitable prayers, Shards, flints, and pebbles should be thrown on her, Yet here she is allowed her virgin rites, Her maiden strewments, and the bringing home Of bell and burial.
LAERTES	Must there no more be done?
PRIEST	No more be done. We should profane the service of the dead To sing sage requiem and such rest to her As to peace-parted souls.
LAERTES	Lay her i’th’ earth, And from her fair and unpolluted flesh May violets spring. I tell thee, churlish priest, A minist’ring angel shall my sister be When thou liest howling.
HAMLET	(aside) What, the fair Ophelia!
QUEEN GERTRUDE	(scattering flowers) Sweets to the sweet. Farewell. I hoped thou shouldst have been my Hamlet’s wife. I thought thy bride-bed to have decked, sweet maid, And not t’have strewed thy grave.
LAERTES	O, treble woe Fall ten times treble on that cursed head Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense Deprived thee of!—Hold off the earth a while, Till I have caught her once more in mine arms. He leaps into the grave Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead Till of this flat a mountain you have made To o’ertop old Pelion, or the skyish head Of blue Olympus.
HAMLET	(coming forward) What is he whose grief Bears such an emphasis, whose phrase of sorrow Conjures the wand’ring stars and makes them stand Like wonder-wounded hearers? This is I, Hamlet the Dane.
(didascalia)	Hamlet leaps in after Laertes
LAERTES	The devil take thy soul.
HAMLET	Thou pray’st not well. I prithee take thy fingers from my throat, For though I am not splenative and rash, Yet have I something in me dangerous, Which let thy wiseness fear. Away thy hand.
KING CLAUDIUS	(to Lords) Pluck them asunder.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Hamlet, Hamlet!
(didascalia)	ALL THE LORDS
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Gentlemen!
HORATIO	(to Hamlet) Good my lord, be quiet.
HAMLET	Why, I will fight with him upon this theme Until my eyelids will no longer wag.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	O my son, what theme?
HAMLET	I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers Could not, with all their quantity of love, Make up my sum.—What wilt thou do for her?
KING CLAUDIUS	O, he is mad, Laertes.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	(to Laertes) For love of God, forbear him.
HAMLET	(to Laertes) ‘Swounds, show me what thou’lt do. Woot weep, woot fight, woot fast, woot tear thyself, Woot drink up eisel, eat a crocodile? I’ll do’t. Dost thou come here to whine, To outface me with leaping in her grave? Be buried quick with her, and so will I. And if thou prate of mountains, let them throw Millions of acres on us, till our ground, Singeing his pate against the burning zone, Make Ossa like a wart. Nay, an thou’lt mouth, I’ll rant as well as thou.
(didascalia)	KING CLAUDIUS to Laertes This is mere madness,
HAMLET	And thus a while the fit will work on him. Anon, as patient as the female dove When that her golden couplets are disclosed, His silence will sit drooping.
HAMLET	(to Laertes) Hear you, sir, What is the reason that you use me thus? I loved you ever. But it is no matter. Let Hercules himself do what he may, The cat will mew, and dog will have his day. Exit
KING CLAUDIUS	I pray you, good Horatio, wait upon him. Exit Horatio (To Laertes).Strengthen your patience in our last night’s speech. We’ll put the matter to the present push.— Good Gertrude, set some watch over your son.— This grave shall have a living monument. An hour of quiet shortly shall we see; Till then, in patience our proceeding be.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Atto 5, Scena 2

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Prince Hamlet and Horatio
HAMLET	So much for this, sir. Now, let me see, the other. You do remember all the circumstance?
HORATIO	Remember it, my lord!
HAMLET	Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting That would not let me sleep. Methought I lay Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly— And praised be rashness for it: let us know Our indiscretion sometime serves us well When our dear plots do pall, and that should teach us There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will—
HORATIO	That is most certain.
HAMLET	Up from my cabin, My sea-gown scarfed about me in the dark, Groped I to find out them, had my desire, Fingered their packet, and in fine withdrew To mine own room again, making so bold, My fears forgetting manners, to unseal Their grand commission; where I found, Horatio— O royal knavery!—an exact command, Larded with many several sorts of reasons Importing Denmark’s health, and England’s, too, With ho! such bugs and goblins in my life, That on the supervise, no leisure bated, No, not to stay the grinding of the axe, My head should be struck off.
HORATIO	Is’t possible?
HAMLET	(giving it to him) Here’s the commission. Read it at more leisure. But wilt thou hear me how I did proceed?
HORATIO	I beseech you.
HAMLET	Being thus benetted round with villainies— Ere I could make a prologue to my brains, They had begun the play—sat me down, Devised a new commission, wrote it fair. I once did hold it, as our statists do, A baseness to write fair, and laboured much How to forget that learning; but, sir, now It did me yeoman’s service. Wilt thou know Th’effect of what I wrote?
HORATIO	Ay, good my lord.
HAMLET	An earnest conjuration from the King, As England was his faithful tributary, As love between them like the palm should flourish, As peace should still her wheaten garland wear And stand a comma ‘tween their amities, And many such like ‘as’es of great charge, That on the view and know of these contents, Without debatement further more or less, He should the bearers put to sudden death, Not shriving-time allowed.
HORATIO	How was this sealed?
HAMLET	Why, even in that was heaven ordinant. I had my father’s signet in my purse, Which was the model of that Danish seal; Folded the writ up in the form of th‘other, Subscribed it, gave’t th’impression, placed it safely, The changeling never known. Now the next day Was our sea-fight; and what to this was sequent Thou know’st already.
HORATIO	So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to’t.
HAMLET	Why, man, they did make love to this employment. They are not near my conscience. Their defeat Doth by their own insinuation grow. ’Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes Between the pass and fell incensed points Of mighty opposites.
HORATIO	Why, what a king is this!
HAMLET	Does it not, think‘st thee, stand me now upon— He that hath killed my king and whored my mother, Popped in between th’election and my hopes, Thrown out his angle for my proper life, And with such coz’nage—is’t not perfect conscience To quit him with this arm? And is’t not to be damned To let this canker of our nature come In further evil?
HORATIO	It must be shortly known to him from England What is the issue of the business there.
HAMLET	It will be short. The interim’s mine, And a man’s life’s no more than to say ‘one’. But I am very sorry, good Horatio, That to Laertes I forgot myself; For by the image of my cause I see The portraiture of his. I’ll court his favours. But sure, the bravery of his grief did put me Into a tow’ring passion.
HORATIO	Peace, who comes here?
(didascalia)	Enter young Osric, a courtier, taking off his hat
OSRIC	Your lordship is right welcome back to Denmark.
HAMLET	I humbly thank you, sir. (To Horatio) Dost know this water-fly?
HORATIO	No, my good lord.
HAMLET	Thy state is the more gracious, for ‘tis a vice to know him. He hath much land, and fertile. Let a beast be lord of beasts, and his crib shall stand at the king’s mess. ’Tis a chuff, but, as I say, spacious in the possession of dirt.
OSRIC	Sweet lord, if your friendship were at leisure I should impart a thing to you from his majesty.
HAMLET	I will receive it, sir, with all diligence of spirit. Put your bonnet to his right use; ’tis for the head.
OSRIC	I thank your lordship, ’tis very hot.
HAMLET	No, believe me, ’tis very cold. The wind is northerly.
OSRIC	It is indifferent cold, my lord, indeed.
HAMLET	Methinks it is very sultry and hot for my complexion.
OSRIC	Exceedingly, my lord. It is very sultry, as ’twere—I cannot tell how. But, my lord, his majesty bade me signify to you that a has laid a great wager on your head. Sir, this is the matter.
HAMLET	I beseech you, remember.
OSRIC	Nay, good my lord, for mine ease, in good faith. Sir, you are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is at his weapon.
HAMLET	What’s his weapon?
OSRIC	Rapier and dagger.
HAMLET	That’s two of his weapons. But well.
OSRIC	The King, sir, hath wagered with him six Barbary horses, against the which he imponed, as I take it, six French rapiers and poniards, with their assigns as girdle, hanger, or so. Three of the carriages, in faith, are very dear to fancy, very responsive to the hilts, most delicate carriages, and of very liberal conceit.
HAMLET	What call you the carriages?
OSRIC	The carriages, sir, are the hangers.
HAMLET	The phrase would be more germane to the matter if we could carry cannon by our sides. I would it might be hangers till then. But on: six Barbary horses against six French swords, their assigns, and three liberal-conceited carriages—that’s the French bet against the Danish. Why is this ‘imponed’, as you call it?
OSRIC	The King, sir, hath laid, sir, that in a dozen passes between you and him he shall not exceed you three hits. He hath on’t twelve for nine, and it would come to immediate trial if your lordship would vouchsafe the answer.
HAMLET	How if I answer no?
OSRIC	I mean, my lord, the opposition of your person in trial.
HAMLET	Sir, I will walk here in the hall. If it please his majesty, ‘tis the breathing time of day with me. Let the foils be brought; the gentleman willing, an the King hold his purpose, I will win for him an I can. If not, I’ll gain nothing but my shame and the odd hits. OSRIC Shall I re-deliver you e’en so?
HAMLET	To this effect, sir; after what flourish your nature will.
OSRIC	I commend my duty to your lordship.
HAMLET	Yours, yours.
(didascalia)	Exit Osric
HAMLET	He does well to commend it himself; there are no tongues else for ’s turn.
HORATIO	This lapwing runs away with the shell on his head.
HAMLET	A did comply with his dug before a sucked it. Thus has he—and many more of the same bevy that I know the drossy age dotes on—only got the tune of the time and outward habit of encounter, a kind of yeasty collection which carries them through and through the most fanned and winnowed opinions; and do but blow them to their trial, the bubbles are out.
HORATIO	You will lose this wager, my lord.
HAMLET	I do not think so. Since he went into France, I have been in continual practice. I shall win at the odds. But thou wouldst not think how all here about my heart—but it is no matter.
HORATIO	Nay, good my lord—
HAMLET	It is but foolery, but it is such a kind of gain-giving as would perhaps trouble a woman.
HORATIO	If your mind dislike anything, obey it. I will forestall their repair hither, and say you are not fit.
HAMLET	Not a whit. We defy augury. There’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ’tis not to come. If it be not to come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all. Since no man has aught of what he leaves, what is’t to leave betimes?
(didascalia)	Enter King Claudius, Queen Gertrude, Laertes, and
HAMLET	lords, with Osric and other attendants with
(didascalia)	trumpets, drums, cushions, foils, and gauntlets; a
HAMLET	table, and flagons of wine on it
KING CLAUDIUS	Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me.
HAMLET	(to Laertes) Give me your pardon, sir. I’ve done you wrong; But pardon’t as you are a gentleman. This presence knows, And you must needs have heard, how I am punished With sore distraction. What I have done That might your nature, honour, and exception Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness. Was’t Hamlet wronged Laertes? Never Hamlet. If Hamlet from himself be ta‘en away, And when he’s not himself does wrong Laertes, Then Hamlet does it not, Hamlet denies it. Who does it then? His madness. If’t be so, Hamlet is of the faction that is wronged. His madness is poor Hamlet’s enemy. Sir, in this audience Let my disclaiming from a purposed evil Free me so far in your most generous thoughts That I have shot mine arrow o’er the house And hurt my brother.
LAERTES	I am satisfied in nature, Whose motive in this case should stir me most To my revenge. But in my terms of honour I stand aloof, and will no reconcilement Till by some elder masters of known honour I have a voice and precedent of peace To keep my name ungored; but till that time I do receive your offered love like love, And will not wrong it.
HAMLET	I do embrace it freely, And will this brothers’ wager frankly play.— (To attendants) Give us the foils. Come on.
LAERTES	(to attendants) Come, one for me.
HAMLET	I’ll be your foil, Laertes. In mine ignorance Your skill shall, like a star i’th’ darkest night, Stick fiery off indeed.
LAERTES	You mock me, sir.
HAMLET	No, by this hand.
KING CLAUDIUS	Give them the foils, young Osric. Cousin Hamlet, You know the wager?
HAMLET	Very well, my lord. Your grace hath laid the odds o’th’ weaker side.
KING CLAUDIUS	I do not fear it; I have seen you both. But since he is bettered, we have therefore odds.
LAERTES	(taking a foil) This is too heavy; let me see another.
HAMLET	(taking a foil) This likes me well. These foils have all a length?
OSRIC	Ay, my good lord. Hamlet and Laertes prepare to play
KING CLAUDIUS	(to attendants) Set me the stoups of wine upon that table. If Hamlet give the first or second hit, Or quit in answer of the third exchange, Let all the battlements their ordnance fire. The King shall drink to Hamlet’s better breath, And in the cup an union shall he throw Richer than that which four successive kings In Denmark’s crown have worn. Give me the cups, And let the kettle to the trumpet speak, The trumpet to the cannoneer without, The cannons to the heavens, the heaven to earth, ‘Now the King drinks to Hamlet’.
(didascalia)	Trumpets the while he drinks
KING CLAUDIUS	Come, begin. And you, the judges, bear a wary eye.
HAMLET	(to Laertes) Come on, sir.
LAERTES	Come, my lord. They play
HAMLET	One.
LAERTES	No.
HAMLET	(to Osric) Judgement.
OSRIC	A hit, a very palpable hit.
LAERTES	Well, again.
KING CLAUDIUS	Stay. Give me drink. Hamlet, this pearl is thine. Here’s to thy health.—
(didascalia)	Drum and trumpets sound, and shot goes off Give him the cup.
HAMLET	I’ll play this bout first. Set it by a while.— Come. They play again Another hit. What say you?
LAERTES	A touch, a touch, I do confess.
KING CLAUDIUS	Our son shall win.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	He’s fat and scant of breath.— Here, Hamlet, take my napkin. Rub thy brows. The Queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet.
HAMLET	Good madam.
KING CLAUDIUS	Gertrude, do not drink.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	I will, my lord, I pray you pardon me. She drinks, then offers the cup to Hamlet
KING CLAUDIUS	(aside) It is the poisoned cup; it is too late.
HAMLET	I dare not drink yet, madam; by and by.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	(to Hamlet) Come, let me wipe thy face.
LAERTES	(aside to Claudius) My lord, I’ll hit him now.
KING CLAUDIUS	(aside to Laertes) I do not think’t.
LAERTES	(aside) And yet ‘tis almost ’gainst my conscience.
HAMLET	Come for the third, Laertes, you but dally. I pray you pass with your best violence. I am afeard you make a wanton of me.
LAERTES	Say you so? Come on. They play
OSRIC	Nothing neither way.
LAERTES	(to Hamlet) Have at you now!
(didascalia)	Laertes wounds Hamlet. In scuffling, they change
(didascalia)	rapiers, and Hamlet wounds Laertes
KING CLAUDIUS	(to attendants) Part them, they are incensed.
HAMLET	(to Laertes) Nay, come again.
(didascalia)	The Queen falls down
OSRIC	Look to the Queen there, ho!
HORATIO	They bleed on both sides. (To Hamlet) How is’t, my lord?
OSRIC	How is’t, Laertes?
LAERTES	Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, Osric. I am justly killed with mine own treachery.
HAMLET	How does the Queen?
KING CLAUDIUS	She swoons to see them bleed.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	No, no, the drink, the drink! O my dear Hamlet,
(didascalia)	The drink, the drink—I am poisoned. She dies
(didascalia)	O villainy! Ho! Let the door be locked! Exit Osric
HAMLET	Treachery, seek it out.
LAERTES	It is here, Hamlet. Hamlet, thou art slain. No med’cine in the world can do thee good. In thee there is not half an hour of life. The treacherous instrument is in thy hand, Unbated and envenomed. The foul practice Hath turned itself on me. Lo, here I lie, Never to rise again. Thy mother’s poisoned. I can no more. The King, the King’s to blame.
HAMLET	The point envenomed too? Then, venom, to thy work. He hurts King Claudius
ALL THE COURTIERS	Treason, treason!
KING CLAUDIUS	O yet defend me, friends! I am but hurt.
HAMLET	Here, thou incestuous, murd’rous, damned Dane, Drink off this potion. Is thy union here? Follow my mother. King Claudius dies
LAERTES	He is justly served. It is a poison tempered by himself. Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet. Mine and my father’s death come not upon thee, Nor thine on me. He dies
HAMLET	Heaven make thee free of it! I follow thee. I am dead, Horatio. Wretched Queen, adieu! You that look pale and tremble at this chance, That are but mutes or audience to this act, Had I but time—as this fell sergeant Death Is strict in his arrest—O, I could tell you— But let it be. Horatio, I am dead, Thou liv’st. Report me and my cause aright To the unsatisfied.
HORATIO	Never believe it. I am more an antique Roman than a Dane. Here’s yet some liquor left.
HAMLET	As thou’rt a man, Give me the cup. Let go. By heaven, I’ll ha’t. O God, Horatio, what a wounded name, Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me! If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart, Absent thee from felicity a while, And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain To tell my story. March afar off, and shout within What warlike noise is this?
(didascalia)	Enter Osric
OSRIC	Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland, To th’ambassadors of England gives This warlike volley.
HAMLET	O, I die, Horatio! The potent poison quite o‘ercrows my spirit. I cannot live to hear the news from England, But I do prophesy th’election lights On Fortinbras. He has my dying voice. So tell him, with th’occurrents, more and less, Which have solicited. The rest is silence. O, O, O, O! He dies
HORATIO	Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince, And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.— Why does the drum come hither?
(didascalia)	Enter Fortinbras with the English Ambassadors, with a drummer, colours, and attendants
FORTINBRAS	Where is this sight?
HORATIO	What is it ye would see? If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search.
FORTINBRAS	This quarry cries on havoc. O proud death, What feast is toward in thine eternal cell That thou so many princes at a shot So bloodily hast struck!
AMBASSADOR	The sight is dismal, And our affairs from England come too late. The ears are senseless that should give us hearing To tell him his commandment is fulfilled, That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. Where should we have our thanks?
HORATIO	Not from his mouth, Had it th‘ability of life to thank you. He never gave commandment for their death. But since so jump upon this bloody question You from the Polack wars, and you from England, Are here arrived, give order that these bodies High on a stage be placed to the view; And let me speak to th’ yet unknowing world How these things came about. So shall you hear Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts, Of accidental judgements, casual slaughters, Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause; And, in this upshot, purposes mistook Fall’n on th’inventors’ heads. All this can I Truly deliver.
FORTINBRAS	Let us haste to hear it, And call the noblest to the audience. For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune. I have some rights of memory in this kingdom, Which now to claim my vantage doth invite me.
HORATIO	Of that I shall have also cause to speak, And from his mouth whose voice will draw on more. But let this same be presently performed, Even whiles men’s minds are wild, lest more mischance On plots and errors happen.
FORTINBRAS	Let four captains Bear Hamlet like a soldier to the stage, For he was likely, had he been put on, To have proved most royally; and for his passage, The soldiers’ music and the rites of war Speak loudly for him. Take up the body. Such a sight as this Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss. Go, bid the soldiers shoot.
(didascalia)	Exeunt, marching, with the bodies; after the which, a peal of ordnance are shot off
ADDITIONAL PASSAGES	A. Just before the second entrance of the Ghost in 1.1 (l. 106.1), Q2 has these additional lines:
BARNARDO	I think it be no other but e’en so. Well may it sort that this portentous figure Comes armed through our watch so like the king That was and is the question of these wars.
HORATIO	A mote it is to trouble the mind’s eye. In the most high and palmy state of Rome, A little ere the mightiest Julius fell, The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets At stars with trains of fire, and dews of blood, Disasters in the sun; and the moist star, Upon whose influence Neptune’s empire stands, Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse. And even the like precurse of feared events, As harbingers preceding still the fates, And prologue to the omen coming on, Have heaven and earth together demonstrated Unto our climature and countrymen. B. Just before the entrance of the Ghost in 1.4 (l. 18.1), Q2 has these additional lines continuing Hamlet’s speech: This heavy-headed revel east and west Makes us traduced and taxed of other nations. They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase Soil our addition; and indeed it takes From our achievements, though performed at height, So, oft it chances in particular men That, for some vicious mole of nature in them— As in their birth, wherein they are not guilty, Since nature cannot choose his origin, By the o‘ergrowth of some complexion, Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason, Or by some habit that too much o’erleavens The form of plausive manners—that these men, Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect, Being nature’s livery or fortune’s star, His virtues else be they as pure as grace, As infinite as man may undergo, Shall in the general censure take corruption From that particular fault. The dram of evil Doth all the noble substance over-daub To his own scandal. C. After 1.4.55, Q2 has these additional lines continuing Horatio’s speech: The very place puts toys of desperation, Without more motive, into every brain That looks so many fathoms to the sea And hears it roar beneath. D. After 3.2.163, Q2 has this additional couplet concluding the Player Queen’s speech: Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear; Where little fears grow great, great love grows there. E. After 3.2.208, Q2 has this additional couplet in the middle of the Player Queen’s speech: To desperation turn my trust and hope; An anchor’s cheer in prison be my scope. F. After ‘this?’ in 3.4.70, Q2 has this more expansive version of Hamlet’s lines of which F retains only ‘what devil … blind’: Sense sure you have, Else could you not have motion; but sure that sense Is apoplexed, for madness would not err, Nor sense to ecstasy was ne’er so thralled But it reserved some quantity of choice To serve in such a difference. What devil was’t That thus hath cozened you at hoodman-blind? Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight, Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all, Or but a sickly part of one true sense Could not so mope. G. After 3.4.151, Q2 has this more expansive version of Hamlet’s lines of which F retains only ‘refrain … abstinence’: That monster custom, who all sense doth eat, Of habits devilish, is angel yet in this: That to the use of actions fair and good He likewise gives a frock or livery That aptly is put on. 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 in the devil, or throw him out With wondrous potency. H. At 3.4.185, Q2 has these additional lines before ‘This man …’:
HAMLET	There’s letters sealed, and my two schoolfellows— Whom I will trust as I will adders fanged— They bear the mandate, they must sweep my way And marshal me to knavery. Let it work, For ‘tis the sport to have the engineer Hoised 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. 1. After ‘done’ in 4.1.39, Q2 has these additional lines continuing the King’s speech (the first three words are an editorial conjecture): So envious slander, 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. J. Q2 has this more expansive version of the ending of 4.4:
CAPTAIN	I will do’t, my lord.
FORTINBRAS	Go softly on.
(didascalia)	Exit with his army
(didascalia)	Enter Prince Hamlet, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, etc.
HAMLET	(to the Captain) Good sir, whose powers are these?
CAPTAIN	They are of Norway, sir.
HAMLET	How purposed, sir, I pray you?
CAPTAIN	Against some part of Poland.
HAMLET	Who commands them, sir?
CAPTAIN	The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras.
HAMLET	Goes it against the main of Poland, sir, Or for some frontier?
CAPTAIN	Truly to speak, and with no addition, We go to gain a little patch of ground That hath in it no profit but the name. To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it, Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee.
HAMLET	Why then, the Polack never will defend it.
CAPTAIN	Yes, it is already garrisoned.
HAMLET	Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats Will now debate the question of this straw. This is th’imposthume of much wealth and peace, That inward breaks and shows no cause without Why the man dies. I humbly thank you, sir.
CAPTAIN	God buy you, sir. Exit
ROSENCRANTZ	Will’t please you go, my lord?
HAMLET	I’ll be with you straight. Go a little before.
(didascalia)	Exeunt all but Hamlet
HAMLET	How all occasions do inform against me And spur my dull revenge! What is a man If his chief good and market of his time Be but to sleep and feed?—a beast, no more. Sure, he that made us with such large discourse, Looking before and after, gave us not That capability and god-like reason To fust in us unused. Now whether it be Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple Of thinking too precisely on th‘event— A thought which, quartered, hath but one part wisdom And ever three parts coward—I do not know Why yet I live to say ‘This thing’s to do’, Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means, To do’t. Examples gross as earth exhort me, Witness this army of such mass and charge, Led by a delicate and tender prince, Whose spirit with divine ambition puffed Makes mouths at the invisible event, Exposing what is mortal and unsure To all that fortune, death, and danger dare, Even for an eggshell. Rightly to be great Is not to stir without great argument, But greatly to find quarrel in a straw When honour’s at the stake. How stand I, then, That have a father killed, a mother stained, Excitements of my reason and my blood, And let all sleep while, to my shame, I see The imminent death of twenty thousand men That, for a fantasy and trick of fame, Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause, Which is not tomb enough and continent To hide the slain. O, from this time forth My thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth!
(didascalia)	Exit
HAMLET	K. After ‘accident’ at 4.7.67, Q2 has these additional lines:
LAERTES	My lord, I will be ruled, The rather if you could devise it so That I might be the organ.
KING CLAUDIUS	It falls right. You have been talked of, since your travel, much, And that in Hamlet’s hearing, for a quality Wherein they say you shine. Your sum of parts Did not together pluck such envy from him As did that one, and that, in my regard, Of the unworthiest siege.
LAERTES	What part is that, my lord?
KING CLAUDIUS	A very ribbon in the cap of youth, Yet needful too, for youth no less becomes The light and careless livery that it wears Than settled age his sables and his weeds Importing health and graveness. L. After ‘match you’ at 4.7.85, Q2 has these additional lines continuing the King’s speech: Th’escrimers of their nation He swore had neither motion, guard, nor eye If you opposed them. M. After 4.7.96, Q2 has these additional lines continuing the King’s speech: There lives within the very flame of love A kind of wick or snuff that will abate it, And nothing is at a like goodness still, For goodness, growing to a plurisy,
(didascalia)	Dies in his own too much. That we would do
KING CLAUDIUS	We should do when we would, for this ‘would’ changes, And hath abatements and delays as many As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents; And then this ‘should’ is like a spendthrift’s sigh, That hurts by easing. But to the quick of th’ulcer— N. After ‘Sir’ at 5.2.107, Q2 has these lines (in place of F’s ‘you are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is at his weapon’): here is newly come to court Laertes, believe me, an absolute gentleman, full of most excellent differences, of very soft society and great showing. Indeed, to speak feelingly of him, he is the card or calendar of gentry, for you shall find in him the continent of what part a gentleman would see.
HAMLET	Sir, his definement suffers no perdition in you, though I know to divide him inventorially would dizzy th’arithmetic of memory, and yet but yaw neither in respect of his quick sail. But in the verity of extolment, I take him to be a soul of great article, and his infusion of such dearth and rareness as, to make true diction of him, his semblable is his mirror, and who else would trace him his umbrage, nothing more.
OSRIC	Your lordship speaks most infallibly of him.
HAMLET	The concernancy, sir? Why do we wrap the gentleman in our more rawer breath?
OSRIC	Sir?
HORATIO	Is’t not possible to understand in another tongue? You will to’t, sir, rarely.
HAMLET	What imports the nomination of this gentleman? OSRIC Of Laertes?
HORATIO	(aside to Hamlet) His purse is empty already; all ’s golden words are spent.
HAMLET	(to Osric) Of him, sir.
OSRIC	I know you are not ignorant—
HAMLET	I would you did, sir; yet, in faith, if you did it would not much approve me. Well, sir?
OSRIC	You are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is.
HAMLET	I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with him in excellence. But to know a man well were to know himself.
OSRIC	I mean, sir, for his weapon. But in the imputation laid on him by them, in his meed he’s unfellowed. O. After 5.2.118, Q2 has the following additional speech:
HORATIO	(aside to Hamlet) I knew you must be edified by the margin ere you had done. P. After 5.2.154, Q2 has the following (in place of F’s ‘HORATIO You will lose this wager, my lord’):
(didascalia)	Enter a Lord
LORD	(to Hamlet) My lord, his majesty commended him to you by young Osric, who brings back to him that you attend him in the hall. He sends to know if your pleasure hold to play with Laertes, or that you will take longer time.
HAMLET	I am constant to my purposes; they follow the King’s pleasure. If his fitness speaks, mine is ready, now or whensoever, provided I be so able as now.
LORD	The King and Queen and all are coming down.
HAMLET	In happy time.
LORD	The Queen desires you to use some gentle entertainment to Laertes before you fall to play.
HAMLET	She well instructs me. Exit Lord
HORATIO	You will lose, my lord.
TWELFTH	NIGHT, the end of the Christmas season, was traditionally a time of revelry and topsy-turvydom; Shakespeare’s title for a play in which a servant aspires to his mistress’s hand has no more specific reference. It was thought appropriate to the festive occasion of Candlemas (2 February) 1602 when, in the first known allusion to it, John Manningham, a law student of the Middle Temple in London, noted ‘at our feast we had a play called Twelfth Night, or What You Will’. References to ‘the Sophy’—the Shah of Persia (2.5.174; 3.4.271)—probably post-date Sir Robert Shirley’s return from Persia, in a ship named The Sophy, in 1599; and ‘the new map with the augmentation of the Indies’ (3.2.75) appears to be one published in 1599 and reissued in 1600. Shakespeare may have picked up the name Orsino for his young duke from a Tuscan nobleman whom Queen Elizabeth entertained at Whitehall with a play performed by Shakespeare’s company on Twelfth Night 1601. Probably he wrote Twelfth Night during that year. Twelfth Night’s romantic setting is Illyria, the Greek and Roman name for Adriatic territory roughly corresponding to the former Yugoslavia. Manningham had noted that the play was ‘much like The Comedy of Errors or Menaechmi in Plautus’, thinking no doubt of the confusions created by identical twins. Shakespeare may also have known an anonymous Italian comedy, GI’Ingannati (The Deceived Ones), acted in 1531 and first printed in 1537, which influenced a number of other plays and prose tales including Barnaby Riche’s story of Apolonius and Silla printed as part of Riche’s Farewell to Military Profession (1581). Riche gave Shakespeare his main plot of a shipwrecked girl (Viola) who, disguised as a boy (Cesario), serves a young Duke (Orsino) and undertakes love-errands on his behalf to a noble lady (Olivia) who falls in love with her but mistakenly marries her twin brother (Sebastian). Shakespeare idealizes Riche’s characters and purges the story of some of its explicit sexuality: Riche’s Olivia, for example, is pregnant before marriage, and his Viola reveals her identity, in a manner impractical for a boy actor, by stripping to the waist. Shakespeare complicates the plot by giving Olivia a reprobate uncle, Sir Toby Belch, and two additional suitors, the asinine Sir Andrew Aguecheek and her steward, Malvolio, tricked by members of her household into believing that she loves him. More important to the play than to the plot is the entirely Shakespearian clown, Feste, a wry and oblique commentator whose wit in folly is opposed to Malvolio’s folly in wit. Twelfth Night is the consummation of Shakespeare’s romantic comedy, a play of wide emotional range, extending from the robust, brilliantly orchestrated humour of the scene of midnight revelry (2.2) to the rapt wonder of the antiphon of recognition (5.1.224-56) between the reunited twins. In performance the balance shifts, favouring sometimes the exposure and celebration of folly, at other times the poignancy of unattained love and of unheeded wisdom; but few other plays have so consistently provided theatrical pleasure of so high an order.
THE PERSONS OF THE	PLAY ORSINO, Duke of Illyria
SECOND OFFICER	VIOLA, a lady, later disguised as Cesario A CAPTAIN SEBASTIAN, her twin brother ANTONIO, another sea-captain OLIVIA, a Countess MARIA, her waiting-gentlewoman
SIR TOBY	Belch, Olivia’s kinsman
SIR ANDREW	Aguecheek, companion of Sir Toby MALVOLIO, Olivia’s steward FABIAN, a member of Olivia’s household
FESTE	the Clown, her jester A PRIEST A SERVANT of Olivia Musicians, sailors, lords, attendants

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Barnardo and Francisco, two sentinels, at several doors
BARNARDO	Who’s there?
FRANCISCO	Nay, answer me. Stand and unfold yourself.
BARNARDO	Long live the King!
FRANCISCO	Barnardo?
BARNARDO	He.
FRANCISCO	You come most carefully upon your hour.
BARNARDO	’Tis now struck twelve. Get thee to bed, Francisco.
FRANCISCO	For this relief much thanks. ’Tis bitter cold, And I am sick at heart.
BARNARDO	Have you had quiet guard?
FRANCISCO	Not a mouse stirring.
BARNARDO	Well, good night. If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus, The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.
(didascalia)	Enter Horatio and Marcellus
FRANCISCO	I think I hear them.—Stand! Who’s there?
HORATIO	Friends to this ground.
MARCELLUS	And liegemen to the Dane.
FRANCISCO	Give you good night.
MARCELLUS	O farewell, honest soldier. Who hath relieved you?
FRANCISCO	Barnardo has my place. Give you good night. Exit
MARCELLUS	Holla, Barnardo!
BARNARDO	Say—what, is Horatio there?
HORATIO	A piece of him.
BARNARDO	Welcome, Horatio. Welcome, good Marcellus.
MARCELLUS	What, has this thing appeared again tonight?
BARNARDO	I have seen nothing.
MARCELLUS	Horatio says ’tis but our fantasy, And will not let belief take hold of him Touching this dreaded sight twice seen of us. Therefore I have entreated him along With us to watch the minutes of this night, That if again this apparition come He may approve our eyes and speak to it.
HORATIO	Tush, tush, ’twill not appear.
BARNARDO	Sit down a while, And let us once again assail your ears, That are so fortified against our story, What we two nights have seen.
HORATIO	Well, sit we down, And let us hear Barnardo speak of this.
BARNARDO	Last night of all, When yon same star that’s westward from the pole Had made his course t’illume that part of heaven Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself, The bell then beating one––
(didascalia)	Enter the Ghost in complete armour, holding a truncheon, with his beaver up
MARCELLUS	Peace, break thee off. Look where it comes again.
BARNARDO	In the same figure like the King that’s dead.
MARCELLUS	(to Horatio) Thou art a scholar—speak to it, Horatio.
BARNARDO	Looks it not like the King?—Mark it, Horatio.
HORATIO	Most like. It harrows me with fear and wonder.
BARNARDO	It would be spoke to.
MARCELLUS	Question it, Horatio.
HORATIO	(to the Ghost) What art thou that usurp’st this time of night, Together with that fair and warlike form In which the majesty of buried Denmark Did sometimes march? By heaven, I charge thee speak.
MARCELLUS	It is offended.
BARNARDO	See, it stalks away.
HORATIO	(to the Ghost) Stay, speak, speak, I charge thee speak. Exit Ghost
MARCELLUS	’Tis gone, and will not answer.
BARNARDO	How now, Horatio? You tremble and look pale. Is not this something more than fantasy? What think you on’t?
HORATIO	Before my God, I might not this believe Without the sensible and true avouch Of mine own eyes.
MARCELLUS	Is it not like the King?
HORATIO	As thou art to thyself. Such was the very armour he had on When he th‘ambitious Norway combated. So frowned he once when in an angry parley He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice. ’Tis strange.
MARCELLUS	Thus twice before, and just at this dead hour, With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch.
HORATIO	In what particular thought to work I know not, But in the gross and scope of my opinion This bodes some strange eruption to our state.
MARCELLUS	Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that knows, Why this same strict and most observant watch So nightly toils the subject of the land, And why such daily cast of brazen cannon, And foreign mart for implements of war, Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task Does not divide the Sunday from the week: What might be toward that this sweaty haste Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day, Who is’t that can inform me?
HORATIO	That can I— At least the whisper goes so: our last king, Whose image even but now appeared to us, Was as you know by Fortinbras of Norway, Thereto pricked on by a most emulate pride, Dared to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet— For so this side of our known world esteemed him— Did slay this Fortinbras, who by a sealed compact Well ratified by law and heraldry Did forfeit with his life all those his lands Which he stood seized on to the conqueror; Against the which a moiety competent Was gaged by our King, which had returned To the inheritance of Fortinbras Had he been vanquisher, as by the same cov‘nant And carriage of the article designed His fell to Hamlet. Now sir, young Fortinbras, Of unimproved mettle hot and full, Hath in the skirts of Norway here and there Sharked up a list of landless resolutes For food and diet to some enterprise That hath a stomach in’t, which is no other— And it doth well appear unto our state— But to recover of us by strong hand And terms compulsative those foresaid lands So by his father lost. And this, I take it, Is the main motive of our preparations, The source of this our watch, and the chief head Of this post-haste and rummage in the land.
(didascalia)	Enter the Ghost, as before
HORATIO	But soft, behold—lo where it comes again! I’ll cross it though it blast me.—Stay, illusion. The Ghost spreads his arms If thou hast any sound or use of voice, Speak to me. If there be any good thing to be done That may to thee do ease and grace to me, Speak to me. If thou art privy to thy country’s fate Which happily foreknowing may avoid, O speak! Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life Extorted treasure in the womb of earth— For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death— The cock crows Speak of it, stay and speak.—Stop it, Marcellus.
MARCELLUS	Shall I strike at it with my partisan?
HORATIO	Do, if it will not stand.
BARNARDO	’Tis here.
HORATIO	’Tis here.
(didascalia)	Exit Ghost
MARCELLUS	’Tis gone. We do it wrong, being so majestical, To offer it the show of violence, For it is as the air invulnerable, And our vain blows malicious mockery.
BARNARDO	It was about to speak when the cock crew.
HORATIO	And then it started like a guilty thing Upon a fearful summons. I have heard The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn, Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat Awake the god of day, and at his warning, Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, Th’extravagant and erring spirit hies To his confine; and of the truth herein This present object made probation.
MARCELLUS	It faded on the crowing of the cock. Some say that ever ’gainst that season comes Wherein our saviour’s birth is celebrated The bird of dawning singeth all night long; And then, they say, no spirit can walk abroad, The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike, No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, So hallowed and so gracious is the time.
HORATIO	So have I heard, and do in part believe it. But look, the morn in russet mantle clad Walks o’er the dew of yon high eastern hill. Break we our watch up, and by my advice Let us impart what we have seen tonight Unto young Hamlet; for upon my life, This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him. Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it, As needful in our loves, fitting our duty?
MARCELLUS	Let’s do’t, I pray; and I this morning know Where we shall find him most conveniently. Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano Barnardo e Francisco, due sentinelle, da porte diverse
BARNARDO	Chi va là?
FRANCISCO	No, rispondi tu a me. Fermati e dichiara chi sei.
BARNARDO	Lunga vita al Re!
FRANCISCO	Barnardo?
BARNARDO	Lui.
FRANCISCO	Venite puntualissimo alla vostra ora.
BARNARDO	È ora battuta la mezzanotte. Vattene a letto, Francisco.
FRANCISCO	Grazie assai di questo cambio. Fa un freddo pungente, e ho il cuore malato.
BARNARDO	Avete avuto una guardia tranquilla?
FRANCISCO	Non un topo che si muovesse.
BARNARDO	Bene, buona notte. Se incontrate Horatio e Marcellus, i compagni del mio turno, dite loro di far presto.
(didascalia)	Entrano Horatio e Marcellus
FRANCISCO	Mi pare di udirli.—Alt! Chi va là?
HORATIO	Amici di questa terra.
MARCELLUS	E sudditi del Danese.
FRANCISCO	Vi dia Dio la buona notte.
MARCELLUS	Oh addio, onesto soldato. Chi vi ha dato il cambio?
FRANCISCO	Barnardo ha il mio posto. Vi dia Dio la buona notte. Esce
MARCELLUS	Ehilà, Barnardo!
BARNARDO	Di’—come, c’è Horatio lì?
HORATIO	Un pezzo di lui.
BARNARDO	Benvenuto, Horatio. Benvenuto, buon Marcellus.
MARCELLUS	Ebbene, è riapparsa stanotte quella cosa?
BARNARDO	Io non ho visto nulla.
MARCELLUS	Horatio dice che è solo una nostra fantasia, e non lascia che la credenza lo prenda quanto a questa vista terribile da noi due volte veduta. Perciò l’ho pregato di venire con noi a vegliare i minuti di questa notte, perché, se di nuovo viene quest’apparizione, egli confermi i nostri occhi e le parli.
HORATIO	Via, via, non apparirà.
BARNARDO	Sedete un poco, e lasciate che ancora una volta assaliamo i vostri orecchi, così fortificati contro il nostro racconto, con ciò che due notti abbiamo veduto.
HORATIO	Bene, sediamoci, e udiamo Barnardo parlare di questo.
BARNARDO	Proprio la scorsa notte, quando quella stessa stella a occidente del polo aveva compiuto il suo corso a illuminare quella parte di cielo dove ora arde, Marcellus e io, battendo allora la campana l’una––
(didascalia)	Entra lo Spettro in armatura completa, con in mano un bastone di comando, la visiera alzata
MARCELLUS	Taci, interrompiti. Guarda dove torna di nuovo.
BARNARDO	Nella stessa figura, simile al Re che è morto.
MARCELLUS	(a Horatio) Tu sei dotto—parlagli, Horatio.
BARNARDO	Non somiglia al Re?—Osservalo, Horatio.
HORATIO	Somigliantissimo. Mi strazia di paura e di stupore.
BARNARDO	Vorrebbe che gli si parlasse.
MARCELLUS	Interrogalo, Horatio.
HORATIO	(allo Spettro) Chi sei tu che usurpi quest’ora della notte, insieme a quella bella e guerriera forma in cui la maestà della sepolta Danimarca marciava un tempo? In nome del cielo, ti ordino di parlare.
MARCELLUS	È offeso.
BARNARDO	Guarda, se ne va a gran passi.
HORATIO	(allo Spettro) Fermati, parla, parla, ti ordino di parlare. Esce lo Spettro
MARCELLUS	È sparito, e non vuole rispondere.
BARNARDO	Ebbene, Horatio? Tremate e siete pallido. Non è questo qualcosa di più che fantasia? Che ne pensate?
HORATIO	Davanti al mio Dio, non potrei crederlo senza la sensibile e verace testimonianza dei miei stessi occhi.
MARCELLUS	Non somiglia al Re?
HORATIO	Come tu a te stesso. Tale era proprio l’armatura che indossava quando combatté l’ambizioso Norvegese. Così aggrottò la fronte una volta, quando in un adirato colloquio percosse sul ghiaccio i Polacchi in slitta. È strano.
MARCELLUS	Così due volte prima d’ora, e proprio a quest’ora morta, con marziale incedere è passato davanti alla nostra guardia.
HORATIO	In quale particolare pensiero muovermi non so, ma nel complesso e nella portata della mia opinione questo presagisce qualche strana convulsione al nostro stato.
MARCELLUS	Ebbene, sedete, e ditemi, chi lo sa, perché questa severa e vigilantissima guardia affatica così ogni notte i sudditi del paese, e perché ogni giorno tanta fusione di cannoni di bronzo, e tanto mercato all’estero d’attrezzi di guerra, perché tanta leva di maestri d’ascia, la cui dura fatica non distingue la domenica dal resto della settimana: che cosa può prepararsi, se questa sudata fretta fa della notte la compagna di lavoro del giorno, chi è che può informarmene?
HORATIO	Posso io— almeno così corre il sussurro: il nostro ultimo re, la cui immagine or ora ci è apparsa, fu, come sapete, da Fortinbras di Norvegia, spronato a ciò da un’emula superbia, sfidato a battaglia; nella quale il nostro valoroso Hamlet— ché tale lo stimava questa parte del mondo a noi noto— uccise questo Fortinbras, il quale, per un patto sigillato, ben ratificato da legge e da araldica, perdette con la vita tutte quelle sue terre di cui era in possesso, a favore del vincitore; contro le quali una porzione competente fu impegnata dal nostro Re, e sarebbe passata all’eredità di Fortinbras se fosse stato lui il vincitore, come per il medesimo patto e per il tenore dell’articolo stabilito la sua toccò a Hamlet. Ora, signore, il giovane Fortinbras, di tempra non domata, caldo e pieno, ha ai margini della Norvegia, qua e là, arruolato alla ventura uno stuolo di risoluti senza terra per vitto e alimento a qualche impresa che ha del fegato: la quale non è altro— e ciò appare bene al nostro stato— che riprendersi da noi con mano forte e con patti coattivi quelle terre predette così perdute dal padre. E questo, io credo, è il motivo principale dei nostri preparativi, la fonte di questa nostra guardia, e il capo primo di questa fretta furiosa e di questo trambusto nel paese.
(didascalia)	Entra lo Spettro, come prima
HORATIO	Ma piano, ecco—guarda dove viene di nuovo! Gli taglierò la strada, dovesse fulminarmi.—Fermati, illusione. Lo Spettro allarga le braccia Se hai suono o uso di voce, parlami. Se v’è qualche opera buona da compiere che possa dare a te sollievo e a me grazia, parlami. Se sei a parte del destino del tuo paese, che, felicemente presaputo, si può evitare, oh parla! O se hai accumulato in vita un tesoro estorto nel grembo della terra— per il quale, dicono, voi spiriti spesso camminate nella morte— Il gallo canta parlane, fermati e parla.—Fermalo, Marcellus.
MARCELLUS	Devo colpirlo con la mia partigiana?
HORATIO	Fallo, se non vuole fermarsi.
BARNARDO	È qui.
HORATIO	È qui.
(didascalia)	Esce lo Spettro
MARCELLUS	È sparito. Gli facciamo torto, essendo così maestoso, a offrirgli la mostra della violenza, ché è invulnerabile come l’aria, e i nostri vani colpi sono maligna derisione.
BARNARDO	Stava per parlare quando il gallo cantò.
HORATIO	E allora trasalì come una cosa colpevole a una spaventosa citazione. Ho udito dire che il gallo, che è la tromba del mattino, con la sua alta e squillante gola desta il dio del giorno, e al suo avvertimento, sia in mare o nel fuoco, in terra o nell’aria, lo spirito vagante ed errabondo s’affretta al suo confine; e della verità di ciò questo presente oggetto ha dato prova.
MARCELLUS	Svanì al canto del gallo. Alcuni dicono che sempre, all’appressarsi della stagione in cui si celebra la nascita del nostro Salvatore, l’uccello dell’alba canta tutta la notte; e allora, dicono, nessuno spirito può andare attorno, le notti sono salubri; allora nessun pianeta colpisce, nessuna fata rapisce, né strega ha potere d’incantare, tanto santo e tanto benigno è quel tempo.
HORATIO	Così ho udito, e in parte lo credo. Ma guardate, il mattino vestito di rosso mantello cammina sulla rugiada di quell’alto colle a oriente. Sciogliamo la nostra guardia, e, se seguite il mio consiglio, comunichiamo ciò che abbiamo visto stanotte al giovane Hamlet; ché sulla mia vita, questo spirito, muto con noi, parlerà a lui. Consentite che gliene diamo notizia, come richiede il nostro affetto e conviene al nostro dovere?
MARCELLUS	Facciamolo, vi prego; e io so dove stamane lo troveremo più agevolmente. Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Flourish. Enter Claudius, King of Denmark, Gertrude the Queen, members of the Council, such as Polonius, his son Laertes and daughter Ophelia, Prince Hamlet dressed in black, with others
KING CLAUDIUS	Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother’s death The memory be green, and that it us befitted To bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdom To be contracted in one brow of woe, Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature That we with wisest sorrow think on him Together with remembrance of ourselves. Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen, Th‘imperial jointress of this warlike state, Have we as ’twere with a defeated joy, With one auspicious and one dropping eye, With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage, In equal scale weighing delight and dole, Taken to wife. Nor have we herein barred Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone With this affair along. For all, our thanks. Now follows that you know young Fortinbras, Holding a weak supposal of our worth, Or thinking by our late dear brother’s death Our state to be disjoint and out of frame, Co-leaguèd with the dream of his advantage, He hath not failed to pester us with message Importing the surrender of those lands Lost by his father, with all bonds of law, To our most valiant brother. So much for him.
(didascalia)	Enter Valtemand and Cornelius
KING CLAUDIUS	Now for ourself, and for this time of meeting, Thus much the business is: we have here writ To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras— Who, impotent and bed-rid, scarcely hears Of this his nephew’s purpose—to suppress His further gait herein, in that the levies, The lists, and full proportions are all made Out of his subject; and we here dispatch You, good Cornelius, and you, Valtemand, For bearers of this greeting to old Norway, Giving to you no further personal power To business with the King more than the scope Of these dilated articles allow. Farewell, and let your haste commend your duty.
VALTEMAND	In that and all things will we show our duty.
KING CLAUDIUS	We doubt it nothing, heartily farewell.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Valtemand and Cornelius
KING CLAUDIUS	And now, Laertes, what’s the news with you? You told us of some suit. What is’t, Laertes? You cannot speak of reason to the Dane And lose your voice. What wouldst thou beg, Laertes, That shall not be my offer, not thy asking? The head is not more native to the heart, The hand more instrumental to the mouth, Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father. What wouldst thou have, Laertes?
LAERTES	Dread my lord, Your leave and favour to return to France, From whence though willingly I came to Denmark To show my duty in your coronation, Yet now I must confess, that duty done, My thoughts and wishes bend again towards France And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon.
KING CLAUDIUS	Have you your father’s leave? What says Polonius?
POLONIUS	He hath, my lord, wrung from me my slow leave By laboursome petition, and at last Upon his will I sealed my hard consent. I do beseech you give him leave to go.
KING CLAUDIUS	Take thy fair hour, Laertes. Time be thine, And thy best graces spend it at thy will. But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son—
HAMLET	A little more than kin and less than kind.
KING CLAUDIUS	How is it that the clouds still hang on you?
HAMLET	Not so, my lord, I am too much i’th’ sun.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Good Hamlet, cast thy nightly colour off, And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. Do not for ever with thy vailèd lids Seek for thy noble father in the dust. Thou know‘st ’tis common—all that lives must die, Passing through nature to eternity.
HAMLET	Ay, madam, it is common.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	If it be, Why seems it so particular with thee?
HAMLET	Seems, madam? Nay, it is. I know not ‘seems’. ‘Tis not alone my inky cloak, good-mother, Nor customary suits of solemn black, Nor windy suspiration of forced breath, No, nor the fruitful river in the eye, Nor the dejected haviour of the visage, Together with all forms, moods, shows of grief That can denote me truly. These indeed ‘seem’, For they are actions that a man might play; But I have that within which passeth show— These but the trappings and the suits of woe.
KING CLAUDIUS	‘Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet, To give these mourning duties to your father; But you must know your father lost a father; That father lost, lost his; and the survivor bound In filial obligation for some term To do obsequious sorrow. But to persever In obstinate condolement is a course Of impious stubbornness, ’tis unmanly grief, It shows a will most incorrect to heaven, A heart unfortified, a mind impatient, An understanding simple and unschooled; For what we know must be, and is as common As any the most vulgar thing to sense, Why should we in our peevish opposition Take it to heart? Fie, ‘tis a fault to heaven, A fault against the dead, a fault to nature, To reason most absurd, whose common theme Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried From the first corpse till he that died today, ’This must be so’. We pray you throw to earth This unprevailing woe, and think of us As of a father; for let the world take note You are the most immediate to our throne, And with no less nobility of love Than that which dearest father bears his son Do I impart towards you. For your intent In going back to school in Wittenberg, It is most retrograde to our desire, And we beseech you bend you to remain Here in the cheer and comfort of our eye, Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet. I pray thee stay with us, go not to Wittenberg.
HAMLET	I shall in all my best obey you, madam.
KING CLAUDIUS	Why, ’tis a loving and a fair reply. Be as ourself in Denmark. (To Gertrude) Madam, come. This gentle and unforced accord of Hamlet Sits smiling to my heart; in grace whereof, No jocund health that Denmark drinks today But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell, And the King’s rouse the heavens shall bruit again, Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come, away.
(didascalia)	Flourish. pmlmmmExeunt all but Hamlet
HAMLET	O that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew, Or that the Everlasting had not fixed His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter! O God, O God, How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world! Fie on’t, ah fie, fie! ’Tis an unweeded garden That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature Possess it merely. That it should come to this— But two months dead—nay, not so much, not two— So excellent a king, that was to this Hyperion to a satyr, so loving to my mother That he might not beteem the winds of heaven Visit her face too roughly! Heaven and earth, Must I remember? Why, she would hang on him As if increase of appetite had grown By what it fed on, and yet within a month— Let me not think on’t; frailty, thy name is woman— A little month, or ere those shoes were old With which she followed my poor father’s body, Like Niobe, all tears, why she, even she— O God, a beast that wants discourse of reason Would have mourned longer!—married with mine uncle, My father’s brother, but no more like my father Than I to Hercules; within a month, Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears Had left the flushing of her gallèd eyes, She married. O most wicked speed, to post With such dexterity to incestuous sheets! It is not, nor it cannot come to good. But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue.
(didascalia)	Enter Horatio, Marcellus, and Barnardo
HORATIO	Hail to your lordship.
HAMLET	I am glad to see you well. Horatio—or I do forget myself.
HORATIO	The same, my lord, and your poor servant ever.
HAMLET	Sir, my good friend; I’ll change that name with you. And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio?— Marcellus.
MARCELLUS	My good lord.
HAMLET	I am very glad to see you. (To Barnardo) Good even, sir.— But what in faith make you from Wittenberg?
HORATIO	A truant disposition, good my lord.
HAMLET	I would not have your enemy say so, Nor shall you do mine ear that violence To make it truster of your own report Against yourself. I know you are no truant. But what is your affair in Elsinore? We’ll teach you to drink deep ere you depart.
HORATIO	My lord, I came to see your father’s funeral.
HAMLET	I prithee do not mock me, fellow-student; I think it was to see my mother’s wedding.
HORATIO	Indeed, my lord, it followed hard upon.
HAMLET	Thrift, thrift, Horatio. The funeral baked meats Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables. Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven Ere I had ever seen that day, Horatio. My father—methinks I see my father.
HORATIO	O where, my lord?
HAMLET	In my mind’s eye, Horatio.
HORATIO	I saw him once. A was a goodly king.
HAMLET	A was a man. Take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again.
HORATIO	My lord, I think I saw him yesternight.
HAMLET	Saw? Who?
HORATIO	My lord, the King your father.
HAMLET	The King my father?
HORATIO	Season your admiration for a while With an attent ear till I may deliver, Upon the witness of these gentlemen, This marvel to you.
HAMLET	For God’s love let me hear!
HORATIO	Two nights together had these gentlemen, Marcellus and Barnardo, on their watch, In the dead waste and middle of the night, Been thus encountered. A figure like your father, Armed at all points exactly, cap-à-pie, Appears before them, and with solemn march Goes slow and stately by them. Thrice he walked By their oppressed and fear-surprised eyes
(didascalia)	Within his truncheon’s length, whilst they distilled
HORATIO	Almost to jelly with the act of fear Stand dumb and speak not to him. This to me In dreadful secrecy impart they did, And I with them the third night kept the watch, Where, as they had delivered, both in time, Form of the thing, each word made true and good, The apparition comes. I knew your father; These hands are not more like.
HAMLET	But where was this?
MARCELLUS	My lord, upon the platform where we watched.
HAMLET	Did you not speak to it?
HORATIO	My lord, I did, But answer made it none; yet once methought It lifted up it head and did address Itself to motion like as it would speak, But even then the morning cock crew loud, And at the sound it shrunk in haste away And vanished from our sight.
HAMLET	’Tis very strange.
HORATIO	As I do live, my honoured lord, ’tis true, And we did think it writ down in our duty To let you know of it.
HAMLET	Indeed, indeed, sirs; but this troubles me.— Hold you the watch tonight?
BARNARDO	and MARCELLUS We do, my lord.
HAMLET	Armed, say you?
BARNARDO	and MARCELLUS Armed, my lord.
HAMLET	From top to toe?
BARNARDO	and MARCELLUS My lord, from head to foot.
HAMLET	Then saw you not his face.
HORATIO	O yes, my lord, he wore his beaver up.
HAMLET	What looked he? Frowningly?
HORATIO	A countenance more In sorrow than in anger.
HAMLET	Pale or red?
HORATIO	Nay, very pale.
HAMLET	And fixed his eyes upon you?
HORATIO	Most constantly.
HAMLET	I would I had been there.
HORATIO	It would have much amazed you.
HAMLET	Very like, very like. Stayed it long?
HORATIO	While one with moderate haste might tell a hundred.
BARNARDO	and MARCELLUS Longer, longer.
HORATIO	Not when I saw’t.
HAMLET	His beard was grizzly, no?
HORATIO	It was as I have seen it in his life, A sable silvered.
HAMLET	I’ll watch tonight. Perchance ‘Twill walk again.
HORATIO	I warrant you it will.
HAMLET	If it assume my noble father’s person I’ll speak to it though hell itself should gape And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all, If you have hitherto concealed this sight, Let it be treble in your silence still, And whatsoever else shall hap tonight, Give it an understanding but no tongue. I will requite your loves. So fare ye well. Upon the platform ’twixt eleven and twelve I’ll visit you.
ALL THREE	Our duty to your honour.
HAMLET	Your love, as mine to you. Farewell.
(didascalia)	Exeunt all but Hamlet
HAMLET	My father’s spirit in arms! All is not well. I doubt some foul play. Would the night were come. Till then, sit still, my soul. Foul deeds will rise, Though all the earth o’erwhelm them, to men’s eyes.
(didascalia)	Exit

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Squillo di trombe. Entrano Claudius, re di Danimarca, Gertrude la regina, membri del Consiglio, come Polonius, suo figlio Laertes e la figlia Ophelia, il principe Hamlet vestito di nero, e altri
RE CLAUDIUS	Sebbene della morte di Hamlet, nostro caro fratello, la memoria sia ancor verde, e a noi convenisse portare i cuori nel dolore e tutto il nostro regno contrarsi in un’unica fronte di lutto, pure tanto ha la discrezione lottato con la natura che con più saggia mestizia pensiamo a lui insieme con la memoria di noi stessi. Perciò colei che fu nostra sorella, ora nostra regina, imperiale consorte di questo stato guerriero, abbiamo, quasi con una gioia sconfitta, con un occhio propizio e l’altro lacrimoso, con letizia al funerale e con nenia funebre alle nozze, pesando in eguale bilancia il gaudio e il duolo, presa in moglie. Né in ciò abbiamo escluso le vostre migliori saggezze, che liberamente hanno assecondato questo affare. Di tutto, i nostri ringraziamenti. Ora segue che voi sappiate: il giovane Fortinbras, avendo una fiacca stima del nostro valore, o pensando che per la morte del nostro caro fratello defunto il nostro stato sia disgiunto e fuori d’assetto, alleato col sogno del proprio vantaggio, non ha mancato d’assillarci con messaggi che pretendono la resa di quelle terre perdute da suo padre, con ogni vincolo di legge, al nostro valorosissimo fratello. Basta di lui.
(didascalia)	Entrano Valtemand e Cornelius
RE CLAUDIUS	Ora quanto a noi, e a questo tempo d’adunanza, la faccenda è questa: abbiamo qui scritto al re di Norvegia, zio del giovane Fortinbras— il quale, impotente e costretto a letto, appena sa del disegno di questo suo nipote—perché reprima il suo ulteriore procedere in ciò, giacché le leve, gli arruolamenti e le intere provviste son tutti tratti dai suoi sudditi; e noi qui spediamo voi, buon Cornelius, e voi, Valtemand, come latori di questo saluto al vecchio Norvegia, non concedendovi altro potere personale di trattare col re oltre l’ambito che questi articoli distesi consentono. Addio, e la vostra fretta raccomandi il vostro dovere.
VALTEMAND	In quello e in ogni cosa mostreremo il nostro dovere.
RE CLAUDIUS	Non ne dubitiamo affatto; di cuore, addio.
(didascalia)	Escono Valtemand e Cornelius
RE CLAUDIUS	E ora, Laertes, che novità ci recate? Ci parlaste d’una richiesta. Qual è, Laertes? Non potete parlare di cosa ragionevole al Danese e perdere la voce. Che cosa chiederesti, Laertes, che non sia mia offerta prima che tua domanda? Non è più connaturato il capo al cuore, né la mano più strumento della bocca, di quanto il trono di Danimarca lo sia a tuo padre. Che cosa vorresti, Laertes?
LAERTES	Temuto mio signore, il vostro permesso e favore di tornare in Francia, donde, se pur volentieri venni in Danimarca per rendere il mio dovere alla vostra incoronazione, pure ora devo confessare, compiuto quel dovere, che i miei pensieri e desideri volgono di nuovo alla Francia e si piegano al vostro grazioso permesso e perdono.
RE CLAUDIUS	Avete il permesso di vostro padre? Che dice Polonius?
POLONIUS	L’ha ottenuto, mio signore: m’ha strappato il mio tardo permesso con laboriosa istanza, e alla fine sulla sua volontà ho suggellato il mio duro consenso. Vi supplico, dategli licenza d’andare.
RE CLAUDIUS	Cogli la tua bella ora, Laertes. Il tempo sia tuo, e le tue migliori grazie lo spendano a tuo piacere. Ma ora, mio cugino Hamlet, e mio figlio—
HAMLET	Un po’ più che parente, e meno che affine.
RE CLAUDIUS	Come mai le nubi incombono ancora su di voi?
HAMLET	Non è così, mio signore: sono troppo al sole.
REGINA GERTRUDE	Buon Hamlet, getta via il tuo colore notturno, e il tuo occhio guardi da amico la Danimarca. Non cercare per sempre, con le palpebre abbassate, il tuo nobile padre nella polvere. Sai che è cosa comune—tutto ciò che vive deve morire, passando per la natura all’eternità.
HAMLET	Sì, signora, è cosa comune.
REGINA GERTRUDE	Se lo è, perché ti sembra così particolare?
HAMLET	Sembra, signora? No, è. Io non conosco il ‘sembra’. Non è soltanto il mio mantello d’inchiostro, buona madre, né le consuete vesti di solenne nero, né il ventoso sospirare d’un respiro forzato, no, né il fiume fecondo nell’occhio, né l’aspetto abbattuto del volto, insieme con tutte le forme, i modi, le apparenze del dolore che possano davvero definirmi. Queste in verità ‘sembrano’, poiché sono azioni che un uomo può recitare; ma io ho dentro ciò che oltrepassa ogni apparenza— queste non sono che i fregi e le vesti del lutto.
RE CLAUDIUS	È dolce e lodevole nella vostra natura, Hamlet, rendere questi doveri di lutto a vostro padre; ma dovete sapere che vostro padre perdette un padre; quel padre perduto perdette il suo; e il superstite è tenuto per obbligo filiale, e per un certo tempo, a un dolore ossequioso. Ma perseverare in ostinato cordoglio è un procedere d’empia caparbietà, è pena non virile, mostra una volontà assai ribelle al cielo, un cuore non fortificato, una mente impaziente, un intelletto semplice e non ammaestrato; giacché ciò che sappiamo dover essere, ed è tanto comune quanto la più volgare cosa che il senso percepisca, perché dovremmo, in petulante opposizione, prendercelo a cuore? Vergogna, è una colpa verso il cielo, una colpa verso i morti, una colpa verso la natura, alla ragione assurdissima, il cui tema costante è la morte dei padri, e che sempre ha gridato, dal primo cadavere fino a colui che è morto oggi, ’Così dev’essere’. Vi preghiamo, gettate a terra questo inutile affanno, e pensate a noi come a un padre; ché il mondo prenda nota: voi siete il più prossimo al nostro trono, e con non minore nobiltà d’amore di quella che il più caro padre porta al figlio io mi effondo verso di voi. Quanto al vostro intento di tornare agli studi a Wittenberg, esso è quanto mai contrario al nostro desiderio, e vi supplichiamo di piegarvi a rimanere qui, nella letizia e nel conforto del nostro sguardo, nostro primo cortigiano, cugino, e nostro figlio.
REGINA GERTRUDE	Non far che tua madre perda le sue preghiere, Hamlet. Ti prego, resta con noi, non andare a Wittenberg.
HAMLET	Vi obbedirò in tutto come meglio potrò, signora.
RE CLAUDIUS	Ecco, è una risposta amorevole e bella. Siate come noi stessi in Danimarca. (A Gertrude) Signora, venite. Questo gentile e spontaneo assenso di Hamlet sta sorridendo al mio cuore; in grazia di ciò, non un gioioso brindisi che la Danimarca beva oggi senza che il gran cannone lo annunci alle nubi, e i cieli ripeteranno il brindisi del re, riecheggiando il tuono terreno. Venite, andiamo.
(didascalia)	Squillo di trombe. pmlmmmEscono tutti tranne Hamlet
HAMLET	Oh, che questa carne troppo troppo solida si sciogliesse, si struggesse e si risolvesse in rugiada, o che l’Eterno non avesse fissato il suo canone contro il suicidio! O Dio, o Dio, come stanchi, stantii, piatti e inutili mi paiono tutti gli usi di questo mondo! Vergogna, ah vergogna, vergogna! È un giardino non sarchiato che va in seme; cose fetide e grossolane per natura lo posseggono interamente. Che si dovesse giungere a questo— morto da due mesi appena—no, neppure tanto, non due— un re così eccellente, che era rispetto a costui Iperione a un satiro, così amoroso verso mia madre da non tollerare che i venti del cielo le visitassero il volto troppo rudemente! Cielo e terra, devo ricordare? Ma se lei si stringeva a lui come se l’avidità le crescesse di ciò che la nutriva, e pure in un mese— ch’io non ci pensi; fragilità, il tuo nome è donna— un breve mese, prima che fossero vecchie quelle scarpe con cui seguì il corpo del mio povero padre, come Niobe, tutta lacrime, ebbene lei, proprio lei— o Dio, una bestia priva di discorso ragionevole avrebbe pianto più a lungo!—sposata con mio zio, il fratello di mio padre, ma simile a mio padre non più di quanto io lo sia a Ercole; entro un mese, prima ancora che il sale di lacrime iniquissime avesse lasciato l’arrossamento dei suoi occhi irritati, si è sposata. Oh, scelleratissima fretta, correre con tale destrezza a lenzuola incestuose! Non è bene, né può volgere a bene. Ma spezzati, cuore mio, ché devo tacere.
(didascalia)	Entrano Horatio, Marcellus e Barnardo
HORATIO	Salute a vostra signoria.
HAMLET	Sono lieto di vedervi bene. Horatio—o io dimentico me stesso.
HORATIO	Lui stesso, mio signore, e vostro povero servitore per sempre.
HAMLET	Signore, mio buon amico; scambierò con voi quel nome. E che fate lontano da Wittenberg, Horatio?— Marcellus.
MARCELLUS	Mio buon signore.
HAMLET	Sono molto lieto di vedervi. (A Barnardo) Buona sera, signore.— Ma che fate, in fede mia, lontano da Wittenberg?
HORATIO	Un’indole vagabonda, mio buon signore.
HAMLET	Non vorrei che il vostro nemico lo dicesse, né farete al mio orecchio tale violenza da renderlo credulo del vostro stesso rapporto contro voi stesso. So che non siete un vagabondo. Ma qual è il vostro affare a Elsinore? V’insegneremo a bere profondo prima che partiate.
HORATIO	Mio signore, venni per vedere il funerale di vostro padre.
HAMLET	Ti prego, non beffarti di me, compagno di studi; credo fosse per vedere le nozze di mia madre.
HORATIO	Davvero, mio signore, seguirono a breve distanza.
HAMLET	Economia, economia, Horatio. Le carni arrostite del funerale imbandirono fredde le tavole delle nozze. Avessi incontrato in cielo il mio peggior nemico prima d’aver mai veduto quel giorno, Horatio. Mio padre—mi pare di vedere mio padre.
HORATIO	Oh dove, mio signore?
HAMLET	Nell’occhio della mente, Horatio.
HORATIO	Lo vidi una volta. Era un bel re.
HAMLET	Era un uomo. Prendetelo tutto in tutto, non vedrò mai più il suo pari.
HORATIO	Mio signore, credo d’averlo visto la notte scorsa.
HAMLET	Visto? Chi?
HORATIO	Mio signore, il re vostro padre.
HAMLET	Il re mio padre?
HORATIO	Temperate per un poco il vostro stupore con orecchio attento, finché io possa recarvi, sulla testimonianza di questi gentiluomini, questa meraviglia.
HAMLET	Per l’amore di Dio, lasciate che l’oda!
HORATIO	Per due notti di seguito questi gentiluomini, Marcellus e Barnardo, nella loro guardia, nel morto deserto e nel mezzo della notte, hanno avuto tale incontro. Una figura simile a vostro padre, armata in ogni punto esattamente, da capo a piedi, appare loro dinanzi, e con solenne marcia passa lenta e maestosa accanto a loro. Tre volte camminò dinanzi ai loro occhi oppressi e sorpresi dalla paura
(didascalia)	alla distanza del suo bastone di comando, mentre essi, distillati
HORATIO	quasi in gelatina dall’atto della paura, stanno muti e non gli parlano. Questo a me in tremendo segreto essi confidarono, e io con loro la terza notte tenni la guardia, dove, come avevano riferito, e nel tempo e nella forma della cosa, ogni parola confermata, l’apparizione viene. Io conobbi vostro padre; queste mani non si somigliano di più.
HAMLET	Ma dove fu questo?
MARCELLUS	Mio signore, sulla spianata dove montavamo la guardia.
HAMLET	Non gli parlaste?
HORATIO	Mio signore, sì, ma non diede alcuna risposta; pure una volta mi parve che alzasse il capo e si disponesse al moto come se volesse parlare, ma proprio allora il gallo del mattino cantò forte, e a quel suono si ritrasse in fretta e svanì dalla nostra vista.
HAMLET	È cosa assai strana.
HORATIO	Com’è vero che vivo, mio onorato signore, è vero, e abbiamo ritenuto fosse scritto nel nostro dovere farvelo sapere.
HAMLET	Davvero, davvero, signori; ma questo mi turba.— Montate la guardia stanotte?
BARNARDO	e MARCELLUS Sì, mio signore.
HAMLET	Armato, dite?
BARNARDO	e MARCELLUS Armato, mio signore.
HAMLET	Da capo a piedi?
BARNARDO	e MARCELLUS Mio signore, dalla testa ai piedi.
HAMLET	Allora non gli vedeste il viso.
HORATIO	Oh sì, mio signore, portava la visiera alzata.
HAMLET	Che aspetto aveva? Accigliato?
HORATIO	Un volto più nel dolore che nell’ira.
HAMLET	Pallido o rosso?
HORATIO	No, pallidissimo.
HAMLET	E fissò gli occhi su di voi?
HORATIO	Costantemente.
HAMLET	Vorrei esserci stato.
HORATIO	Vi avrebbe molto stupito.
HAMLET	Assai probabile, assai probabile. Rimase a lungo?
HORATIO	Quanto uno con moderata fretta potrebbe contare fino a cento.
BARNARDO	e MARCELLUS Di più, di più.
HORATIO	Non quando io lo vidi.
HAMLET	Aveva la barba brizzolata, no?
HORATIO	Era come l’ho veduta in vita sua, nera argentata.
HAMLET	Veglierò stanotte. Forse tornerà a camminare.
HORATIO	Vi assicuro che lo farà.
HAMLET	Se assume la persona del mio nobile padre gli parlerò, dovesse l’inferno stesso spalancarsi e ordinarmi di tacere. Vi prego tutti, se finora avete celato questa visione, restatene ancora triplicemente in silenzio, e qualunque altra cosa accada stanotte, dàtele intelletto ma non lingua. Ricompenserò il vostro affetto. E così state bene. Sulla spianata, fra le undici e le dodici, verrò a trovarvi.
TUTTI E TRE	Il nostro dovere al vostro onore.
HAMLET	Il vostro affetto, come il mio a voi. Addio.
(didascalia)	Escono tutti tranne Hamlet
HAMLET	Lo spirito di mio padre in armi! Non tutto va bene. Sospetto qualche turpe delitto. Fosse già venuta la notte. Fino ad allora, sta’ quieta, anima mia. Le turpi azioni sorgeranno, quand’anche tutta la terra le ricopra, agli occhi degli uomini.
(didascalia)	Esce

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Laertes and Ophelia, his sister
LAERTES	My necessaries are inbarqued. Farewell. And, sister, as the winds give benefit And convoy is assistant, do not sleep But let me hear from you.
OPHELIA	Do you doubt that?
LAERTES	For Hamlet and the trifling of his favour, Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood, A violet in the youth of primy nature, Forward not permanent, sweet not lasting, The perfume and suppliance of a minute, No more.
OPHELIA	No more but so?
LAERTES	Think it no more. For nature crescent does not grow alone In thews and bulk, but as his temple waxes The inward service of the mind and soul Grows wide withal. Perhaps he loves you now, And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch The virtue of his will; but you must fear, His greatness weighed, his will is not his own, For he himself is subject to his birth. He may not, as unvalued persons do, Carve for himself, for on his choice depends The sanity and health of the whole state; And therefore must his choice be circumscribed Unto the voice and yielding of that body Whereof he is the head. Then if he says he loves you, It fits your wisdom so far to believe it As he in his peculiar sect and force May give his saying deed, which is no further Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal. Then weigh what loss your honour may sustain If with too credent ear you list his songs, Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open To his unmastered importunity. Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister, And keep within the rear of your affection, Out of the shot and danger of desire. The chariest maid is prodigal enough If she unmask her beauty to the moon. Virtue itself scapes not calumnious strokes. The canker galls the infants of the spring Too oft before their buttons be disclosed, And in the morn and liquid dew of youth Contagious blastments are most imminent. Be wary then; best safety lies in fear; Youth to itself rebels, though none else near.
OPHELIA	I shall th’effect of this good lesson keep As watchman to my heart; but, good my brother, Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven Whilst like a puffed and reckless libertine Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads And recks not his own rede.
LAERTES	O fear me not.
(didascalia)	Enter Polonius
LAERTES	I stay too long—but here my father comes. A double blessing is a double grace; Occasion smiles upon a second leave.
POLONIUS	Yet here, Laertes? Aboard, aboard, for shame! The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail, And you are stayed for. There—my blessing with thee, And these few precepts in thy memory See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportioned thought his act. Be thou familiar but by no means vulgar. The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel, But do not dull thy palm with entertainment Of each new-hatched unfledged comrade. Beware Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in, Bear’t that th’opposèd may beware of thee. Give every man thine ear but few thy voice. Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgement. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not expressed in fancy; rich not gaudy; For the apparel oft proclaims the man, And they in France of the best rank and station Are of all most select and generous chief in that. Neither a borrower nor a lender be, For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. This above all—to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. Farewell—my blessing season this in thee.
LAERTES	Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord.
POLONIUS	The time invites you. Go; your servants tend.
LAERTES	Farewell, Ophelia, and remember well What I have said to you.
OPHELIA	’Tis in my memory locked, And you yourself shall keep the key of it.
LAERTES	Farewell.
(didascalia)	Exit
POLONIUS	What is’t, Ophelia, he hath said to you?
OPHELIA	So please you, something touching the Lord Hamlet.
POLONIUS	Marry, well bethought. ‘Tis told me he hath very oft of late Given private time to you, and you yourself Have of your audience been most free and bounteous. If it be so—as so ’tis put on me, And that in way of caution—I must tell you You do not understand yourself so clearly As it behoves my daughter and your honour. What is between you? Give me up the truth.
OPHELIA	He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders Of his affection to me.
POLONIUS	Affection, pooh! You speak like a green girl Unsifted in such perilous circumstance. Do you believe his ‘tenders’ as you call them?
OPHELIA	I do not know, my lord, what I should think.
POLONIUS	Marry, I’ll teach you: think yourself a baby That you have ta’en his tenders for true pay, Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly, Or—not to crack the wind of the poor phrase, Running it thus—you’ll tender me a fool.
OPHELIA	My lord, he hath importuned me with love In honourable fashion—
POLONIUS	Ay, fashion you may call it. Go to, go to.
OPHELIA	And hath given countenance to his speech, my lord, With all the vows of heaven.
POLONIUS	Ay, springes to catch woodcocks. I do know When the blood burns how prodigal the soul Lends the tongue vows. These blazes, daughter, Giving more light than heat, extinct in both Even in their promise as it is a-making, You must not take for fire. From this time, daughter, Be somewhat scanter of your maiden presence. Set your entreatments at a higher rate Than a command to parley. For Lord Hamlet, Believe so much in him, that he is young, And with a larger tether may he walk Than may be given you. In few, Ophelia, Do not believe his vows, for they are brokers, Not of the dye which their investments show, But mere imploratators of unholy suits, Breathing like sanctified and pious bawds The better to beguile. This is for all— I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth Have you so slander any moment leisure As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet. Look to’t, I charge you. Come your ways.
OPHELIA	I shall obey, my lord.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano Laertes e Ophelia, sua sorella
LAERTES	Le mie cose sono imbarcate. Addio. E, sorella, quando i venti diano il loro favore E la scorta sia pronta, non dormire Ma fammi aver tue notizie.
OPHELIA	Ne dubiti?
LAERTES	Quanto a Hamlet e al frivolo suo favore, Tienilo per una moda e un capriccio del sangue, Una viola nella giovinezza della natura in fiore, Precoce non permanente, dolce non duratura, Il profumo e il diletto d’un minuto, Nulla più.
OPHELIA	Nulla più che questo?
LAERTES	Non tenerlo per più di questo. Ché la natura crescente non cresce sola In muscoli e mole, ma come il suo tempio s’ingrandisce Il servizio interiore della mente e dell’anima Si dilata con esso. Forse ora egli t’ama, E ora nessuna macchia né inganno insozza La virtù del suo volere; ma tu devi temere, Pesata la sua grandezza, che il suo volere non è suo, Poiché egli stesso è soggetto alla propria nascita. Non gli è dato, come alle persone senza pregio, Tagliarsi da sé la parte, ché dalla sua scelta dipende La salvezza e la salute di tutto lo stato; E perciò la sua scelta dev’essere circoscritta Alla voce e al consenso di quel corpo Di cui egli è il capo. Se dunque dice d’amarti, S’addice alla tua saggezza crederlo fin dove Egli, nel suo particolare grado e potere, Possa dar atto al suo dire, che non va oltre Quanto la voce sovrana di Danimarca consenta. Pesa allora quale perdita il tuo onore può patire Se con orecchio troppo credulo ascolti le sue canzoni, O perdi il cuore, o apri il tuo casto tesoro Alla sua sfrenata importunità. Temilo, Ophelia, temilo, mia cara sorella, E tienti nella retroguardia del tuo affetto, Fuori dal tiro e dal pericolo del desiderio. La più guardinga fanciulla è già prodiga abbastanza Se svela la sua bellezza alla luna. La virtù stessa non sfugge ai colpi della calunnia. Il verme rode i nati della primavera Troppo spesso prima che i loro bocci si schiudano, E nel mattino e nella liquida rugiada della giovinezza I contagiosi malanni sono i più imminenti. Sii dunque cauta; la miglior sicurezza sta nel timore; La giovinezza a se stessa si ribella, quand’anche nessun altro sia presso.
OPHELIA	Serberò l’effetto di questa buona lezione Come guardiano al mio cuore; ma, mio buon fratello, Non fare come certi pastori scortesi, Che m’additano l’erta e spinosa via del cielo Mentre, come gonfio e temerario libertino, Egli stesso calca il fiorito sentiero del piacere E non cura il proprio consiglio.
LAERTES	Oh, non temere di me.
(didascalia)	Entra Polonius
LAERTES	Indugio troppo—ma ecco venire mio padre. Una doppia benedizione è una doppia grazia; L’occasione sorride a un secondo commiato.
POLONIUS	Ancora qui, Laertes? A bordo, a bordo, vergogna! Il vento siede sulla spalla della tua vela, E ti si attende. Ecco—la mia benedizione con te, E questi pochi precetti nella tua memoria Bada d’imprimerli. Non dar lingua ai tuoi pensieri, Né atto ad alcun pensiero smodato. Sii familiare ma in nessun modo volgare. Gli amici che hai, e la cui adozione è provata, Legali alla tua anima con cerchi d’acciaio, Ma non intorpidire la tua palma nell’accogliere Ogni compagno appena schiuso e implume. Guàrdati Dall’entrare in una lite, ma, una volta dentro, Comportati sì che l’avversario si guardi da te. Dà a ogni uomo il tuo orecchio ma a pochi la tua voce. Accogli il giudizio d’ognuno, ma riserba il tuo. Costoso il tuo vestire quanto la borsa può comprare, Ma non espresso in stravaganza; ricco non vistoso; Ché l’abito spesso proclama l’uomo, E in Francia quelli del miglior rango e stato Sono in ciò i più scelti e generosamente eminenti. Non essere né prenditore né prestatore a prestito, Ché il prestito spesso perde se stesso e l’amico, E il prender a prestito smussa il taglio dell’economia. Questo sopra tutto—a te stesso sii fedele, E ne dovrà seguire, come la notte al giorno, Che non potrai allora essere falso con nessuno. Addio—la mia benedizione maturi questo in te.
LAERTES	Umilissimamente prendo congedo, mio signore.
POLONIUS	Il tempo t’invita. Va’; i tuoi servi attendono.
LAERTES	Addio, Ophelia, e ricorda bene Quel che ti ho detto.
OPHELIA	È chiuso nella mia memoria, E tu stesso ne serberai la chiave.
LAERTES	Addio.
(didascalia)	Esce
POLONIUS	Che cosa è, Ophelia, ch’egli t’ha detto?
OPHELIA	Con vostra licenza, qualcosa che tocca il signor Hamlet.
POLONIUS	Perbacco, ben pensato. Mi si dice ch’egli assai spesso di recente T’ha dato tempo in privato, e che tu stessa Sei stata assai libera e larga della tua udienza. Se è così—come così mi vien riferito, E in via d’avvertimento—devo dirti Che non comprendi te stessa così chiaramente Come s’addice a mia figlia e al tuo onore. Che c’è fra voi? Dammi la verità.
OPHELIA	Egli ha, mio signore, di recente fatto molte offerte Del suo affetto verso di me.
POLONIUS	Affetto, puah! Parli come una ragazza acerba, Non vagliata in circostanza così pericolosa. Credi tu alle sue ‘offerte’, come le chiami?
OPHELIA	Non so, mio signore, che cosa dovrei pensare.
POLONIUS	Perbacco, te l’insegnerò io: pensa d’essere una bambina Ad aver preso le sue offerte per moneta buona, Che non è di buona lega. Offri te stessa a più caro prezzo, O—per non spezzare il fiato alla povera frase, Correndola così—mi offrirai uno sciocco.
OPHELIA	Mio signore, egli m’ha importunata col suo amore In modo onorevole—
POLONIUS	Sì, modo puoi ben chiamarlo. Andiamo, andiamo.
OPHELIA	E ha dato credito al suo discorso, mio signore, Con tutti i voti del cielo.
POLONIUS	Sì, lacci per prender beccacce. Io so bene Come, quando il sangue arde, l’anima prodiga Presti voti alla lingua. Queste vampe, figlia, Che danno più luce che calore, spente in entrambe Già nella loro promessa mentre si fa, Non devi prenderle per fuoco. Da questo tempo, figlia, Sii alquanto più avara della tua presenza di fanciulla. Poni le tue udienze a più alto prezzo D’un ordine di parlamentare. Quanto al signor Hamlet, Credi in lui questo, ch’egli è giovane, E che con più lunga fune gli è dato andare Di quanta possa esser data a te. In breve, Ophelia, Non credere ai suoi voti, ché sono mezzani, Non della tinta che le loro vesti mostrano, Ma meri perorátori di richieste empie, Spiranti come santificate e pie ruffiane Tanto meglio per ingannare. Questo vale per tutto— Non vorrei, in chiari termini, che da questo tempo in avanti Tu disonorassi un solo momento d’ozio Fino a dar parole o parlare col signor Hamlet. Bada a ciò, te l’impongo. Vieni, andiamo.
OPHELIA	Obbedirò, mio signore.
(didascalia)	Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Prince Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus
HAMLET	The air bites shrewdly, it is very cold.
HORATIO	It is a nipping and an eager air.
HAMLET	What hour now?
HORATIO	I think it lacks of twelve.
MARCELLUS	No, it is struck.
HORATIO	Indeed? I heard it not. Then it draws near the season Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk.
(didascalia)	A flourish of trumpets, and two pieces of ordnance goes off
HORATIO	What does this mean, my lord?
HAMLET	The King doth wake tonight and takes his rouse, Keeps wassail, and the swagg’ring upspring reels, And as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out The triumph of his pledge.
HORATIO	Is it a custom?
HAMLET	Ay, marry is’t, And to my mind, though I am native here And to the manner born, it is a custom More honoured in the breach than the observance.
(didascalia)	Enter the Ghost, as before
HORATIO	Look, my lord, it comes.
HAMLET	Angels and ministers of grace defend us! Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned, Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell, Be thy intents wicked or charitable, Thou com’st in such a questionable shape That I will speak to thee. I’ll call thee Hamlet, King, father, royal Dane. O answer me! Let me not burst in ignorance, but tell Why thy canonized bones, hearsèd in death, Have burst their cerements, why the sepulchre Wherein we saw thee quietly enurned Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws To cast thee up again. What may this mean, That thou, dead corpse, again in complete steel, Revisitst thus the glimpses of the moon, Making night hideous, and we fools of nature So horridly to shake our disposition With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls? Say, why is this? Wherefore? What should we do? The Ghost beckons Hamlet
HORATIO	It beckons you to go away with it As if it some impartment did desire To you alone.
MARCELLUS	(to Hamlet) Look with what courteous action It wafts you to a more removed ground. But do not go with it.
HORATIO	(to Hamlet) No, by no means.
HAMLET	It will not speak. Then will I follow it.
HORATIO	Do not, my lord.
HAMLET	Why, what should be the fear? I do not set my life at a pin’s fee, And for my soul, what can it do to that, Being a thing immortal as itself? The Ghost beckons Hamlet It waves me forth again. I’ll follow it.
HORATIO	What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord, Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff That beetles o’er his base into the sea, And there assume some other horrible form Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason And draw you into madness? Think of it. The Ghost beckons Hamlet
HAMLET	It wafts me still. (To the Ghost) Go on, I’ll follow thee.
MARCELLUS	You shall not go, my lord.
HAMLET	Hold off your hand.
HORATIO	Be ruled. You shall not go.
HAMLET	My fate cries out, And makes each petty artere in this body As hardy as the Nemean lion’s nerve. The Ghost beckons Hamlet Still am I called. Unhand me, gentlemen. By heav’n, I’ll make a ghost of him that lets me. I say, away! (To the Ghost) Go on, I’ll follow thee.
(didascalia)	Exeunt the Ghost and Hamlet
HORATIO	He waxes desperate with imagination.
MARCELLUS	Let’s follow.’Tis not fit thus to obey him.
HORATIO	Have after. To what issue will this come?
MARCELLUS	Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
HORATIO	Heaven will direct it.
MARCELLUS	Nay, let’s follow him.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano il principe Hamlet, Horatio e Marcellus
HAMLET	L’aria morde aspramente, fa molto freddo.
HORATIO	È un’aria pungente e tagliente.
HAMLET	Che ora è adesso?
HORATIO	Credo che manchi alle dodici.
MARCELLUS	No, sono suonate.
HORATIO	Davvero? Non le ho udite. Allora s’avvicina l’ora in cui lo spirito suole andare attorno.
(didascalia)	Squillo di trombe, e due colpi d’artiglieria
HORATIO	Che significa questo, mio signore?
HAMLET	Il re veglia stanotte e fa baldoria, tracanna, e barcolla nella tracotante danza tedesca, e mentre manda giù i suoi sorsi di vino del Reno il timpano e la tromba strepitano così il trionfo del suo brindisi.
HORATIO	È un’usanza?
HAMLET	Sì, per la messa, lo è; e a mio giudizio, benché io sia qui nativo e a tale costume nato, è un’usanza più onorata quando la si rompe che quando la si osserva.
(didascalia)	Entra lo Spettro, come prima
HORATIO	Guardate, mio signore, viene.
HAMLET	Angeli e ministri di grazia, difendeteci! Che tu sia spirito di salute o demonio dannato, che porti con te aure del cielo o vampe d’inferno, che i tuoi intenti siano malvagi o pietosi, tu vieni in forma tanto interrogabile che io ti parlerò. Ti chiamerò Hamlet, re, padre, regale danese. Oh, rispondimi! Non lasciarmi scoppiare nell’ignoranza, ma dimmi perché le tue ossa consacrate, composte nella morte, hanno lacerato il loro sudario, perché il sepolcro in cui ti vedemmo quietamente deposto ha schiuso le sue ponderose fauci di marmo per rigettarti fuori. Che può significare che tu, cadavere morto, di nuovo in acciaio completo, torni a visitare i barlumi della luna, facendo orrenda la notte, e noi, zimbelli della natura, a scuotere così spaventosamente il nostro animo con pensieri che eccedono la portata delle nostre anime? Di’, perché questo? A quale scopo? Che dobbiamo fare? Lo Spettro fa cenno ad Hamlet
HORATIO	Vi fa cenno d’andar via con lui, come se qualche comunicazione desiderasse fare a voi solo.
MARCELLUS	(a Hamlet) Guardate con quale cortese gesto vi sospinge verso un luogo più appartato. Ma non andate con lui.
HORATIO	(a Hamlet) No, in nessun modo.
HAMLET	Non vuol parlare. Allora lo seguirò.
HORATIO	Non fatelo, mio signore.
HAMLET	Perché, che cosa dovrei temere? Non stimo la mia vita quanto uno spillo, e quanto alla mia anima, che può farle, essendo essa cosa immortale al pari di lui? Lo Spettro fa cenno ad Hamlet Mi chiama di nuovo. Lo seguirò.
HORATIO	E se vi attirasse verso il flutto, mio signore, o alla spaventosa cima della rupe che strapiomba sulla sua base dentro il mare, e là assumesse qualche altra forma orribile che potesse spogliare la vostra ragione del suo dominio e trascinarvi nella follia? Pensateci. Lo Spettro fa cenno ad Hamlet
HAMLET	Ancora mi sospinge. (Allo Spettro) Va’ avanti, ti seguirò.
MARCELLUS	Non andrete, mio signore.
HAMLET	Togliete la mano.
HORATIO	Lasciatevi guidare. Non andrete.
HAMLET	Il mio destino grida, e rende ogni minima arteria di questo corpo salda come il nervo del leone di Nemea. Lo Spettro fa cenno ad Hamlet Ancora sono chiamato. Lasciatemi, signori. Per il cielo, farò uno spettro di chi mi trattiene. Via, vi dico! (Allo Spettro) Va’ avanti, ti seguirò.
(didascalia)	Escono lo Spettro e Hamlet
HORATIO	Si fa disperato per l’immaginazione.
MARCELLUS	Seguiamolo. Non è giusto obbedirgli così.
HORATIO	Andiamo dietro. A quale esito verrà tutto questo?
MARCELLUS	C’è del marcio nello stato di Danimarca.
HORATIO	Il cielo lo guiderà.
MARCELLUS	No, seguiamolo.
(didascalia)	Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter the Ghost, and Prince Hamlet following
HAMLET	Whither wilt thou lead me? Speak. I’ll go no further.
GHOST	Mark me.
HAMLET	I will.
GHOST	My hour is almost come When I to sulph’rous and tormenting flames Must render up myself.
HAMLET	Alas, poor ghost!
GHOST	Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing To what I shall unfold.
GHOST	So art thou to revenge when thou shalt hear.
HAMLET	What?
GHOST	I am thy father’s spirit, Doomed for a certain term to walk the night, And for the day confined to fast in fires Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid To tell the secrets of my prison-house I could a tale unfold whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, Make thy two eyes like stars start from their spheres, Thy knotty and combined locks to part, And each particular hair to stand on end Like quills upon the fretful porcupine. But this eternal blazon must not be To ears of flesh and blood. List, Hamlet, list, O list! If thou didst ever thy dear father love—
HAMLET	O God!
GHOST	Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.
HAMLET	Murder?
GHOST	Murder most foul, as in the best it is, But this most foul, strange, and unnatural.
HAMLET	Haste, haste me to know it, that with wings as swift As meditation or the thoughts of love May sweep to my revenge.
GHOST	I find thee apt, And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed That rots itself in ease on Lethe wharf Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear. ’Tis given out that, sleeping in mine orchard, A serpent stung me. So the whole ear of Denmark Is by a forged process of my death Rankly abused. But know, thou noble youth, The serpent that did sting thy father’s life Now wears his crown.
HAMLET	O my prophetic soul! Mine uncle?
GHOST	Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast, With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts— O wicked wit and gifts, that have the power So to seduce!—won to his shameful lust The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen. O Hamlet, what a falling off was there!— From me, whose love was of that dignity That it went hand-in-hand even with the vow I made to her in marriage, and to decline Upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor To those of mine. But virtue, as it never will be moved, Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven, So lust, though to a radiant angel linked, Will sate itself in a celestial bed, And prey on garbage. But soft, methinks I scent the morning’s air. Brief let me be. Sleeping within mine orchard, My custom always in the afternoon, Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial, And in the porches of mine ears did pour The leperous distilment, whose effect Holds such an enmity with blood of man That swift as quicksilver it courses through The natural gates and alleys of the body, And with a sudden vigour it doth posset And curd, like eager droppings into milk, The thin and wholesome blood. So did it mine; And a most instant tetter barked about, Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust, All my smooth body. Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother’s hand Of life, of crown, of queen at once dispatched, Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin, Unhouseled, dis-appointed, unaneled, No reck’ning made, but sent to my account With all my imperfections on my head. O horrible, O horrible, most horrible! If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not. Let not the royal bed of Denmark be A couch for luxury and damned incest. But howsoever thou pursuest this act, Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive Against thy mother aught. Leave her to heaven, And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge To prick and sting her. Fare thee well at once. The glow-worm shows the matin to be near, And gins to pale his uneffectual fire. Adieu, adieu, Hamlet. Remember me. Exit
HAMLET	O all you host of heaven! Oearth! What else? And shall I couple hell? O fie! Hold, hold, my heart, And you, my sinews, grow not instant old, But bear me stiffly up. Remember thee? Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat In this distracted globe. Remember thee? Yea, from the table of my memory I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records, All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past, That youth and observation copied there, And thy commandment all alone shall live
(didascalia)	Within the book and volume of my brain
HAMLET	Unmixed with baser matter. Yes, yes, by heaven. O most pernicious woman! O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain! My tables, My tables—meet it is I set it down That one may smile and smile and be a villain. At least I’m sure it may be so in Denmark. He writes So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word: It is ‘Adieu, adieu, remember me’. I have sworn’t.
HORATIO	and MARCELLUS (within) My lord, my lord.
(didascalia)	Enter Horatio and Marcellus
MARCELLUS	(calling) Lord Hamlet! 115
HORATIO	Heaven secure him.
HAMLET	So be it.
HORATIO	(calling) Illo, ho, ho, my lord.
HAMLET	Hillo, ho, ho, boy; come, bird, come.
MARCELLUS	How is’t, my noble lord?
HORATIO	(to Hamlet) What news, my lord?
HAMLET	O wonderful!
HORATIO	Good my lord, tell it.
HAMLET	No, you’ll reveal it.
HORATIO	Not I, my lord, by heaven.
MARCELLUS	Nor I, my lord.
HAMLET	How say you then, would heart of man once think it? But you’ll be secret?
HORATIO	and MARCELLUS Ay, by heav’n, my lord.
HAMLET	There’s ne’er a villain dwelling in all Denmark But he’s an arrant knave.
HORATIO	There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave To tell us this.
HAMLET	Why, right, you are i’th’ right, And so without more circumstance at all I hold it fit that we shake hands and part, You as your business and desires shall point you— For every man has business and desire, Such as it is—and for mine own poor part, Look you, I’ll go pray.
HORATIO	These are but wild and whirling words, my lord.
HAMLET	I’m sorry they offend you, heartily, Yes, faith, heartily.
HORATIO	There’s no offence, my lord.
HAMLET	Yes, by Saint Patrick, but there is, Horatio, And much offence, too. Touching this vision here, It is an honest ghost, that let me tell you. For your desire to know what is between us, O’ermaster’t as you may. And now, good friends, As you are friends, scholars, and soldiers, Give me one poor request.
HORATIO	What is’t, my lord? We will.
HAMLET	Never make known what you have seen tonight.
HORATIO	and MARCELLUS My lord, we will not.
HAMLET	Nay, but swear’t.
HORATIO	In faith, my lord, not I.
MARCELLUS	Nor I, my lord, in faith.
HAMLET	Upon my sword.
MARCELLUS	We have sworn, my lord, already.
HAMLET	Indeed, upon my sword, indeed. The Ghost cries under the stage
GHOST	Swear.
HAMLET	Ah ha, boy, sayst thou so? Art thou there, truepenny?— Come on. You hear this fellow in the cellarage. Consent to swear.
HORATIO	Propose the oath, my lord.
HAMLET	Never to speak of this that you have seen, Swear by my sword.
GHOST	(under the stage) Swear.
(didascalia)	They swear
HAMLET	Hic et ubique? Then we’ll shift our ground.— Come hither, gentlemen, And lay your hands again upon my sword. Never to speak of this that you have heard, Swear by my sword.
GHOST	(under the stage) Swear.
(didascalia)	They swear
HAMLET	Well said, old mole. Canst work i’th’ earth so fast? A worthy pioneer.—Once more remove, good friends.
HORATIO	O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!
HAMLET	And therefore as a stranger give it welcome. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in our philosophy. But come, Here as before, never, so help you mercy, How strange or odd soe‘er I bear myself— As I perchance hereafter shall think meet To put an antic disposition on— That you at such time seeing me never shall, With arms encumbered thus, or this headshake, Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase As ‘Well, we know’ or ‘We could an if we would’, Or ‘If we list to speak’, or ‘There be, an if they might’, Or such ambiguous giving out, to note That you know aught of me—this not to do, So grace and mercy at your most need help you, swear.
GHOST	(under the stage) Swear.
(didascalia)	They swear
HAMLET	Rest, rest, perturbed spirit.—So, gentlemen, With all my love I do commend me to you, And what so poor a man as Hamlet is May do t’express his love and friending to you, God willing, shall not lack. Let us go in together, And still your fingers on your lips, I pray. The time is out of joint. O cursed spite That ever I was born to set it right! Nay, come, let’s go together. Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entra lo Spettro, e il Principe Hamlet che lo segue
HAMLET	Dove vuoi condurmi? Parla. Non andrò oltre.
SPETTRO	Ascoltami.
HAMLET	Ascolterò.
SPETTRO	La mia ora è quasi giunta, quando alle fiamme sulfuree e tormentose dovrò rendere me stesso.
HAMLET	Ahimè, povero spettro!
SPETTRO	Non compiangermi, ma presta serio ascolto a ciò che ti rivelerò.
SPETTRO	Così sarai tenuto a vendicare quando avrai udito.
HAMLET	Che cosa?
SPETTRO	Io sono lo spirito di tuo padre, condannato per un certo tempo a errare la notte, e di giorno costretto a digiunare nel fuoco finché le turpi colpe commesse nei miei giorni di natura siano arse e purgate via. Se non mi fosse vietato dire i segreti della mia casa di prigione potrei svolgere un racconto la cui parola più lieve ti dilanierebbe l’anima, gelerebbe il tuo giovane sangue, farebbe balzare i tuoi occhi come stelle dalle loro sfere, dividerebbe i tuoi capelli annodati e composti, e ogni singolo capello si drizzerebbe come gli aculei dell’irritabile porcospino. Ma questo blasone dell’eterno non deve giungere a orecchie di carne e sangue. Odi, Hamlet, odi, oh odi! Se mai hai amato il tuo caro padre—
HAMLET	O Dio!
SPETTRO	Vendica il suo turpe e innaturalissimo assassinio.
HAMLET	Assassinio?
SPETTRO	Assassinio turpissimo, come nel migliore dei casi esso è, ma questo turpissimo, strano e innaturale.
HAMLET	Presto, presto, fammelo sapere, ch’io con ali veloci come la meditazione o i pensieri d’amore possa volare alla mia vendetta.
SPETTRO	Ti trovo pronto, e più ottuso saresti della grassa erbaccia che marcisce in ozio sulla riva del Lete se non ti scuotessi a questo. Ora, Hamlet, ascolta. Si va dicendo che, mentre dormivo nel mio frutteto, un serpente mi punse. Così l’orecchio intero di Danimarca è da un falso racconto della mia morte grossolanamente ingannato. Ma sappi, nobile giovane, il serpente che punse a morte la vita di tuo padre ne porta ora la corona.
HAMLET	O anima mia profetica! Mio zio?
SPETTRO	Sì, quella bestia incestuosa, quella bestia adultera, con la stregoneria del suo ingegno, con doni traditori— o malvagio ingegno e doni, che hanno il potere di sedurre così!—conquistò alla sua vergognosa libidine la volontà della mia regina, così virtuosa in apparenza. O Hamlet, che caduta fu quella!— Da me, il cui amore era di tale dignità che andava di pari passo col voto stesso che le feci nel matrimonio, e discendere a un miserabile i cui doni naturali erano poveri a paragone dei miei. Ma come la virtù non si lascia mai smuovere, anche se la lascivia la corteggi in forma celeste, così la libidine, pur legata a un angelo radioso, si sazierà in un letto celeste, e andrà a pascersi di rifiuti. Ma piano, mi par di fiutare l’aria del mattino. Sarò breve. Mentre dormivo nel mio frutteto, come sempre usavo nel pomeriggio, nella mia ora sicura tuo zio s’insinuò con succo di maledetto ebeno in un’ampolla, e nei vestiboli dei miei orecchi versò quel distillato lebbroso, il cui effetto ha tale inimicizia col sangue dell’uomo che veloce come l’argento vivo corre per le porte e i vicoli naturali del corpo, e con subitaneo vigore rapprende e caglia, come gocce acide nel latte, il sangue fluido e sano. Così fece del mio; e in un istante una scabbia incrostò, come di lebbroso, con vile e ripugnante crosta, tutto il mio liscio corpo. Così fui, dormendo, per mano d’un fratello della vita, della corona, della regina a un tratto spogliato, reciso proprio nel fiore del mio peccato, senza eucaristia, impreparato, senza estrema unzione, senza aver reso conto, ma mandato al mio giudizio con tutte le mie imperfezioni sul capo. Oh orribile, oh orribile, orribilissimo! Se hai natura in te, non lo sopportare. Non sia il letto regale di Danimarca giaciglio di lussuria e di dannato incesto. Ma in qualunque modo tu persegua quest’atto, non contaminare la tua mente, né la tua anima macchini nulla contro tua madre. Lasciala al cielo, e a quelle spine che le albergano in seno per pungerla e trafiggerla. Sta’ bene, e addio, ormai. La lucciola mostra che il mattino è vicino, e comincia a impallidire il suo fuoco senza efficacia. Addio, addio, Hamlet. Ricordati di me. Esce
HAMLET	O voi tutte schiere del cielo! O terra! Che altro? E vi accoppierò l’inferno? Oh vergogna! Reggi, reggi, cuore mio, e voi, miei nervi, non invecchiate d’un tratto, ma sostenetemi saldo. Ricordarmi di te? Sì, povero spettro, finché la memoria avrà un seggio in questo globo sconvolto. Ricordarmi di te? Sì, dalla tavola della mia memoria cancellerò tutti i futili e vani ricordi, tutte le massime dei libri, tutte le forme, tutte le impronte passate, che la giovinezza e l’osservazione vi trascrissero, e il tuo comando vivrà tutto solo
(didascalia)	nel libro e nel volume del mio cervello
HAMLET	non mescolato a materia più vile. Sì, sì, per il cielo. O donna perniciosissima! O scellerato, scellerato, sorridente, dannato scellerato! Le mie tavolette, le mie tavolette—conviene ch’io ne prenda nota, che si può sorridere e sorridere ed essere uno scellerato. Almeno son certo che così può essere in Danimarca. Scrive Ecco, zio, ci siete. Ora alla mia parola d’ordine: è ‘Addio, addio, ricordati di me’. L’ho giurato.
HORATIO	e MARCELLUS (da dentro) Mio signore, mio signore.
(didascalia)	Entrano Horatio e Marcellus
MARCELLUS	(chiamando) Signor Hamlet! 115
HORATIO	Il cielo lo protegga.
HAMLET	Così sia.
HORATIO	(chiamando) Illo, ho, ho, mio signore.
HAMLET	Hillo, ho, ho, ragazzo; vieni, uccello, vieni.
MARCELLUS	Come va, mio nobile signore?
HORATIO	(a Hamlet) Quali notizie, mio signore?
HAMLET	Oh, meraviglioso!
HORATIO	Mio buon signore, ditelo.
HAMLET	No, lo rivelereste.
HORATIO	Io no, mio signore, per il cielo.
MARCELLUS	Né io, mio signore.
HAMLET	Che dite dunque, cuore d’uomo l’avrebbe mai pensato? Ma saprete tacere?
HORATIO	e MARCELLUS Sì, per il cielo, mio signore.
HAMLET	Non c’è scellerato che viva in tutta Danimarca che non sia un furfante matricolato.
HORATIO	Non c’era bisogno d’uno spettro, mio signore, uscito dalla tomba per dirci questo.
HAMLET	Ma sì, giusto, avete ragione, e dunque, senza altre cerimonie, stimo bene che ci stringiamo la mano e ci separiamo, voi dove i vostri affari e desideri v’indicheranno— ché ogni uomo ha affari e desiderio, tali quali sono—e per la mia povera parte, vedete, io andrò a pregare.
HORATIO	Queste sono solo parole sconnesse e vorticose, mio signore.
HAMLET	Mi spiace che v’offendano, di cuore, sì, in fede mia, di cuore.
HORATIO	Non c’è offesa, mio signore.
HAMLET	Sì, per San Patrizio, offesa c’è, Horatio, e molta offesa, per giunta. Quanto a questa visione, è uno spettro onesto, questo ve lo posso dire. Quanto al vostro desiderio di sapere che cosa vi sia fra noi, dominatelo come potete. E ora, buoni amici, poiché siete amici, studiosi e soldati, concedetemi una povera richiesta.
HORATIO	Quale, mio signore? Lo faremo.
HAMLET	Non fate mai sapere ciò che avete visto stanotte.
HORATIO	e MARCELLUS Mio signore, non lo faremo.
HAMLET	No, ma giuratelo.
HORATIO	In fede mia, mio signore, io no.
MARCELLUS	Né io, mio signore, in fede mia.
HAMLET	Sulla mia spada.
MARCELLUS	Abbiamo già giurato, mio signore.
HAMLET	Davvero, sulla mia spada, davvero. Lo Spettro grida sotto il palco
SPETTRO	Giurate.
HAMLET	Ah ah, ragazzo, dici così? Sei là, buon compagno?— Avanti. Udite quel tale nella cantina. Acconsentite a giurare.
HORATIO	Formulate il giuramento, mio signore.
HAMLET	Di non parlar mai di ciò che avete visto, giurate sulla mia spada.
SPETTRO	(sotto il palco) Giurate.
(didascalia)	Giurano
HAMLET	Hic et ubique? Allora cambieremo posto.— Venite qua, signori, e ponete di nuovo le mani sulla mia spada. Di non parlar mai di ciò che avete udito, giurate sulla mia spada.
SPETTRO	(sotto il palco) Giurate.
(didascalia)	Giurano
HAMLET	Ben detto, vecchia talpa. Sai lavorare così presto sotto terra? Un degno zappatore.—Ancora una volta spostiamoci, buoni amici.
HORATIO	O giorno e notte, ma questo è meravigliosamente strano!
HAMLET	E perciò dategli il benvenuto come a uno straniero. Vi sono più cose in cielo e in terra, Horatio, di quante ne sogni la nostra filosofia. Ma venite, qui come prima, mai, così vi assista la misericordia, per quanto strano o bizzarro io mi comporti— poiché forse d’ora innanzi stimerò opportuno assumere un contegno da buffone— che voi, vedendomi in tal tempo, non dobbiate mai, con le braccia incrociate così, o con questo scuoter del capo, o pronunciando qualche frase ambigua come ‘Bene, noi sappiamo’ o ‘Potremmo, se volessimo’, o ‘Se ci piacesse parlare’, o ‘C’è chi, se potesse’, o con simili ambigue insinuazioni, far intendere che sapete qualcosa di me—di non far questo, così la grazia e la misericordia vi soccorrano nel maggior bisogno, giurate.
SPETTRO	(sotto il palco) Giurate.
(didascalia)	Giurano
HAMLET	Riposa, riposa, spirito turbato.—Così, signori, con tutto il mio amore mi raccomando a voi, e ciò che un uomo così povero qual è Hamlet può fare per esprimervi il suo amore e la sua amicizia, a Dio piacendo, non mancherà. Entriamo insieme, e sempre le dita sulle labbra, vi prego. Il tempo è uscito dai cardini. O maledetta sorte che io sia mai nato per rimetterlo a posto! Su, venite, andiamo insieme. Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter old Polonius with his man Reynaldo
POLONIUS	Give him this money and these notes, Reynaldo.
REYNALDO	I will, my lord.
POLONIUS	You shall do marv’lous wisely, good Reynaldo, Before you visit him to make enquire Of his behaviour.
REYNALDO	My lord, I did intend it.
POLONIUS	Marry, well said, very well said. Look you, sir, Enquire me first what Danskers are in Paris, And how, and who, what means, and where they keep, What company, at what expense; and finding By this encompassment and drift of question That they do know my son, come you more nearer Than your particular demands will touch it. Take you, as ‘twere, some distant knowledge of him, As thus: ‘I know his father and his friends, And in part him’—do you mark this, Reynaldo?
REYNALDO	Ay, very well, my lord.
POLONIUS	‘And in part him, but’, you may say, ‘not well, But if’t be he I mean, he’s very wild, Addicted so and so’; and there put on him What forgeries you please—marry, none so rank As may dishonour him, take heed of that— But, sir, such wanton, wild, and usual slips As are companions noted and most known To youth and liberty.
REYNALDO	As gaming, my lord?
POLONIUS	Ay, or drinking, fencing, swearing, Quarrelling, drabbing—you may go so far.
REYNALDO	My lord, that would dishonour him.
POLONIUS	Faith, no, as you may season it in the charge. You must not put another scandal on him, That he is open to incontinency. That’s not my meaning—but breathe his faults so quaintly That they may seem the taints of liberty, The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind, A savageness in unreclaimed blood, Of general assault.
REYNALDO	But, my good lord—
POLONIUS	Wherefore should you do this?
REYNALDO	Ay, my lord. I would know that.
POLONIUS	Marry, sir, here’s my drift, And I believe it is a fetch of warrant: You laying these slight sullies on my son, As ‘twere a thing a little soiled i’th’ working, Mark you, your party in converse, him you would sound, Having ever seen in the prenominate crimes The youth you breathe of guilty, be assured He closes with you in this consequence: ‘Good sir’, or so, or ‘friend’, or ‘gentleman’, According to the phrase and the addition Of man and country.
REYNALDO	Very good, my lord.
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’, at ‘friend, Or so’, and ‘gentleman’.
POLONIUS	At ‘closes in the consequence’—ay, marry, He closes with you thus: ‘I know the gentleman, I saw him yesterday’—or t‘other day, Or then, or then—’with such and such, and, as you say, There was a gaming, there o‘ertook in ’s rouse, There falling out at tennis’, or perchance ‘I saw him enter such a house of sale’, Videlicet, a brothel, or so forth. See you now, Your bait of falsehood takes 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 b’wi’ ye. Fare ye well.
REYNALDO	Good my lord.
POLONIUS	Observe his inclination in yourself.
REYNALDO	I shall, my lord.
POLONIUS	And let him ply his music.
REYNALDO	Well, my lord.
(didascalia)	Enter Ophelia
POLONIUS	Farewell.
(didascalia)	Exit Reynaldo
POLONIUS	How now, Ophelia, what’s the matter?
OPHELIA	Alas, my lord, I have been so affrighted.
POLONIUS	With what, i’th’ name of God?
OPHELIA	My lord, as I was sewing in my chamber, Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced, No hat upon his head, his stockings fouled, Ungartered, and down-gyvèd to his ankle, Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other, And with a look so piteous in purport As if he had been loosed out of hell To speak of horrors, he comes before me.
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 As a would draw it. 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 That 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 his way without his eyes, For out o’ doors he went without their help, And to the last bended their light on me.
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 passion 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 you did command I did repel his letters and denied His access to me.
POLONIUS	That hath made him mad. I am sorry that with better speed and judgement I had not quoted him. I feared he did but trifle And meant to wreck 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, being kept close, might move More grief to hide than hate to utter love. Exeunt
(didascalia)	2.2 Flourish. Enter King Claudius and Queen Gertrude, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, with others
KING CLAUDIUS	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 I call it, Since not th‘exterior nor the inward man Resembles that it was. What it should be, More than his father’s death, that thus hath put him So much from th’understanding of himself, I cannot deem of. I entreat you both That, being of so young days brought up with him, And since so neighboured to his youth and humour, 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 occasions you may glean, Whether aught to us unknown afflicts him thus That, opened, lies within our remedy.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	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 a while For the supply and profit of our hope, Your visitation shall receive such thanks As fits a king’s remembrance.
ROSENCRANTZ	Both your majesties Might, by the sovereign power you have of us, Put your dread pleasures more into command Than to entreaty.
GUILDENSTERN	But we both obey, And here give up ourselves in the full bent To lay our service freely at your feet To be commanded.
KING CLAUDIUS	Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz. And I beseech you instantly to visit My too-much changed son.—Go, some of ye, And bring the gentlemen where Hamlet is.
GUILDENSTERN	Heavens make our presence and our practices Pleasant and helpful to him.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Ay, amen!
(didascalia)	Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern with others Enter Polonius
POLONIUS	Th’ambassadors from Norway, my good lord, Are joyfully returned.
KING CLAUDIUS	Thou still hast been the father of good news.
POLONIUS	Have I, my lord? Assure you, my good liege, I hold my duty, as I hold my soul, Both to my God and to my gracious King. And I do think—or else this brain of mine Hunts not the trail of policy so sure As it hath used to do—that I have found The very cause of Hamlet’s lunacy.
KING CLAUDIUS	O speak of that, that I do long to hear!
POLONIUS	Give first admittance to th’ambassadors. My news shall be the fruit to that great feast.
KING CLAUDIUS	Thyself do grace to them, and bring them in.
(didascalia)	Exit Polonius
KING CLAUDIUS	He tells me, my sweet queen, that he hath found The head and source of all your son’s distemper.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	I doubt it is no other but the main— His father’s death and our o’er-hasty marriage.
KING CLAUDIUS	Well, we shall sift him.
(didascalia)	Enter Polonius, Valtemand, and Cornelius Welcome, my good friends.
KING CLAUDIUS	Say, Valtemand, what from our brother Norway?
VALTEMAND	Most fair return of greetings and desires. Upon our first he sent out to suppress His nephew’s levies, which to him appeared To be a preparation ‘gainst the Polack; But better looked into, he truly found It was against your highness; whereat grieved That so his sickness, age, and impotence Was falsely borne in hand, sends out arrests On Fortinbras, which he, in brief, obeys, Receives rebuke from Norway, and, in fine, Makes vow before his uncle never more To give th’essay of arms against your majesty; Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy, Gives him three thousand crowns in annual fee And his commission to employ those soldiers So levied as before, against the Polack, With an entreaty herein further shown, He gives a letter to Claudius That it might please you to give quiet pass Through your dominions for his enterprise On such regards of safety and allowance As therein are set down.
KING CLAUDIUS	It likes us well, And at our more considered time we’ll read, Answer, and think upon this business. Meantime we thank you for your well-took labour. Go to your rest; at night we’ll feast together. Most welcome home.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Valtemand and Cornelius
POLONIUS	This business is very well ended. My liege, and madam, to expostulate What majesty should be, what duty is, Why day is day, night night, and time is time, Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time. Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit, And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief. Your noble son is mad— ‘Mad’ call I it, for to define true madness, What is’t but to be nothing else but mad? But let that go.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	More matter with less art.
POLONIUS	Madam, I swear I use no art at all. That he is mad, ‘tis true; ’tis true ‘tis pity, And pity ’tis ‘tis true—a foolish figure, But farewell it, for I will use no art. Mad let us grant him, then; and now remains That we find out the cause of this effect— Or rather say ’the cause of this defect‘, For this effect defective comes by cause. Thus it remains, and the remainder thus. Perpend. I have a daughter—have whilst she is mine— Who in her duty and obedience, mark, Hath given me this. Now gather and surmise. He reads a letter ’To the celestial and my soul’s idol, the most beautified Ophelia‘—that’s an ill phrase, a vile phrase, ‘beautified’ is a vile phrase. But you shall hear—‘these in her excellent white bosom, these’.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Came this from Hamlet to her?
POLONIUS	Good madam, stay a while. I will be faithful. ‘Doubt thou the stars are fire, Doubt that the sun doth move, Doubt truth to be a liar, But never doubt I love. O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers. I have not art to reckon my groans. But that I love thee best, O most best, believe it. Adieu. Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this machine is to him, Hamlet.’ This in obedience hath my daughter showed me, And more above hath his solicitings, As they fell out by time, by means, and place, All given to mine ear.
KING CLAUDIUS	But how hath she Received his love?
POLONIUS	What do you think of me?
KING CLAUDIUS	As of a man faithful and honourable.
POLONIUS	I would fain prove so. But what might you think, When I had seen this hot love on the wing, As I perceived it—I must tell you that— Before my daughter told me, what might you, Or my dear majesty your queen here, think, If I had played the desk or table-book, Or given my heart a winking mute and dumb, Or looked upon this love with idle sight— What might you think? No, I went round to work, And my young mistress thus I did bespeak: ‘Lord Hamlet is a prince out of thy star. This must not be’. And then I precepts gave her, That she should lock herself from his resort, Admit no messengers, receive no tokens; Which done, she took the fruits of my advice, And he, repulsèd-a short tale to make— Fell into a sadness, then into a fast, Thence to a watch, thence into a weakness, Thence to a lightness, and, by this declension, Into the madness wherein now he raves, And all we wail for.
KING CLAUDIUS	(to Gertrude) Do you think ’tis this?
QUEEN GERTRUDE	It may be; very likely.
POLONIUS	Hath there been such a time—I’d fain know that— That I have positively said ‘ ’Tis so’ When it proved otherwise?
KING CLAUDIUS	Not that I know.
POLONIUS	(touching his head, then his shoulder) Take this from this if this be otherwise. If circumstances lead me I will find Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed
(didascalia)	Within the centre.
KING CLAUDIUS	How may we try it further?
POLONIUS	You know sometimes he walks four hours together Here in the lobby.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	So he does indeed.
POLONIUS	At such a time I’ll loose my daughter to him. (To Claudius) Be you and I behind an arras then. Mark the encounter. If he love her not, And be not from his reason fall’n thereon, Let me be no assistant for a state, But keep a farm and carters.
KING CLAUDIUS	We will try it.
(didascalia)	Enter Prince Hamlet, madly attired, reading on a book
QUEEN GERTRUDE	But look where sadly the poor wretch comes reading.
POLONIUS	Away, I do beseech you both, away. I’ll board him presently. O give me leave.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Claudius and Gertrude
POLONIUS	How does my good Lord Hamlet?
HAMLET	Well, God-‘a’-mercy.
POLONIUS	Do you know me, my lord?
HAMLET	Excellent, excellent well. You’re a fishmonger.
POLONIUS	Not I, my lord.
HAMLET	Then I would you were so honest a man.
POLONIUS	Honest, my lord?
HAMLET	Ay, sir. To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.
POLONIUS	That’s very true, my lord.
HAMLET	For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a good kissing carrion—have you a daughter?
POLONIUS	I have, my lord.
HAMLET	Let her not walk i’th’ sun. Conception is a blessing, but not as your daughter may conceive. Friend, look to’t.
POLONIUS	(aside) How say you by that? Still harping on my daughter. Yet he knew me not at first—a said I was a fishmonger. A is far gone, far gone, and truly, in my youth I suffered much extremity for love, very near this. I’ll speak to him again.—What do you read, my lord?
HAMLET	Words, words, words.
POLONIUS	What is the matter, my lord?
HAMLET	Between who?
POLONIUS	I mean the matter you read, my lord.
HAMLET	Slanders, sir; for the satirical slave says here that old men have grey beards, that their faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber, or plum-tree gum, and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams. All which, sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down; for you yourself, sir, should be old as I am—if, like a crab, you could go backward.
POLONIUS	(aside) Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.—Will you walk out of the air, my lord?
HAMLET	Into my grave.
POLONIUS	Indeed, that is out o’th’ air. (Aside) How pregnant sometimes his replies are! A happiness that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity could not so prosperously be delivered of. I will leave him, and suddenly contrive the means of meeting between him and my daughter.—My lord, I will take my leave of you.
HAMLET	You cannot, sir, take from me anything that I will more willingly part withal—except my life, my life, my life.
POLONIUS	(going) Fare you well, my lord.
(didascalia)	HAMLET These tedious old fools! Enter Guildenstern and Rosencrantz
POLONIUS	You go to seek the Lord Hamlet. There he is.
ROSENCRANTZ	God save you, sir.
(didascalia)	GUILDENSTERN to Polonius Mine honoured lord. Exit Polonius
ROSENCRANTZ	(to Hamlet) My most dear lord.
HAMLET	My ex’llent good friends. How dost thou, Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz—good lads, how do ye both?
ROSENCRANTZ	As the indifferent children of the earth.
GUILDENSTERN	Happy in that we are not over-happy, On Fortune’s cap we are not the very button.
HAMLET	Nor the soles of her shoe?
ROSENCRANTZ	Neither, my lord.
HAMLET	Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of her favour?
GUILDENSTERN	Faith, her privates we.
HAMLET	In the secret parts of Fortune? O, most true, she is a strumpet. What’s the news?
ROSENCRANTZ	None, my lord, but that the world’s grown honest.
HAMLET	Then is doomsday near. But your news is not true. Let me question more in particular. What have you, my good friends, deserved at the hands of Fortune that she sends you to prison hither?
GUILDENSTERN	Prison, my lord?
HAMLET	Denmark’s a prison.
ROSENCRANTZ	Then is the world one.
HAMLET	A goodly one, in which there are many confines, wards, and dungeons, Denmark being one o’th’ worst.
ROSENCRANTZ	We think not so, my lord.
HAMLET	Why, then ’tis none to you, for there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. To me it is a prison.
ROSENCRANTZ	Why, then your ambition makes it one; ’tis too narrow for your mind.
HAMLET	O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.
GUILDENSTERN	Which dreams indeed are ambition; for the very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.
HAMLET	A dream itself is but a shadow.
ROSENCRANTZ	Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality that it is but a shadow’s shadow.
HAMLET	Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and outstretched heroes the beggars’ shadows. Shall we to th’ court? For, by my fay, I cannot reason.
ROSENCRANTZ	and GUILDENSTERN We’ll wait upon you.
HAMLET	No such matter. I will not sort you with the rest of my servants, for, to speak to you like an honest man, I am most dreadfully attended. But in the beaten way of friendship, what make you at Elsinore?
ROSENCRANTZ	To visit you, my lord, no other occasion.
HAMLET	Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks, but I thank you; and sure, dear friends, my thanks are too dear a halfpenny. Were you not sent for? Is it your own inclining? Is it a free visitation? Come, deal justly with me. Come, come. Nay, speak. 278
GUILDENSTERN	What should we say, my lord?
HAMLET	Why, anything—but to th’ purpose. You were sent for, and there is a kind of confession in your looks which your modesties have not craft enough to colour. I know the good King and Queen have sent for you.
ROSENCRANTZ	To what end, my lord?
HAMLET	That you must teach me. But let me conjure you by the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy of our youth, by the obligation of our ever-preserved love, and by what more dear a better proposer could charge you withal, be even and direct with me whether you were sent for or no.
ROSENCRANTZ	(to Guildenstern) What say you?
HAMLET	Nay then, I have an eye of you—if you love me, hold not off.
GUILDENSTERN	My lord, we were sent for.
HAMLET	I will tell you why. So shall my anticipation prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the King and Queen moult no feather. I have of late—but wherefore I know not—tost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercise; and indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory. This most excellent canopy the air, look you, this brave o’erhanging, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire—why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god—the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals! And yet to me what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me—no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.
ROSENCRANTZ	My lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts.
HAMLET	Why did you laugh, then, when I said ‘Man delights not me’?
ROSENCRANTZ	To think, my lord, if you delight not in man what lenten entertainment the players shall receive from you. We coted them on the way, and hither are they coming to offer you service.
HAMLET	He that plays the King shall be welcome; his majesty shall have tribute of me. The adventurous Knight shall use his foil and target, the Lover shall not sigh gratis, the Humorous Man shall end his part in peace, the Clown shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickled o’th’ sear, and the Lady shall say her mind freely, or the blank verse shall halt for’t. What players are they?
ROSENCRANTZ	Even those you were wont to take delight in, the tragedians of the city.
HAMLET	How chances it they travel? Their residence both in reputation and profit was better both ways.
ROSENCRANTZ	I think their inhibition comes by the means of the late innovation.
HAMLET	Do they hold the same estimation they did when I was in the city? Are they so followed?
ROSENCRANTZ	No, indeed, they are not.
HAMLET	How comes it? Do they grow rusty?
ROSENCRANTZ	Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace. But there is, sir, an eyrie of children, little eyases, that cry out on the top of question and are most tyrannically clapped for’t. These are now the fashion, and so berattle the common stages—so they call them—that many wearing rapiers are afraid of goose-quills, and dare scarce come thither.
HAMLET	What, are they children? Who maintains ’em? How are they escoted? Will they pursue the quality no longer than they can sing? Will they not say afterwards, if they should grow themselves to common players—as it is like most will, if their means are not better—their writers do them wrong to make them exclaim against their own succession?
ROSENCRANTZ	Faith, there has been much to-do on both sides, and the nation holds it no sin to tarre them to controversy. There was for a while no money bid for argument unless the poet and the player went to cuffs in the question.
HAMLET	Is’t possible?
GUILDENSTERN	O, there has been much throwing about of brains.
HAMLET	Do the boys carry it away?
ROSENCRANTZ	Ay, that they do, my lord, Hercules and his load too.
HAMLET	It is not strange; for mine uncle is King of Denmark, and those that would make mows at him while my father lived give twenty, forty, an hundred ducats apiece for his picture in little. ’Sblood, there is something in this more than natural, if philosophy could find it out.
(didascalia)	A flourish for the Players
GUILDENSTERN	There are the players.
HAMLET	Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands, come. Th’appurtenance of welcome is fashion and ceremony. Let me comply with you in the garb, lest my extent to the players—which, I tell you, must show fairly outward—shoutd more appear like entertainment than yours.
(didascalia)	He shakes hands with them
HAMLET	You are welcome. But my uncle-father and aunt-mother are deceived.
GUILDENSTERN	In what, my dear lord?
HAMLET	I am but mad north-north-west; when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw.
(didascalia)	Enter Polonius
POLONIUS	Well be with you, gentlemen.
HAMLET	(aside) Hark you, Guildenstern, and you too—at each ear a hearer—that great baby you see there is not yet out of his swathing-clouts.
ROSENCRANTZ	(aside) Haply he’s the second time come to them, for they say an old man is twice a child.
HAMLET	(aside) I will prophesy he comes to tell me of the players. Mark it.—You say right, sir, for o’ Monday morning, ’twas so indeed.
POLONIUS	My lord, I have news to tell you.
HAMLET	My lord, I have news to tell you. When Roscius was an actor in Rome—
POLONIUS	The actors are come hither, my lord.
HAMLET	BUZZ, buzz.
POLONIUS	Upon mine honour—
HAMLET	Then came each actor on his ass.
POLONIUS	The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastorical-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral, scene individable or poem unlimited. Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light. For the law of writ and the liberty, these are the only men.
HAMLET	O Jephthah, judge of Israel, what a treasure hadst thou!
POLONIUS	What a treasure had he, my lord?
HAMLET	Why, ‘One fair daughter and no more, The which he loved passing well’.
POLONIUS	(aside) Still on my daughter.
HAMLET	Am I not i’th’ right, old Jephthah?
POLONIUS	If you call me Jephthah, my lord, I have a daughter that I love passing well.
HAMLET	Nay, that follows not.
POLONIUS	What follows then, my lord?
HAMLET	Why ‘As by lot God wot’, and then you know ‘It came to pass As most like it was’— the first row of the pious chanson will show you more, for look where my abridgements come.
(didascalia)	Enter four or five Players
HAMLET	You’re welcome, masters, welcome all.—Iam glad to see thee well.—Welcome, good friends.—O, my old friend! Thy face is valanced since I saw thee last. Com‘st thou to beard me in Denmark?—What, my young lady and mistress. By’r Lady, your ladyship is nearer heaven than when I saw you last by the altitude of a chopine. Pray God your voice, like a piece of uncurrent gold, be not cracked within the ring.—Masters, you are all welcome. We’ll e‘en to’t like French falc’ners, fly at anything we see. We’ll have a speech straight. Come, give us a taste of your quality. Come, a passionate speech.
FIRST PLAYER	What speech, my good lord?
HAMLET	I heard thee speak me a speech once, but it was never acted, or, if it was, not above once; for the play, I remember, pleased not the million. ‘Twas caviare to the general. But it was—as I received it, and others whose judgements in such matters cried in the top of mine—an excellent play, well digested in the scenes, set down with as much modesty as cunning. I remember one said there was no sallets in the lines to make the matter savoury, nor no matter in the phrase that might indict the author of affectation, but called it an honest method, as wholesome as sweet, and by very much more handsome than fine. One speech in it I chiefly loved, ’twas Aeneas’ tale to Dido, and thereabout of it especially where he speaks of Priam’s slaughter. If it live in your memory, begin at this line—let me see, let me see: ‘The rugged Pyrrhus, like th’Hyrcanian beast‘—’tis not so. It begins with Pyrrhus—‘The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms, Black as his purpose, did the night resemble When he lay couched in the ominous horse, Hath now this dread and black complexion smeared With heraldry more dismal. Head to foot Now is he total gules, horridly tricked With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, Baked and impasted with the parching streets, That lend a tyrranous and damned light To their vile murders. Roasted in wrath and fire, And thus o’er-sizèd with coagulate gore, With eyes like carbuncles the hellish Pyrrhus Old grandsire Priam seeks’ So, proceed you.
POLONIUS	Fore God, my lord, well spoken, with good accent and good discretion.
FIRST PLAYER	‘Anon he finds him, Striking too short at Greeks. His antique sword, Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls, Repugnant to command. Unequal match, Pyrrhus at Priam drives, in rage strikes wide; But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword Th‘unnervèd father falls. Then senseless Ilium, Seeming to feel his blow, with flaming top Stoops to his base, and with a hideous crash Takes prisoner Pyrrhus’ ear. For lo, his sword, Which was declining on the milky head Of reverend Priam, seemed i’th’ air to stick. So, as a painted tyrant, Pyrrhus stood, And, like a neutral to his will and matter, Did nothing. But as we often see against some storm A silence in the heavens, the rack stand still, The bold winds speechless, and the orb below As hush as death, anon the dreadful thunder Doth rend the region: so, after Pyrrhus’ pause, A rousèd vengeance sets him new a-work; And never did the Cyclops’ hammers fall On Mars his armour, forged for proof eterne, With less remorse than Pyrrhus’ bleeding sword Now falls on Priam. Out, out, thou strumpet Fortune! All you gods, In general synod, take away her power, Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel, And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven, As low as to the fiends!’
POLONIUS	This is too long.
HAMLET	It shall to the barber’s, with your beard. (To First Player) Prithee, say on. He’s for a jig or a tale of bawdry, or he sleeps. Say on, come to Hecuba.
FIRST PLAYER	‘But who, O who had seen the mobbled queen’—
HAMLET	‘The mobbled queen’?
POLONIUS	That’s good; ‘mobbled queen’ is good.
FIRST PLAYER	‘Run barefoot up and down, threat’ning the flames With bisson rheum; a clout upon that head Where late the diadem stood, and for a robe, About her lank and all o‘er-teemèd loins, A blanket in th’alarm of fear caught up— Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steeped, ‘Gainst Fortune’s state would treason have pronounced. But if the gods themselves did see her then, When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport In mincing with his sword her husband’s limbs, The instant burst of clamour that she made— Unless things mortal move them not at all— Would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven, And passion in the gods.’
POLONIUS	Look whe’er he has not turned his colour, and has tears in ’s eyes. (To First Player) Prithee, no more.
HAMLET	(to First Player) ’Tis well. I’ll have thee speak out the rest soon. (To Polonius) Good my lord, will you see the players well bestowed? Do ye hear?—let them be well used, for they are the abstracts and brief chronicles of the time. After your death you were better have a bad epitaph than their ill report while you live.
POLONIUS	My lord, I will use them according to their desert.
HAMLET	God’s bodykins, man, much better. Use every man after his desert, and who should scape whipping? Use them after your own honour and dignity—the less they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty. Take them in.
POLONIUS	(to Players) Come, sirs. Exit
HAMLET	(to Players) Follow him, friends. We’ll hear a play tomorrow. Dost thou hear me, old friend? Can you play the murder of Gonzago?
(didascalia)	PLAYERS Ay, my lord.
HAMLET	We’ll ha’t tomorrow night. You could for a need study a speech of some dozen or sixteen lines which I would set down and insert in’t, could ye not?
(didascalia)	PLAYERS Ay, my lord.
(didascalia)	HAMLET Very well. Follow that lord, and look you mock him not. Exeunt Players My good friends, I’ll leave you till night. You are welcome to Elsinore.
ROSENCRANTZ	Good my lord.
HAMLET	Ay, so. God b‘wi’ ye. Exeunt all but Hamlet Now I am alone. O, what a rogue and peasant slave am Il Is it not monstrous that this player here, But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, Could force his soul so to his whole conceit That from her working all his visage wanned, Tears in his eyes, distraction in ’s aspect, A broken voice, and his whole function suiting With forms to his conceit? And all for nothing. For Hecuba! What’s Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, That he should weep for her? What would he do Had he the motive and the cue for passion That I have? He would drown the stage with tears, And cleave the general ear with horrid speech, Make mad the guilty and appal the free, Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed The very faculty of eyes and ears. Yet I, A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause, And can say nothing—no, not for a king Upon whose property and most dear life A damned defeat was made. Am I a coward? Who calls me villain, breaks my pate across, Plucks off my beard and blows it in my face, Tweaks me by th’ nose, gives me the lie i’th’ throat As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this? Ha? ‘Swounds, I should take it; for it cannot be But I am pigeon-livered and lack gall To make oppression bitter, or ere this I should ’a’ fatted all the region kites With this slave’s offal. Bloody, bawdy villain! Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain! O, vengeance!— Why, what an ass am I? Ay, sure, this is most brave, That I, the son of the dear murdered, Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words And fall a-cursing like a very drab, A scullion! Fie upon‘t, foh!—About, my brain. I have heard that guilty creatures sitting at a play Have by the very cunning of the scene Been struck so to the soul that presently They have proclaimed their malefactions; For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak With most miraculous organ. I’ll have these players Play something like the murder of my father Before mine uncle. I’ll observe his looks, I’ll tent him to the quick. If a but blench, I know my course. The spirit that I have seen May be the devil, and the devil hath power T’assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps, Out of my weakness and my melancholy— As he is very potent with such spirits— Abuses me to damn me. I’ll have grounds More relative than this. The play’s the thing Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King.
(didascalia)	Exit

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entra il vecchio Polonius con il suo uomo Reynaldo
POLONIUS	Dategli questo denaro e queste note, Reynaldo.
REYNALDO	Lo farò, mio signore.
POLONIUS	Farete cosa mirabilmente saggia, buon Reynaldo, prima di visitarlo, d’informarvi della sua condotta.
REYNALDO	Mio signore, era mia intenzione.
POLONIUS	Perbacco, ben detto, molto ben detto. Vedete, signore, informatevi anzitutto quali danesi siano a Parigi, e come, e chi, con quali mezzi, e dove alloggino, con quale compagnia, con quale spesa; e trovando, per questo giro e deriva di domande, che conoscono mio figlio, accostatevi più da presso di quanto le vostre domande precise farebbero. Fingete, per così dire, una conoscenza lontana di lui, così: ‘Conosco suo padre e i suoi amici, e in parte lui’—seguite, Reynaldo?
REYNALDO	Sì, molto bene, mio signore.
POLONIUS	‘E in parte lui, ma’, potete dire, ‘non bene, però, se è quello ch’io intendo, è assai sfrenato, dedito a questo e a quello’; e appioppategli quali invenzioni vi piaccia—badate, nessuna così grossa da disonorarlo, guardatevene— ma, signore, quegli scarti lascivi, sfrenati e consueti che son compagni noti e notissimi alla giovinezza e alla libertà.
REYNALDO	Come il giuoco, mio signore?
POLONIUS	Sì, o il bere, la scherma, il bestemmiare, l’attaccar brighe, il puttaneggiare—fin lì potete spingervi.
REYNALDO	Mio signore, questo lo disonorerebbe.
POLONIUS	In fede, no, se saprete condirlo nell’accusa. Non dovete addossargli un altro scandalo, che sia aperto all’incontinenza. Non è questo il mio intento—ma spirate le sue colpe così garbatamente che paiano le macchie della libertà, il lampo e lo scoppio d’una mente focosa, una selvatichezza in sangue non domato, d’assalto universale.
REYNALDO	Ma, mio buon signore—
POLONIUS	Perché dovreste far ciò?
REYNALDO	Sì, mio signore. Vorrei saperlo.
POLONIUS	Perbacco, signore, ecco il mio disegno, e credo sia uno stratagemma di sicura riuscita: voi, ponendo queste lievi macchie su mio figlio, come cosa un poco insudiciata nel lavorarla, badate, il vostro interlocutore, colui che volete sondare, se mai ha visto nei sopraddetti vizi colpevole il giovane di cui parlate, siate certo che si accorderà con voi in questo modo: ‘Buon signore’, o simile, o ‘amico’, o ‘gentiluomo’, secondo la frase e l’appellativo dell’uomo e del paese.
REYNALDO	Benissimo, mio signore.
POLONIUS	E allora, signore, egli fa questo—egli fa— che stavo per dire? Per la messa, stavo per dire qualcosa. Dove m’ero fermato?
REYNALDO	A ‘si accorda in questo modo’, a ‘amico, o simile’, e ‘gentiluomo’.
POLONIUS	A ‘si accorda in questo modo’—sì, perbacco, egli si accorda con voi così: ‘Conosco quel gentiluomo, l’ho visto ieri’—o l’altro giorno, o allora, o allora—‘con questo e con quello, e, come dite, là c’era il giuoco, là sopraffatto dal bere, là a litigare alla pallacorda’, o forse ‘l’ho visto entrare in una tal casa di piacere’, cioè a dire un bordello, o simili. Vedete ora, la vostra esca di menzogna prende questa carpa di verità; e così noi, uomini di senno e di portata, con giri di corda e con tiri di sbieco per vie indirette troviamo la via diritta. Così, per la mia lezione e il mio consiglio, farete con mio figlio. M’avete inteso, non è vero?
REYNALDO	Sì, mio signore.
POLONIUS	Dio sia con voi. State bene.
REYNALDO	Buon signore mio.
POLONIUS	Osservate voi stesso la sua inclinazione.
REYNALDO	Lo farò, mio signore.
POLONIUS	E lasciate che coltivi la sua musica.
REYNALDO	Bene, mio signore.
(didascalia)	Entra Ophelia
POLONIUS	Addio.
(didascalia)	Esce Reynaldo
POLONIUS	Ebbene, Ophelia, che c’è?
OPHELIA	Ahimè, mio signore, ho avuto tanto spavento.
POLONIUS	Di che, in nome di Dio?
OPHELIA	Mio signore, mentre cucivo nella mia camera, il signor Hamlet, col farsetto tutto slacciato, senza cappello in capo, le calze imbrattate, senza giarrettiere, e cascanti fino alla caviglia, pallido come la sua camicia, le ginocchia che si battevano, e con uno sguardo così pietoso nel suo senso come se fosse stato sciolto dall’inferno per narrare orrori, mi si fa innanzi.
POLONIUS	Pazzo per il tuo amore?
OPHELIA	Mio signore, non lo so, ma in verità lo temo.
POLONIUS	Che ha detto?
OPHELIA	Mi prese per il polso e mi strinse forte, poi s’allontanò per tutta la lunghezza del braccio, e con l’altra mano così sopra la fronte si mise a scrutare il mio volto come se volesse ritrarlo. Restò a lungo così. Alla fine, scuotendomi un poco il braccio, e tre volte crollando il capo su e giù, emise un sospiro così pietoso e profondo che parve infrangergli tutta la persona e finire il suo essere. Fatto ciò, mi lascia andare, e, col capo volto sopra la spalla, parve trovare la strada senza gli occhi, ché uscì dalla porta senza il loro aiuto, e fino all’ultimo ne piegò la luce su di me.
POLONIUS	Vieni, vieni con me. Andrò a cercare il Re. Questa è la vera estasi dell’amore, la cui violenta natura distrugge se stessa e spinge la volontà a disperate imprese quanto qualsiasi passione sotto il cielo che affligga la nostra natura. Mi dispiace— che, gli hai detto parole dure di recente?
OPHELIA	No, mio buon signore, ma come mi ordinaste ho respinto le sue lettere e gli ho negato l’accesso a me.
POLONIUS	Questo l’ha fatto impazzire. Mi duole che con maggiore prontezza e giudizio non l’abbia scrutato. Temevo che scherzasse soltanto e volesse rovinarti. Ma maledetta la mia diffidenza! Per il cielo, è proprio della nostra età spingere le opinioni oltre il segno quanto è comune ai più giovani mancare di discrezione. Vieni, andiamo dal Re. Questo si deve sapere: tenuto celato, potrebbe recare più dolore a nascondere che odio a svelare l’amore. Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Flourish. Enter King Claudius and Queen Gertrude, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, with others
KING CLAUDIUS	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 I call it, Since not th‘exterior nor the inward man Resembles that it was. What it should be, More than his father’s death, that thus hath put him So much from th’understanding of himself, I cannot deem of. I entreat you both That, being of so young days brought up with him, And since so neighboured to his youth and humour, 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 occasions you may glean, Whether aught to us unknown afflicts him thus That, opened, lies within our remedy.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	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 a while For the supply and profit of our hope, Your visitation shall receive such thanks As fits a king’s remembrance.
ROSENCRANTZ	Both your majesties Might, by the sovereign power you have of us, Put your dread pleasures more into command Than to entreaty.
GUILDENSTERN	But we both obey, And here give up ourselves in the full bent To lay our service freely at your feet To be commanded.
KING CLAUDIUS	Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz. And I beseech you instantly to visit My too-much changed son.—Go, some of ye, And bring the gentlemen where Hamlet is.
GUILDENSTERN	Heavens make our presence and our practices Pleasant and helpful to him.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Ay, amen!
(didascalia)	Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern with others Enter Polonius
POLONIUS	Th’ambassadors from Norway, my good lord, Are joyfully returned.
KING CLAUDIUS	Thou still hast been the father of good news.
POLONIUS	Have I, my lord? Assure you, my good liege, I hold my duty, as I hold my soul, Both to my God and to my gracious King. And I do think—or else this brain of mine Hunts not the trail of policy so sure As it hath used to do—that I have found The very cause of Hamlet’s lunacy.
KING CLAUDIUS	O speak of that, that I do long to hear!
POLONIUS	Give first admittance to th’ambassadors. My news shall be the fruit to that great feast.
KING CLAUDIUS	Thyself do grace to them, and bring them in.
(didascalia)	Exit Polonius
KING CLAUDIUS	He tells me, my sweet queen, that he hath found The head and source of all your son’s distemper.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	I doubt it is no other but the main— His father’s death and our o’er-hasty marriage.
KING CLAUDIUS	Well, we shall sift him.
(didascalia)	Enter Polonius, Valtemand, and Cornelius Welcome, my good friends.
KING CLAUDIUS	Say, Valtemand, what from our brother Norway?
VALTEMAND	Most fair return of greetings and desires. Upon our first he sent out to suppress His nephew’s levies, which to him appeared To be a preparation ‘gainst the Polack; But better looked into, he truly found It was against your highness; whereat grieved That so his sickness, age, and impotence Was falsely borne in hand, sends out arrests On Fortinbras, which he, in brief, obeys, Receives rebuke from Norway, and, in fine, Makes vow before his uncle never more To give th’essay of arms against your majesty; Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy, Gives him three thousand crowns in annual fee And his commission to employ those soldiers So levied as before, against the Polack, With an entreaty herein further shown, He gives a letter to Claudius That it might please you to give quiet pass Through your dominions for his enterprise On such regards of safety and allowance As therein are set down.
KING CLAUDIUS	It likes us well, And at our more considered time we’ll read, Answer, and think upon this business. Meantime we thank you for your well-took labour. Go to your rest; at night we’ll feast together. Most welcome home.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Valtemand and Cornelius
POLONIUS	This business is very well ended. My liege, and madam, to expostulate What majesty should be, what duty is, Why day is day, night night, and time is time, Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time. Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit, And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief. Your noble son is mad— ‘Mad’ call I it, for to define true madness, What is’t but to be nothing else but mad? But let that go.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	More matter with less art.
POLONIUS	Madam, I swear I use no art at all. That he is mad, ‘tis true; ’tis true ‘tis pity, And pity ’tis ‘tis true—a foolish figure, But farewell it, for I will use no art. Mad let us grant him, then; and now remains That we find out the cause of this effect— Or rather say ’the cause of this defect‘, For this effect defective comes by cause. Thus it remains, and the remainder thus. Perpend. I have a daughter—have whilst she is mine— Who in her duty and obedience, mark, Hath given me this. Now gather and surmise. He reads a letter ’To the celestial and my soul’s idol, the most beautified Ophelia‘—that’s an ill phrase, a vile phrase, ‘beautified’ is a vile phrase. But you shall hear—‘these in her excellent white bosom, these’.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Came this from Hamlet to her?
POLONIUS	Good madam, stay a while. I will be faithful. ‘Doubt thou the stars are fire, Doubt that the sun doth move, Doubt truth to be a liar, But never doubt I love. O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers. I have not art to reckon my groans. But that I love thee best, O most best, believe it. Adieu. Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this machine is to him, Hamlet.’ This in obedience hath my daughter showed me, And more above hath his solicitings, As they fell out by time, by means, and place, All given to mine ear.
KING CLAUDIUS	But how hath she Received his love?
POLONIUS	What do you think of me?
KING CLAUDIUS	As of a man faithful and honourable.
POLONIUS	I would fain prove so. But what might you think, When I had seen this hot love on the wing, As I perceived it—I must tell you that— Before my daughter told me, what might you, Or my dear majesty your queen here, think, If I had played the desk or table-book, Or given my heart a winking mute and dumb, Or looked upon this love with idle sight— What might you think? No, I went round to work, And my young mistress thus I did bespeak: ‘Lord Hamlet is a prince out of thy star. This must not be’. And then I precepts gave her, That she should lock herself from his resort, Admit no messengers, receive no tokens; Which done, she took the fruits of my advice, And he, repulsèd-a short tale to make— Fell into a sadness, then into a fast, Thence to a watch, thence into a weakness, Thence to a lightness, and, by this declension, Into the madness wherein now he raves, And all we wail for.
KING CLAUDIUS	(to Gertrude) Do you think ’tis this?
QUEEN GERTRUDE	It may be; very likely.
POLONIUS	Hath there been such a time—I’d fain know that— That I have positively said ‘ ’Tis so’ When it proved otherwise?
KING CLAUDIUS	Not that I know.
POLONIUS	(touching his head, then his shoulder) Take this from this if this be otherwise. If circumstances lead me I will find Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed
(didascalia)	Within the centre.
KING CLAUDIUS	How may we try it further?
POLONIUS	You know sometimes he walks four hours together Here in the lobby.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	So he does indeed.
POLONIUS	At such a time I’ll loose my daughter to him. (To Claudius) Be you and I behind an arras then. Mark the encounter. If he love her not, And be not from his reason fall’n thereon, Let me be no assistant for a state, But keep a farm and carters.
KING CLAUDIUS	We will try it.
(didascalia)	Enter Prince Hamlet, madly attired, reading on a book
QUEEN GERTRUDE	But look where sadly the poor wretch comes reading.
POLONIUS	Away, I do beseech you both, away. I’ll board him presently. O give me leave.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Claudius and Gertrude
POLONIUS	How does my good Lord Hamlet?
HAMLET	Well, God-‘a’-mercy.
POLONIUS	Do you know me, my lord?
HAMLET	Excellent, excellent well. You’re a fishmonger.
POLONIUS	Not I, my lord.
HAMLET	Then I would you were so honest a man.
POLONIUS	Honest, my lord?
HAMLET	Ay, sir. To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.
POLONIUS	That’s very true, my lord.
HAMLET	For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a good kissing carrion—have you a daughter?
POLONIUS	I have, my lord.
HAMLET	Let her not walk i’th’ sun. Conception is a blessing, but not as your daughter may conceive. Friend, look to’t.
POLONIUS	(aside) How say you by that? Still harping on my daughter. Yet he knew me not at first—a said I was a fishmonger. A is far gone, far gone, and truly, in my youth I suffered much extremity for love, very near this. I’ll speak to him again.—What do you read, my lord?
HAMLET	Words, words, words.
POLONIUS	What is the matter, my lord?
HAMLET	Between who?
POLONIUS	I mean the matter you read, my lord.
HAMLET	Slanders, sir; for the satirical slave says here that old men have grey beards, that their faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber, or plum-tree gum, and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams. All which, sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down; for you yourself, sir, should be old as I am—if, like a crab, you could go backward.
POLONIUS	(aside) Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.—Will you walk out of the air, my lord?
HAMLET	Into my grave.
POLONIUS	Indeed, that is out o’th’ air. (Aside) How pregnant sometimes his replies are! A happiness that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity could not so prosperously be delivered of. I will leave him, and suddenly contrive the means of meeting between him and my daughter.—My lord, I will take my leave of you.
HAMLET	You cannot, sir, take from me anything that I will more willingly part withal—except my life, my life, my life.
POLONIUS	(going) Fare you well, my lord.
(didascalia)	HAMLET These tedious old fools! Enter Guildenstern and Rosencrantz
POLONIUS	You go to seek the Lord Hamlet. There he is.
ROSENCRANTZ	God save you, sir.
(didascalia)	GUILDENSTERN to Polonius Mine honoured lord. Exit Polonius
ROSENCRANTZ	(to Hamlet) My most dear lord.
HAMLET	My ex’llent good friends. How dost thou, Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz—good lads, how do ye both?
ROSENCRANTZ	As the indifferent children of the earth.
GUILDENSTERN	Happy in that we are not over-happy, On Fortune’s cap we are not the very button.
HAMLET	Nor the soles of her shoe?
ROSENCRANTZ	Neither, my lord.
HAMLET	Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of her favour?
GUILDENSTERN	Faith, her privates we.
HAMLET	In the secret parts of Fortune? O, most true, she is a strumpet. What’s the news?
ROSENCRANTZ	None, my lord, but that the world’s grown honest.
HAMLET	Then is doomsday near. But your news is not true. Let me question more in particular. What have you, my good friends, deserved at the hands of Fortune that she sends you to prison hither?
GUILDENSTERN	Prison, my lord?
HAMLET	Denmark’s a prison.
ROSENCRANTZ	Then is the world one.
HAMLET	A goodly one, in which there are many confines, wards, and dungeons, Denmark being one o’th’ worst.
ROSENCRANTZ	We think not so, my lord.
HAMLET	Why, then ’tis none to you, for there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. To me it is a prison.
ROSENCRANTZ	Why, then your ambition makes it one; ’tis too narrow for your mind.
HAMLET	O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.
GUILDENSTERN	Which dreams indeed are ambition; for the very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.
HAMLET	A dream itself is but a shadow.
ROSENCRANTZ	Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality that it is but a shadow’s shadow.
HAMLET	Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and outstretched heroes the beggars’ shadows. Shall we to th’ court? For, by my fay, I cannot reason.
ROSENCRANTZ	and GUILDENSTERN We’ll wait upon you.
HAMLET	No such matter. I will not sort you with the rest of my servants, for, to speak to you like an honest man, I am most dreadfully attended. But in the beaten way of friendship, what make you at Elsinore?
ROSENCRANTZ	To visit you, my lord, no other occasion.
HAMLET	Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks, but I thank you; and sure, dear friends, my thanks are too dear a halfpenny. Were you not sent for? Is it your own inclining? Is it a free visitation? Come, deal justly with me. Come, come. Nay, speak. 278
GUILDENSTERN	What should we say, my lord?
HAMLET	Why, anything—but to th’ purpose. You were sent for, and there is a kind of confession in your looks which your modesties have not craft enough to colour. I know the good King and Queen have sent for you.
ROSENCRANTZ	To what end, my lord?
HAMLET	That you must teach me. But let me conjure you by the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy of our youth, by the obligation of our ever-preserved love, and by what more dear a better proposer could charge you withal, be even and direct with me whether you were sent for or no.
ROSENCRANTZ	(to Guildenstern) What say you?
HAMLET	Nay then, I have an eye of you—if you love me, hold not off.
GUILDENSTERN	My lord, we were sent for.
HAMLET	I will tell you why. So shall my anticipation prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the King and Queen moult no feather. I have of late—but wherefore I know not—tost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercise; and indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory. This most excellent canopy the air, look you, this brave o’erhanging, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire—why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god—the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals! And yet to me what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me—no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.
ROSENCRANTZ	My lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts.
HAMLET	Why did you laugh, then, when I said ‘Man delights not me’?
ROSENCRANTZ	To think, my lord, if you delight not in man what lenten entertainment the players shall receive from you. We coted them on the way, and hither are they coming to offer you service.
HAMLET	He that plays the King shall be welcome; his majesty shall have tribute of me. The adventurous Knight shall use his foil and target, the Lover shall not sigh gratis, the Humorous Man shall end his part in peace, the Clown shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickled o’th’ sear, and the Lady shall say her mind freely, or the blank verse shall halt for’t. What players are they?
ROSENCRANTZ	Even those you were wont to take delight in, the tragedians of the city.
HAMLET	How chances it they travel? Their residence both in reputation and profit was better both ways.
ROSENCRANTZ	I think their inhibition comes by the means of the late innovation.
HAMLET	Do they hold the same estimation they did when I was in the city? Are they so followed?
ROSENCRANTZ	No, indeed, they are not.
HAMLET	How comes it? Do they grow rusty?
ROSENCRANTZ	Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace. But there is, sir, an eyrie of children, little eyases, that cry out on the top of question and are most tyrannically clapped for’t. These are now the fashion, and so berattle the common stages—so they call them—that many wearing rapiers are afraid of goose-quills, and dare scarce come thither.
HAMLET	What, are they children? Who maintains ’em? How are they escoted? Will they pursue the quality no longer than they can sing? Will they not say afterwards, if they should grow themselves to common players—as it is like most will, if their means are not better—their writers do them wrong to make them exclaim against their own succession?
ROSENCRANTZ	Faith, there has been much to-do on both sides, and the nation holds it no sin to tarre them to controversy. There was for a while no money bid for argument unless the poet and the player went to cuffs in the question.
HAMLET	Is’t possible?
GUILDENSTERN	O, there has been much throwing about of brains.
HAMLET	Do the boys carry it away?
ROSENCRANTZ	Ay, that they do, my lord, Hercules and his load too.
HAMLET	It is not strange; for mine uncle is King of Denmark, and those that would make mows at him while my father lived give twenty, forty, an hundred ducats apiece for his picture in little. ’Sblood, there is something in this more than natural, if philosophy could find it out.
(didascalia)	A flourish for the Players
GUILDENSTERN	There are the players.
HAMLET	Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands, come. Th’appurtenance of welcome is fashion and ceremony. Let me comply with you in the garb, lest my extent to the players—which, I tell you, must show fairly outward—shoutd more appear like entertainment than yours.
(didascalia)	He shakes hands with them
HAMLET	You are welcome. But my uncle-father and aunt-mother are deceived.
GUILDENSTERN	In what, my dear lord?
HAMLET	I am but mad north-north-west; when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw.
(didascalia)	Enter Polonius
POLONIUS	Well be with you, gentlemen.
HAMLET	(aside) Hark you, Guildenstern, and you too—at each ear a hearer—that great baby you see there is not yet out of his swathing-clouts.
ROSENCRANTZ	(aside) Haply he’s the second time come to them, for they say an old man is twice a child.
HAMLET	(aside) I will prophesy he comes to tell me of the players. Mark it.—You say right, sir, for o’ Monday morning, ’twas so indeed.
POLONIUS	My lord, I have news to tell you.
HAMLET	My lord, I have news to tell you. When Roscius was an actor in Rome—
POLONIUS	The actors are come hither, my lord.
HAMLET	BUZZ, buzz.
POLONIUS	Upon mine honour—
HAMLET	Then came each actor on his ass.
POLONIUS	The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastorical-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral, scene individable or poem unlimited. Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light. For the law of writ and the liberty, these are the only men.
HAMLET	O Jephthah, judge of Israel, what a treasure hadst thou!
POLONIUS	What a treasure had he, my lord?
HAMLET	Why, ‘One fair daughter and no more, The which he loved passing well’.
POLONIUS	(aside) Still on my daughter.
HAMLET	Am I not i’th’ right, old Jephthah?
POLONIUS	If you call me Jephthah, my lord, I have a daughter that I love passing well.
HAMLET	Nay, that follows not.
POLONIUS	What follows then, my lord?
HAMLET	Why ‘As by lot God wot’, and then you know ‘It came to pass As most like it was’— the first row of the pious chanson will show you more, for look where my abridgements come.
(didascalia)	Enter four or five Players
HAMLET	You’re welcome, masters, welcome all.—Iam glad to see thee well.—Welcome, good friends.—O, my old friend! Thy face is valanced since I saw thee last. Com‘st thou to beard me in Denmark?—What, my young lady and mistress. By’r Lady, your ladyship is nearer heaven than when I saw you last by the altitude of a chopine. Pray God your voice, like a piece of uncurrent gold, be not cracked within the ring.—Masters, you are all welcome. We’ll e‘en to’t like French falc’ners, fly at anything we see. We’ll have a speech straight. Come, give us a taste of your quality. Come, a passionate speech.
FIRST PLAYER	What speech, my good lord?
HAMLET	I heard thee speak me a speech once, but it was never acted, or, if it was, not above once; for the play, I remember, pleased not the million. ‘Twas caviare to the general. But it was—as I received it, and others whose judgements in such matters cried in the top of mine—an excellent play, well digested in the scenes, set down with as much modesty as cunning. I remember one said there was no sallets in the lines to make the matter savoury, nor no matter in the phrase that might indict the author of affectation, but called it an honest method, as wholesome as sweet, and by very much more handsome than fine. One speech in it I chiefly loved, ’twas Aeneas’ tale to Dido, and thereabout of it especially where he speaks of Priam’s slaughter. If it live in your memory, begin at this line—let me see, let me see: ‘The rugged Pyrrhus, like th’Hyrcanian beast‘—’tis not so. It begins with Pyrrhus—‘The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms, Black as his purpose, did the night resemble When he lay couched in the ominous horse, Hath now this dread and black complexion smeared With heraldry more dismal. Head to foot Now is he total gules, horridly tricked With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, Baked and impasted with the parching streets, That lend a tyrranous and damned light To their vile murders. Roasted in wrath and fire, And thus o’er-sizèd with coagulate gore, With eyes like carbuncles the hellish Pyrrhus Old grandsire Priam seeks’ So, proceed you.
POLONIUS	Fore God, my lord, well spoken, with good accent and good discretion.
FIRST PLAYER	‘Anon he finds him, Striking too short at Greeks. His antique sword, Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls, Repugnant to command. Unequal match, Pyrrhus at Priam drives, in rage strikes wide; But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword Th‘unnervèd father falls. Then senseless Ilium, Seeming to feel his blow, with flaming top Stoops to his base, and with a hideous crash Takes prisoner Pyrrhus’ ear. For lo, his sword, Which was declining on the milky head Of reverend Priam, seemed i’th’ air to stick. So, as a painted tyrant, Pyrrhus stood, And, like a neutral to his will and matter, Did nothing. But as we often see against some storm A silence in the heavens, the rack stand still, The bold winds speechless, and the orb below As hush as death, anon the dreadful thunder Doth rend the region: so, after Pyrrhus’ pause, A rousèd vengeance sets him new a-work; And never did the Cyclops’ hammers fall On Mars his armour, forged for proof eterne, With less remorse than Pyrrhus’ bleeding sword Now falls on Priam. Out, out, thou strumpet Fortune! All you gods, In general synod, take away her power, Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel, And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven, As low as to the fiends!’
POLONIUS	This is too long.
HAMLET	It shall to the barber’s, with your beard. (To First Player) Prithee, say on. He’s for a jig or a tale of bawdry, or he sleeps. Say on, come to Hecuba.
FIRST PLAYER	‘But who, O who had seen the mobbled queen’—
HAMLET	‘The mobbled queen’?
POLONIUS	That’s good; ‘mobbled queen’ is good.
FIRST PLAYER	‘Run barefoot up and down, threat’ning the flames With bisson rheum; a clout upon that head Where late the diadem stood, and for a robe, About her lank and all o‘er-teemèd loins, A blanket in th’alarm of fear caught up— Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steeped, ‘Gainst Fortune’s state would treason have pronounced. But if the gods themselves did see her then, When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport In mincing with his sword her husband’s limbs, The instant burst of clamour that she made— Unless things mortal move them not at all— Would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven, And passion in the gods.’
POLONIUS	Look whe’er he has not turned his colour, and has tears in ’s eyes. (To First Player) Prithee, no more.
HAMLET	(to First Player) ’Tis well. I’ll have thee speak out the rest soon. (To Polonius) Good my lord, will you see the players well bestowed? Do ye hear?—let them be well used, for they are the abstracts and brief chronicles of the time. After your death you were better have a bad epitaph than their ill report while you live.
POLONIUS	My lord, I will use them according to their desert.
HAMLET	God’s bodykins, man, much better. Use every man after his desert, and who should scape whipping? Use them after your own honour and dignity—the less they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty. Take them in.
POLONIUS	(to Players) Come, sirs. Exit
HAMLET	(to Players) Follow him, friends. We’ll hear a play tomorrow. Dost thou hear me, old friend? Can you play the murder of Gonzago?
(didascalia)	PLAYERS Ay, my lord.
HAMLET	We’ll ha’t tomorrow night. You could for a need study a speech of some dozen or sixteen lines which I would set down and insert in’t, could ye not?
(didascalia)	PLAYERS Ay, my lord.
(didascalia)	HAMLET Very well. Follow that lord, and look you mock him not. Exeunt Players My good friends, I’ll leave you till night. You are welcome to Elsinore.
ROSENCRANTZ	Good my lord.
HAMLET	Ay, so. God b‘wi’ ye. Exeunt all but Hamlet Now I am alone. O, what a rogue and peasant slave am Il Is it not monstrous that this player here, But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, Could force his soul so to his whole conceit That from her working all his visage wanned, Tears in his eyes, distraction in ’s aspect, A broken voice, and his whole function suiting With forms to his conceit? And all for nothing. For Hecuba! What’s Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, That he should weep for her? What would he do Had he the motive and the cue for passion That I have? He would drown the stage with tears, And cleave the general ear with horrid speech, Make mad the guilty and appal the free, Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed The very faculty of eyes and ears. Yet I, A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause, And can say nothing—no, not for a king Upon whose property and most dear life A damned defeat was made. Am I a coward? Who calls me villain, breaks my pate across, Plucks off my beard and blows it in my face, Tweaks me by th’ nose, gives me the lie i’th’ throat As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this? Ha? ‘Swounds, I should take it; for it cannot be But I am pigeon-livered and lack gall To make oppression bitter, or ere this I should ’a’ fatted all the region kites With this slave’s offal. Bloody, bawdy villain! Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain! O, vengeance!— Why, what an ass am I? Ay, sure, this is most brave, That I, the son of the dear murdered, Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words And fall a-cursing like a very drab, A scullion! Fie upon‘t, foh!—About, my brain. I have heard that guilty creatures sitting at a play Have by the very cunning of the scene Been struck so to the soul that presently They have proclaimed their malefactions; For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak With most miraculous organ. I’ll have these players Play something like the murder of my father Before mine uncle. I’ll observe his looks, I’ll tent him to the quick. If a but blench, I know my course. The spirit that I have seen May be the devil, and the devil hath power T’assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps, Out of my weakness and my melancholy— As he is very potent with such spirits— Abuses me to damn me. I’ll have grounds More relative than this. The play’s the thing Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King.
(didascalia)	Exit

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Squillo di trombe. Entrano il Re Claudius e la Regina Gertrude, Rosencrantz e Guildenstern, con altri
RE CLAUDIUS	Benvenuti, cari Rosencrantz e Guildenstern. Oltre al gran desiderio che avevamo di vedervi, il bisogno che abbiamo di voi ha affrettato il nostro invio. Qualcosa avrete udito della trasformazione di Hamlet—così la chiamo, poiché né l’uomo esteriore né l’interiore somiglia a quel che era. Che cosa possa essere, più della morte del padre, ad averlo così staccato dall’intendimento di se stesso, non so immaginare. Prego entrambi voi che, essendo cresciuti con lui fin dai più teneri giorni, e da allora così vicini alla sua gioventù e al suo umore, vi degniate di trattenervi qui nella nostra corte per qualche tempo, sì che con la vostra compagnia lo traiate a qualche svago, e raccogliate, per quanto dalle occasioni possiate spigolare, se qualcosa a noi ignoto lo affligga a tal punto che, scoperto, giaccia entro il nostro rimedio.
REGINA GERTRUDE	Buoni gentiluomini, egli ha molto parlato di voi, e son certa che non vivono due uomini ai quali più s’affezioni. Se vi piacerà mostrarci tanta cortesia e buona volontà da spendere il vostro tempo con noi per un poco a sostegno e profitto della nostra speranza, la vostra visita riceverà quei ringraziamenti che si convengono alla memoria d’un re.
ROSENCRANTZ	Le vostre due maestà potrebbero, per il sovrano potere che hanno su noi, porre i loro temuti voleri piuttosto in comando che in preghiera.
GUILDENSTERN	Ma noi entrambi obbediamo, e qui ci consegniamo con ogni slancio, per deporre liberamente il nostro servigio ai vostri piedi, pronti al comando.
RE CLAUDIUS	Grazie, Rosencrantz e gentile Guildenstern.
REGINA GERTRUDE	Grazie, Guildenstern e gentile Rosencrantz. E vi supplico di visitare all’istante il mio troppo mutato figlio.—Andate, alcuni di voi, e conducete i gentiluomini dov’è Hamlet.
GUILDENSTERN	Faccia il cielo che la nostra presenza e le nostre cure gli siano gradite e giovevoli.
REGINA GERTRUDE	Sì, amen!
(didascalia)	Escono Rosencrantz e Guildenstern con altri Entra Polonius
POLONIUS	Gli ambasciatori di Norvegia, mio buon signore, sono lietamente tornati.
RE CLAUDIUS	Tu sei sempre stato il padre delle buone notizie.
POLONIUS	Davvero, mio signore? Vi assicuro, mio buon sovrano, che tengo il mio dovere, come tengo la mia anima, e al mio Dio e al mio grazioso Re. E io penso—o altrimenti questo mio cervello non fiuta la pista della politica così sicuro come era solito fare—che ho trovato la vera causa della follia di Hamlet.
RE CLAUDIUS	Oh, parla di ciò, ché anelo d’udirlo!
POLONIUS	Date prima udienza agli ambasciatori. La mia notizia sarà la frutta di quel gran banchetto.
RE CLAUDIUS	Fa’ tu stesso loro onore, e introducili.
(didascalia)	Esce Polonius
RE CLAUDIUS	Egli mi dice, mia dolce regina, d’aver trovato il capo e la fonte di tutto il male di vostro figlio.
REGINA GERTRUDE	Temo che non sia altro che il principale— la morte di suo padre e il nostro troppo affrettato matrimonio.
RE CLAUDIUS	Bene, lo passeremo al setaccio.
(didascalia)	Entrano Polonius, Valtemand e Cornelius Benvenuti, miei buoni amici.
RE CLAUDIUS	Dite, Valtemand, che ci reca il nostro fratello di Norvegia?
VALTEMAND	Amplissima risposta di saluti e di voti. Alla nostra prima parola egli mandò a sospendere le leve del nipote, che a lui erano parse preparativi contro il Polacco; ma, guardandovi meglio, trovò in verità ch’erano contro la vostra altezza; onde, addolorato che la sua infermità, l’età e l’impotenza fossero state così ingannate, spedisce ordini d’arresto contro Fortinbras, cui questi, in breve, obbedisce, riceve il rimprovero di Norvegia e, infine, fa voto innanzi allo zio di non dare mai più il cimento dell’armi contro vostra maestà; al che il vecchio Norvegia, vinto dalla gioia, gli assegna tremila corone di rendita annua e l’incarico d’impiegare quei soldati così levati, come prima, contro il Polacco, con una preghiera qui più oltre esposta, Consegna una lettera a Claudius che vi piaccia concedere tranquillo passaggio per i vostri domini a questa sua impresa, con quelle garanzie di sicurezza e di permesso che vi sono stabilite.
RE CLAUDIUS	Ci piace bene, e in un tempo più meditato leggeremo, risponderemo e penseremo a quest’affare. Intanto vi ringraziamo della fatica ben spesa. Andate a riposare; a notte banchetteremo insieme. Siate i benvenuti a casa.
(didascalia)	Escono Valtemand e Cornelius
POLONIUS	Quest’affare è finito molto bene. Mio sovrano, e madama, discutere che cosa debba essere la maestà, che cosa sia il dovere, perché il giorno sia giorno, la notte notte, e il tempo tempo, non sarebbe che sprecare notte, giorno e tempo. Perciò, poiché la brevità è l’anima dell’ingegno, e la prolissità le membra e i fronzoli esteriori, sarò breve. Il vostro nobile figlio è pazzo— ‘pazzo’ lo chiamo io, ché a definire la vera follia, che è mai se non l’essere nient’altro che pazzo? Ma lasciamo andare.
REGINA GERTRUDE	Più sostanza e meno arte.
POLONIUS	Madama, giuro che non uso arte alcuna. Che egli sia pazzo, è vero; è vero ch’è un peccato, e peccato è che sia vero—sciocca figura, ma addio a essa, ché non userò arte. Concediamo dunque ch’è pazzo; e ora resta che troviamo la causa di questo effetto— o piuttosto diciamo ‘la causa di questo difetto’, ché questo effetto difettivo viene da causa. Così resta, e il resto è questo. Ponderate. Ho una figlia—l’ho finché è mia— la quale, per dovere e obbedienza, badate, m’ha dato questo. Ora raccogliete e congetturate. Legge una lettera ‘Alla celeste e idolo della mia anima, la bellificata Ophelia’—è una cattiva frase, una frase vile, ‘bellificata’ è una frase vile. Ma udrete—‘queste nel suo eccellente candido seno, queste’.
REGINA GERTRUDE	Le è venuto questo da Hamlet?
POLONIUS	Buona madama, attendete un poco. Sarò fedele. ‘Dubita che le stelle sian fuoco, dubita che il sole si muova, dubita che il vero sia bugiardo, ma non dubitare mai ch’io ami. O cara Ophelia, sono maldestro in questi versi. Non ho arte per contare i miei gemiti. Ma che t’amo sopra ogni cosa, o sopra ogni altra, credilo. Addio. Tuo per sempre, carissima signora, finché questa macchina gli appartiene, Hamlet.’ Questo per obbedienza m’ha mostrato mia figlia, e per di più le sue insistenze, come caddero per tempo, per mezzi e per luogo, tutte le ha date al mio orecchio.
RE CLAUDIUS	Ma come ha ella accolto il suo amore?
POLONIUS	Che pensate di me?
RE CLAUDIUS	Come d’un uomo fedele e onorevole.
POLONIUS	Vorrei ben mostrarmi tale. Ma che potreste pensare, quando ebbi visto questo ardente amore a volo, come m’avvidi—devo dirvelo— prima che mia figlia me ne parlasse, che potreste voi, o la mia cara maestà la vostra regina qui, pensare, se avessi fatto da scrittoio o da taccuino, o dato al mio cuore un ammicco muto e sordo, o guardato questo amore con occhio ozioso— che potreste pensare? No, andai diritto all’opera, e alla mia giovane signora parlai così: ‘Il signor Hamlet è un principe fuori della tua stella. Ciò non deve essere’. E poi le diedi precetti che si chiudesse al suo accesso, non ammettesse messaggeri, non ricevesse pegni; fatto questo, ella colse i frutti del mio consiglio, ed egli, respinto—per farla breve— cadde in tristezza, poi in digiuno, quindi in veglia, quindi in debolezza, quindi in leggerezza, e, per questa discesa, nella follia in cui ora delira, e che tutti noi piangiamo.
RE CLAUDIUS	(a Gertrude) Credete sia questo?
REGINA GERTRUDE	Può essere; molto probabile.
POLONIUS	C’è mai stato un tempo—vorrei ben saperlo— in cui io abbia detto recisamente ‘È così’ e poi si sia rivelato altrimenti?
RE CLAUDIUS	Non che io sappia.
POLONIUS	(toccandosi la testa, poi la spalla) Toglietemi questa da questa, se è altrimenti. Se le circostanze mi guidano, troverò dove la verità è nascosta, foss’anche nascosta
(didascalia)	Dentro il centro.
RE CLAUDIUS	Come possiamo saggiarlo oltre?
POLONIUS	Sapete che talvolta passeggia quattro ore di seguito qui nella galleria.
REGINA GERTRUDE	Lo fa davvero.
POLONIUS	In un tal momento gli scioglierò addosso mia figlia. (A Claudius) Stiamo voi e io dietro un arazzo allora. Osservate l’incontro. Se non l’ama, e non è per questo caduto dalla ragione, ch’io non sia più consigliere di stato, ma tenga una fattoria e dei carrettieri.
RE CLAUDIUS	Lo proveremo.
(didascalia)	Entra il principe Hamlet, vestito da folle, leggendo in un libro
REGINA GERTRUDE	Ma guardate dove mestamente viene leggendo il povero infelice.
POLONIUS	Via, vi supplico entrambi, via. L’abborderò subito. Oh, concedetemelo.
(didascalia)	Escono Claudius e Gertrude
POLONIUS	Come sta il mio buon signor Hamlet?
HAMLET	Bene, la Dio mercé.
POLONIUS	Mi conoscete, mio signore?
HAMLET	Ottimamente, ottimamente bene. Voi siete un pescivendolo.
POLONIUS	Non io, mio signore.
HAMLET	Allora vorrei che foste un uomo altrettanto onesto.
POLONIUS	Onesto, mio signore?
HAMLET	Sì, signore. Essere onesto, come va questo mondo, è essere un uomo scelto fra diecimila.
POLONIUS	È verissimo, mio signore.
HAMLET	Ché se il sole genera vermi in un cane morto, essendo una carogna buona da baciare—avete una figlia?
POLONIUS	L’ho, mio signore.
HAMLET	Non lasciatela passeggiare al sole. Il concepire è una benedizione, ma non come vostra figlia potrebbe concepire. Amico, badateci.
POLONIUS	(a parte) Che ne dite? Sempre a battere su mia figlia. Eppure non mi riconobbe da principio—disse ch’ero un pescivendolo. È molto andato, molto andato, e in verità, nella mia giovinezza soffrii grandi estremi per amore, quasi a questo segno. Gli parlerò di nuovo.—Che leggete, mio signore?
HAMLET	Parole, parole, parole.
POLONIUS	Qual è la materia, mio signore?
HAMLET	Fra chi?
POLONIUS	Intendo la materia che leggete, mio signore.
HAMLET	Calunnie, signore; ché il briccone satirico dice qui che i vecchi hanno la barba grigia, che le loro facce sono rugose, che i loro occhi stillano una densa ambra, o gomma di susino, e che hanno una copiosa mancanza d’ingegno, insieme a fiacchissime cosce. Tutto ciò, signore, benché io lo creda con la massima forza e potenza, non lo ritengo tuttavia onesto metterlo così per iscritto; poiché voi stesso, signore, sareste vecchio quanto me—se, come un gambero, poteste andare all’indietro.
POLONIUS	(a parte) Benché questa sia follia, pure c’è metodo in essa.—Volete uscire dall’aria, mio signore?
HAMLET	Nella mia tomba.
POLONIUS	Davvero, quello è fuori dall’aria. (A parte) Quanto sono pregnanti talvolta le sue risposte! Una felicità che spesso la follia coglie, e di cui la ragione e la sanità di mente non saprebbero sgravarsi così felicemente. Lo lascerò, e all’istante escogiterò il modo d’un incontro tra lui e mia figlia.—Mio signore, prendo congedo da voi.
HAMLET	Non potete, signore, togliermi cosa alcuna di cui io mi separi più volentieri—salvo la mia vita, la mia vita, la mia vita.
POLONIUS	(andandosene) State bene, mio signore.
(didascalia)	HAMLET Questi tediosi vecchi sciocchi! Entrano Guildenstern e Rosencrantz
POLONIUS	Andate a cercare il signor Hamlet. Eccolo là.
ROSENCRANTZ	Dio vi salvi, signore.
(didascalia)	GUILDENSTERN a Polonius Mio onorato signore. Esce Polonius
ROSENCRANTZ	(a Hamlet) Mio carissimo signore.
HAMLET	Miei eccellenti buoni amici. Come stai, Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz—bravi ragazzi, come state entrambi?
ROSENCRANTZ	Come gl’indifferenti figli della terra.
GUILDENSTERN	Felici in quanto non siamo troppo felici, sul berretto della Fortuna non siamo proprio il bottone.
HAMLET	Né le suole della sua scarpa?
ROSENCRANTZ	Nemmeno, mio signore.
HAMLET	Allora vivete intorno alla sua cintola, o nel mezzo dei suoi favori?
GUILDENSTERN	In fede, noi siamo le sue parti intime.
HAMLET	Nelle parti segrete della Fortuna? Oh, verissimo, è una sgualdrina. Che notizie?
ROSENCRANTZ	Nessuna, mio signore, se non che il mondo è divenuto onesto.
HAMLET	Allora il giorno del giudizio è vicino. Ma la vostra notizia non è vera. Lasciate ch’io interroghi più da vicino. Che avete meritato, miei buoni amici, dalle mani della Fortuna, perché essa vi mandi qui in prigione?
GUILDENSTERN	Prigione, mio signore?
HAMLET	La Danimarca è una prigione.
ROSENCRANTZ	Allora il mondo lo è.
HAMLET	Una bella, in cui vi sono molte celle, reparti e segrete, e la Danimarca è delle peggiori.
ROSENCRANTZ	Non lo pensiamo, mio signore.
HAMLET	Ebbene, allora non lo è per voi, ché non v’è nulla di buono o di cattivo, ma è il pensarlo che lo fa tale. Per me è una prigione.
ROSENCRANTZ	Ebbene, allora è la vostra ambizione a farla tale; è troppo angusta per la vostra mente.
HAMLET	O Dio, potrei essere rinchiuso in un guscio di noce e stimarmi re d’uno spazio infinito, se non fosse che ho brutti sogni.
GUILDENSTERN	E quei sogni appunto sono ambizione; ché la sostanza stessa dell’ambizioso non è che l’ombra d’un sogno.
HAMLET	Un sogno stesso non è che un’ombra.
ROSENCRANTZ	In verità, e io ritengo l’ambizione di qualità così aerea e leggera che non è se non l’ombra d’un’ombra.
HAMLET	Allora i nostri mendicanti sono corpi, e i nostri monarchi ed eroi distesi sono le ombre dei mendicanti. Andiamo a corte? Ché, in fede mia, non so ragionare.
ROSENCRANTZ	e GUILDENSTERN Vi accompagneremo.
HAMLET	Niente affatto. Non vi metterò in fila col resto dei miei servitori, ché, a parlarvi da uomo onesto, sono spaventosamente servito. Ma per la via battuta dell’amicizia, che fate a Elsinore?
ROSENCRANTZ	Per visitarvi, mio signore, nessun’altra ragione.
HAMLET	Mendicante come sono, sono povero anche di ringraziamenti, ma vi ringrazio; e certo, cari amici, i miei ringraziamenti valgono meno di mezzo penny. Non siete stati mandati a chiamare? È vostra propria inclinazione? È una visita libera? Su, agite lealmente con me. Su, su. Suvvia, parlate. 278
GUILDENSTERN	Che dovremmo dire, mio signore?
HAMLET	Ebbene, qualunque cosa—ma a proposito. Siete stati mandati a chiamare, e c’è una specie di confessione nei vostri sguardi che il vostro pudore non ha arte bastante a colorire. So che il buon Re e la Regina vi hanno mandato a chiamare.
ROSENCRANTZ	A quale scopo, mio signore?
HAMLET	Questo dovete insegnarmelo voi. Ma lasciate che vi scongiuri per i diritti del nostro sodalizio, per la consonanza della nostra giovinezza, per l’obbligo del nostro affetto sempre serbato, e per quanto di più caro un migliore oratore potrebbe addurvi, siate schietti e diretti con me: foste mandati a chiamare o no?
ROSENCRANTZ	(a Guildenstern) Che ne dite?
HAMLET	Ah, dunque, vi tengo d’occhio—se mi amate, non vi trattenete.
GUILDENSTERN	Mio signore, fummo mandati a chiamare.
HAMLET	Ve lo dirò io perché. Così la mia anticipazione preverrà la vostra rivelazione, e il vostro segreto verso il Re e la Regina non perderà una piuma. Da qualche tempo—ma perché, non so—ho perduto tutta la mia allegria, tralasciato ogni consuetudine d’esercizio; e in verità va così pesantemente con la mia disposizione che questa bella macchina, la terra, mi sembra un promontorio sterile. Questo eccellentissimo baldacchino, l’aria, vedete, questa splendida volta sospesa, questo maestoso tetto trapunto di fuoco d’oro—ebbene, non mi appare altro che un fetido e pestilenziale ammasso di vapori. Che capolavoro è l’uomo! Come nobile nella ragione, come infinito nelle facoltà, nella forma e nel moto come espressivo e mirabile, nell’azione come simile a un angelo, nell’intelletto come simile a un dio—la bellezza del mondo, il paragone degli animali! Eppure, per me, che cos’è questa quintessenza di polvere? L’uomo non mi diletta—no, né la donna, benché col vostro sorriso sembriate dire di sì.
ROSENCRANTZ	Mio signore, non c’era nulla di simile nei miei pensieri.
HAMLET	Perché avete riso, allora, quando ho detto ‘L’uomo non mi diletta’?
ROSENCRANTZ	Al pensiero, mio signore, che se non vi dilettate dell’uomo, che magra accoglienza riceveranno da voi gli attori. Li abbiamo sorpassati per via, e vengono qui a offrirvi i loro servigi.
HAMLET	Chi fa il Re sarà il benvenuto; la sua maestà avrà da me il suo tributo. Il Cavaliere avventuroso userà il fioretto e il brocchiere, l’Innamorato non sospirerà gratis, l’Uomo Bizzarro finirà in pace la sua parte, il Buffone farà ridere quelli che hanno i polmoni facili al solletico, e la Dama dirà liberamente il suo pensiero, o il verso sciolto ne zoppicherà. Che attori sono?
ROSENCRANTZ	Proprio quelli di cui solevate dilettarvi, i tragici della città.
HAMLET	Come mai viaggiano? La loro stanza fissa era migliore in entrambi i sensi, per fama e per guadagno.
ROSENCRANTZ	Credo che il loro divieto venga per via della recente innovazione.
HAMLET	Godono della stessa stima di quando io ero in città? Sono così seguiti?
ROSENCRANTZ	No, davvero, non lo sono.
HAMLET	Come mai? Si arrugginiscono?
ROSENCRANTZ	No, il loro sforzo tiene il passo consueto. Ma c’è, signore, una nidiata di fanciulli, piccoli falchetti, che stridono al sommo della voce e ne sono applauditi tirannicamente. Costoro sono ora la moda, e strapazzano tanto i palchi comuni—così li chiamano—che molti portatori di spada temono le penne d’oca e osano appena andarvi.
HAMLET	Come, sono fanciulli? Chi li mantiene? Come sono stipendiati? Seguiranno il mestiere non più a lungo di quanto sappiano cantare? Non diranno poi, se dovessero crescere fino a divenire attori comuni—com’è probabile che i più diverranno, se i loro mezzi non sono migliori—che i loro autori fanno loro torto a farli gridare contro la loro stessa successione?
ROSENCRANTZ	In fede, c’è stato gran chiasso da entrambe le parti, e la nazione non tiene a peccato aizzarli alla contesa. Per un pezzo non si offrì denaro per un soggetto se il poeta e l’attore non venivano alle mani sulla questione.
HAMLET	È possibile?
GUILDENSTERN	Oh, c’è stato un gran lanciarsi di cervelli.
HAMLET	La spuntano i ragazzi?
ROSENCRANTZ	Sì che la spuntano, mio signore, ed Ercole col suo carico per giunta.
HAMLET	Non è strano; ché mio zio è Re di Danimarca, e quelli che gli facevano smorfie mentre mio padre viveva danno venti, quaranta, cento ducati l’uno per il suo ritratto in miniatura. Per il sangue di Dio, c’è in questo qualcosa di più che naturale, se la filosofia potesse scoprirlo.
(didascalia)	Squillo di trombe per gli Attori
GUILDENSTERN	Ecco gli attori.
HAMLET	Signori, benvenuti a Elsinore. Le vostre mani, su. L’accessorio del benvenuto è la forma e la cerimonia. Lasciate che m’adegui con voi in quest’uso, perché il mio slancio verso gli attori—che, ve lo dico, dovrà mostrarsi bello di fuori—non paia più cordiale del vostro.
(didascalia)	Stringe loro la mano
HAMLET	Siate i benvenuti. Ma mio zio-padre e mia zia-madre sono ingannati.
GUILDENSTERN	In che, mio caro signore?
HAMLET	Sono pazzo soltanto a nord-nord-ovest; quando il vento è di mezzogiorno, so distinguere un falco da una sega.
(didascalia)	Entra Polonius
POLONIUS	Bene sia con voi, signori.
HAMLET	(a parte) Udite, Guildenstern, e anche voi—a ciascun orecchio un ascoltatore—quel gran bambinone che vedete là non è ancora uscito dalle fasce.
ROSENCRANTZ	(a parte) Forse ci è tornato per la seconda volta, ché si dice che un vecchio è due volte bambino.
HAMLET	(a parte) Profetizzo che viene a parlarmi degli attori. Notatelo.—Dite bene, signore, ché lunedì mattina fu proprio così.
POLONIUS	Mio signore, ho notizie da darvi.
HAMLET	Mio signore, ho notizie da darvi. Quando Roscio era attore a Roma—
POLONIUS	Gli attori sono giunti qui, mio signore.
HAMLET	Bah, bah.
POLONIUS	Sul mio onore—
HAMLET	Allora venne ogni attore sul suo asino.
POLONIUS	I migliori attori del mondo, sia per la tragedia, la commedia, la storia, la pastorale, la pastoral-comica, la storico-pastorale, la tragico-storica, la tragico-comico-storico-pastorale, scena indivisibile o poema illimitato. Seneca non può essere troppo grave, né Plauto troppo leggero. Per la legge dello scritto e per la libertà, questi sono gli unici.
HAMLET	O Jefte, giudice d’Israele, che tesoro avevi!
POLONIUS	Che tesoro aveva, mio signore?
HAMLET	Ebbene, ‘Una bella figlia e non più, la quale egli amava oltremodo bene’.
POLONIUS	(a parte) Sempre su mia figlia.
HAMLET	Non ho ragione, vecchio Jefte?
POLONIUS	Se mi chiamate Jefte, mio signore, ho una figlia che amo oltremodo bene.
HAMLET	No, non è questo che segue.
POLONIUS	Che segue allora, mio signore?
HAMLET	Ebbene ‘Come per sorte Dio lo sa’, e poi sapete ‘Avvenne poi com’era più probabile’— la prima strofa della pia canzone vi dirà di più, ché ecco venire i miei diversivi.
(didascalia)	Entrano quattro o cinque Attori
HAMLET	Benvenuti, maestri, benvenuti tutti.—Son lieto di vederti bene.—Benvenuti, buoni amici.—Oh, mio vecchio amico! Il tuo viso s’è ornato di frange da quando ti vidi l’ultima volta. Vieni a farmi la barba in Danimarca?—Come, la mia giovane dama e signora. Per la Madonna, vossignoria è più vicina al cielo di quando vi vidi l’ultima volta per l’altezza d’uno zoccolo. Voglia Dio che la vostra voce, come un pezzo d’oro fuori corso, non sia incrinata dentro il cerchio.—Maestri, siate tutti i benvenuti. Ci butteremo come falconieri francesi, a volare su tutto quel che vediamo. Vogliamo subito un brano. Su, dateci un saggio della vostra qualità. Su, un brano appassionato.
PRIMO ATTORE	Quale brano, mio buon signore?
HAMLET	Ti udii recitarmi un brano una volta, ma non fu mai rappresentato, o, se lo fu, non più d’una volta; poiché il dramma, ricordo, non piacque ai più. Era caviale al volgo. Ma era—per come lo ricevetti io, e altri il cui giudizio in tali materie gridava più alto del mio—un dramma eccellente, ben distribuito nelle scene, composto con tanta sobrietà quanta maestria. Ricordo che uno disse che non c’erano spezie nei versi a render saporita la materia, né materia nella frase che potesse accusare l’autore d’affettazione, ma lo chiamò un metodo onesto, salubre quanto dolce, e assai più bello che leccato. Un brano vi amai sopra gli altri: era il racconto d’Enea a Didone, e in esso soprattutto là dove parla della strage di Priamo. Se vive nella tua memoria, comincia da questo verso—vediamo, vediamo: ‘Il ruvido Pirro, come la belva d’Ircania’—non è così. Comincia con Pirro—‘Il ruvido Pirro, colui le cui armi corvine, nere come il suo proposito, somigliavano alla notte quando giaceva rannicchiato nel cavallo fatale, ha ora questa terribile e nera sembianza imbrattata d’un’araldica più sinistra. Da capo a piedi ora è tutto rosso, orridamente adorno del sangue di padri, madri, figlie, figli, cotto e impastato dalle strade riarse, che prestano una luce tirannica e dannata ai loro vili assassinii. Arrostito d’ira e di fuoco, e così incrostato di grumi di sangue, con occhi come carbonchi l’infernale Pirro cerca il vecchio avo Priamo.’ Così, prosegui tu.
POLONIUS	Per Dio, mio signore, ben detto, con buon accento e buona misura.
PRIMO ATTORE	‘Poco dopo lo trova, che mena colpi troppo corti sui Greci. La sua antica spada, ribelle al braccio, giace dove cade, sorda al comando. Duello impari, Pirro si avventa su Priamo, e nell’ira colpisce a vuoto; ma al soffio e al vento della sua crudele spada il padre snervato cade. Allora Ilio insensibile, che par sentire quel colpo, con la cima in fiamme si piega alla sua base, e con orrendo schianto prende prigioniero l’orecchio di Pirro. Ché ecco, la sua spada, che stava calando sul lattèo capo del venerando Priamo, parve fermarsi nell’aria. Così, come un tiranno dipinto, Pirro stette, e, come neutrale fra il suo volere e l’atto, nulla fece. Ma come spesso vediamo, innanzi a qualche tempesta, un silenzio nei cieli, ferme le nubi, muti i venti arditi, e il globo di sotto tacito come la morte, e a un tratto il tuono tremendo squarcia la regione: così, dopo la pausa di Pirro, una vendetta ridesta lo rimette all’opera; e mai i martelli dei Ciclopi caddero sull’armatura di Marte, forgiata a prova eterna, con minor rimorso della sanguinante spada di Pirro che ora cade su Priamo. Via, via, sgualdrina Fortuna! Voi tutti, dèi, in generale sinodo, toglietele il potere, spezzate tutti i raggi e i cerchi della sua ruota, e fate rotolare il mozzo rotondo giù per il colle del cielo, fino in fondo ai demòni!’
POLONIUS	Questo è troppo lungo.
HAMLET	Andrà dal barbiere, con la vostra barba. (Al Primo Attore) Ti prego, continua. A lui ci vuole una giga o una storiella sconcia, o dorme. Continua, vieni a Ecuba.
PRIMO ATTORE	‘Ma chi, oh chi avesse visto la regina imbacuccata’—
HAMLET	‘La regina imbacuccata’?
POLONIUS	Bello; ‘regina imbacuccata’ è bello.
PRIMO ATTORE	‘Correre scalza su e giù, minacciando le fiamme con lacrime accecanti; uno straccio su quel capo dove poco prima stava il diadema, e per manto, intorno ai fianchi smagriti e sfiniti dai troppi parti, una coperta afferrata nell’allarme della paura— chi ciò avesse visto, con lingua intinta nel veleno, avrebbe proclamato tradimento contro il regno della Fortuna. Ma se gli dèi stessi la videro allora, quando ella vide Pirro fare maligno giuoco tritando con la sua spada le membra del marito, l’immediato scoppio di clamore ch’ella fece— se pure le cose mortali punto non li muovono— avrebbe fatto lacrimare gli occhi ardenti del cielo, e passione negli dèi.’
POLONIUS	Guardate se non ha cambiato colore, e ha le lacrime agli occhi. (Al Primo Attore) Ti prego, basta.
HAMLET	(al Primo Attore) Sta bene. Ti farò dire il resto fra poco. (A Polonius) Mio buon signore, vorrete far alloggiare bene gli attori? Udite?—siano trattati bene, ché sono il compendio e la breve cronaca del tempo. Dopo la vostra morte vi converrebbe meglio un cattivo epitaffio che la loro cattiva relazione mentre vivete.
POLONIUS	Mio signore, li tratterò secondo il loro merito.
HAMLET	Per il corpicino di Dio, uomo, molto meglio. Trattate ognuno secondo il suo merito, e chi sfuggirebbe alla frusta? Trattateli secondo il vostro onore e la vostra dignità—meno meritano, più merito è nella vostra generosità. Conduceteli dentro.
POLONIUS	(agli Attori) Venite, signori. Esce
HAMLET	(agli Attori) Seguitelo, amici. Domani udremo un dramma. Mi senti, vecchio amico? Sapete recitare l’assassinio di Gonzago?
(didascalia)	ATTORI Sì, mio signore.
HAMLET	L’avremo domani a notte. Potreste al bisogno studiare un brano d’una dozzina o sedici versi che io scriverei e v’inserirei, non è vero?
(didascalia)	ATTORI Sì, mio signore.
(didascalia)	HAMLET Molto bene. Seguite quel signore, e badate di non burlarvi di lui. Escono gli Attori Miei buoni amici, vi lascio fino a notte. Benvenuti a Elsinore.
ROSENCRANTZ	Buon signore mio.
HAMLET	Sì, così. Dio sia con voi. Escono tutti tranne Hamlet Ora sono solo. Oh, che furfante e schiavo villano sono io! Non è mostruoso che questo attore qui, in una pura finzione, in un sogno di passione, abbia potuto forzare così l’anima al suo concetto che per il suo operare tutto il volto gli impallidì, lacrime negli occhi, sconvolgimento nell’aspetto, voce rotta, e tutto il suo essere conforme nelle forme al suo concetto? E tutto per nulla. Per Ecuba! Che cos’è Ecuba per lui, o lui per Ecuba, perché debba piangere per lei? Che farebbe se avesse il motivo e l’imbeccata alla passione che ho io? Annegherebbe la scena di lacrime, e fenderebbe l’orecchio di tutti con orrido discorso, farebbe impazzire i colpevoli e atterrire gl’innocenti, confonderebbe gl’ignari, e sbalordirebbe davvero la facoltà stessa degli occhi e degli orecchi. Eppure io, ottuso furfante di fango impastato, languisco come Giovanni-dei-sogni, non gravido della mia causa, e nulla so dire—no, neppure per un re sui cui beni e sulla cui carissima vita fu compiuta una dannata rapina. Sono un vile? Chi mi chiama furfante, mi spacca il cranio, mi strappa la barba e me la soffia in faccia, mi torce il naso, mi caccia la menzogna in gola fino ai polmoni? Chi mi fa questo? Ah? Per le piaghe di Cristo, dovrei subirlo; ché non può essere se non ch’io ho fegato di colomba e mi manca il fiele per far amaro l’oltraggio, o già prima d’ora avrei ingrassato tutti i nibbi della contrada con le viscere di quello schiavo. Sanguinario, osceno scellerato! Spietato, traditore, lussurioso, snaturato scellerato! Oh, vendetta!— Ma che asino sono? Sì, certo, è ben da prode, che io, figlio d’un caro assassinato, spinto alla mia vendetta dal cielo e dall’inferno, debba, come una puttana, sfogare il cuore a parole e mettermi a bestemmiare come una sgualdrina, una sguattera! Vergogna, puah!—All’opera, cervello mio. Ho udito che creature colpevoli, sedute a uno spettacolo, sono state, per la stessa astuzia della scena, colpite così nell’anima che all’istante hanno proclamato i loro misfatti; ché l’assassinio, pur non avendo lingua, parlerà con miracolosissimo organo. Farò che questi attori recitino qualcosa di simile all’assassinio di mio padre davanti a mio zio. Ne osserverò gli sguardi, lo sonderò fino al vivo. Se solo trasalisce, so la mia via. Lo spirito che ho veduto può essere il diavolo, e il diavolo ha il potere d’assumere una forma piacevole; sì, e forse, traendo dalla mia debolezza e dalla mia malinconia— ché è potentissimo su tali umori— m’inganna per dannarmi. Voglio fondamenti più concreti di questo. Il dramma è la cosa in cui coglierò la coscienza del Re.
(didascalia)	Esce

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter King Claudius, Queen Gertrude, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and lords
KING CLAUDIUS	(to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern) And can you by no drift of circumstance Get from him why he puts on this confusion, Grating so harshly all his days of quiet With turbulent and dangerous lunacy?
ROSENCRANTZ	He does confess he feels himself distracted, But from what cause a will by no means speak.
GUILDENSTERN	Nor do we find him forward to be sounded, But with a crafty madness keeps aloof When we would bring him on to some confession Of his true state.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Did he receive you well?
ROSENCRANTZ	Most like a gentleman.
GUILDENSTERN	But with much forcing of his disposition.
ROSENCRANTZ	Niggard of question, but of our demands Most free in his reply.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Did you assay him To any pastime?
ROSENCRANTZ	Madam, it so fell out that certain players We o’er-raught on the way. Of these we told him, And there did seem in him a kind of joy To hear of it. They are about the court, And, as I think, they have already order This night to play before him.
POLONIUS	’Tis most true, And he beseeched me to entreat your majesties To hear and see the matter.
KING CLAUDIUS	With all my heart; and it doth much content me To hear him so inclined.—Good gentlemen, Give him a further edge, and drive his purpose on To these delights.
ROSENCRANTZ	We shall, my lord.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
KING CLAUDIUS	Sweet Gertrude, leave us too, For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither, That he, as ‘twere by accident, may here Affront Ophelia. Her father and myself, lawful espials, Will so bestow ourselves that, seeing unseen, We may of their encounter frankly judge, And gather by him, as he is behaved, If’t be th’affliction of his love or no That thus he suffers for.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	I shall obey you. And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish That your good beauties be the happy cause Of Hamlet’s wildness; so shall I hope your virtues Will bring him to his wonted way again, To both your honours.
OPHELIA	Madam, I wish it may.
(didascalia)	Exit Gertrude
POLONIUS	Ophelia, walk you here.—Gracious, so please you, We will bestow ourselves.—Read on this book, That show of such an exercise may colour Your loneliness. We are oft to blame in this: ‘Tis too much proved that with devotion’s visage And pious action we do sugar o’er The devil himself.
KING CLAUDIUS	O, ’tis too true. (Aside) How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience. The harlot’s cheek, beautied with plast’ring art, Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it Than is my deed to my most painted word. O heavy burden!
POLONIUS	I hear him coming. Let’s withdraw, my lord.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Claudius and Polonius
(didascalia)	Enter Prince Hamlet
HAMLET	To be, or not to be; that is the question: Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And, by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep— No more, and by a sleep to say we end The heartache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to—’tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep. To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there’s the rub, For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil Must give us pause. There’s the respect That makes calamity of so long life, For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, Th‘oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely, The pangs of disprized love, the law’s delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of th’unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? Who would these fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscovered country from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pith and moment With this regard their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action. Soft you, now, The fair Ophelia!—Nymph, in thy orisons Be all my sins remembered.
OPHELIA	Good my lord, How does your honour for this many a day?
HAMLET	I humbly thank you, well, well, well.
OPHELIA	My lord, I have remembrances of yours That I have longed long to redeliver. I pray you now receive them.
HAMLET	No, no, I never gave you aught.
OPHELIA	My honoured lord, you know right well you did, And with them words of so sweet breath composed As made the things more rich. Their perfume lost, Take these again; for to the noble mind Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind. There, my lord.
HAMLET	Ha, ha? Are you honest?
OPHELIA	My lord.
HAMLET	Are you fair?
OPHELIA	What means your lordship?
HAMLET	That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should admit no discourse to your beauty.
OPHELIA	Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty?
HAMLET	Ay, truly, for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness. This was sometime a paradox, but now the time gives it proof. I did love you once.
OPHELIA	Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.
HAMLET	You should not have believed me, for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it. I loved you not.
OPHELIA	I was the more deceived.
HAMLET	Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest, but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me. I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offences at my beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I do crawling between heaven and earth? We are arrant knaves, all. Believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery. Where’s your father?
OPHELIA	At home, my lord.
HAMLET	Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the fool nowhere but in ’s own house. Farewell.
OPHELIA	O help him, you sweet heavens!
HAMLET	If thou dost marry, I’ll give thee this plague for thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery, go, farewell. Or if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go, and quickly, too. Farewell.
OPHELIA	O heavenly powers, restore him!
HAMLET	I have heard of your paintings, too, well enough. God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another. You jig, you amble, and you lisp, and nickname God’s creatures, and make your wantonness your ignorance. Go to, I’ll no more on’t. It hath made me mad. I say we will have no more marriages. Those that are married already—all but one—shall live. The rest shall keep as they are. To a nunnery, go. Exit
OPHELIA	O what a noble mind is here o‘erthrown! The courtier’s, soldier‘s, scholar’s eye, tongue, sword, Th’expectancy and rose of the fair state, The glass of fashion and the mould of form, Th‘observed of all observers, quite, quite, down! And I, of ladies most deject and wretched, That sucked the honey of his music vows, Now see that noble and most sovereign reason Like sweet bells jangled out of tune and harsh; That unmatched form and feature of blown youth Blasted with ecstasy. O woe is me, T’have seen what I have seen, see what I see!
(didascalia)	Enter King Claudius and Polonius
KING CLAUDIUS	Love? His affections do not that way tend, Nor what he spake, though it lacked form a little, Was not like madness. There’s something in his soul O’er which his melancholy sits on brood, And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose Will be some danger; which to prevent I have in quick determination Thus set it down: he shall with speed to England For the demand of our neglected tribute. Haply the seas and countries different, With variable objects, shall expel This something-settled matter in his heart, Whereon his brains still beating puts him thus From fashion of himself. What think you on’t?
POLONIUS	It shall do well. But yet do I believe The origin and commencement of this grief Sprung from neglected love.—How now, Ophelia? You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet said; We heard it all.—My lord, do as you please, But, if you hold it fit, after the play Let his queen mother all alone entreat him To show his griefs. Let her be round with him, And I’ll be placed, so please you, in the ear Of all their conference. If she find him not, To England send him, or confine him where Your wisdom best shall think.
KING CLAUDIUS	It shall be so. Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano il Re Claudius, la Regina Gertrude, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern e alcuni signori
RE CLAUDIUS	(a Rosencrantz e Guildenstern) E non potete con nessun giro di discorso Cavargli perché ostenti questo turbamento, Straziando così aspramente i suoi giorni di quiete Con torbida e pericolosa demenza?
ROSENCRANTZ	Confessa bensì di sentirsi la mente sconvolta, Ma da quale cagione non vuole in alcun modo dire.
GUILDENSTERN	Né lo troviamo disposto a farsi sondare, Ma con astuta follia si tiene in disparte Quando vorremmo indurlo a qualche confessione Del suo vero stato.
REGINA GERTRUDE	Vi accolse bene?
ROSENCRANTZ	Del tutto da gentiluomo.
GUILDENSTERN	Ma con molta forzatura del suo umore.
ROSENCRANTZ	Avaro di domande, ma alle nostre richieste Assai libero nel rispondere.
REGINA GERTRUDE	Lo tentaste Con qualche passatempo?
ROSENCRANTZ	Signora, avvenne che certi attori Sopravanzammo per via. Di questi gli parlammo, E parve destarsi in lui una specie di gioia Nell’udirne. Sono qui presso la corte, E, come io credo, hanno già l’ordine Di recitare questa notte davanti a lui.
POLONIUS	È verissimo, E mi ha supplicato di pregare le vostre maestà Di udire e vedere la cosa.
RE CLAUDIUS	Con tutto il cuore; e molto mi contenta Udirlo così disposto.—Buoni gentiluomini, Aguzzategli ancora il desiderio, e spingete il suo intento Verso questi diletti.
ROSENCRANTZ	Lo faremo, mio signore.
(didascalia)	Escono Rosencrantz e Guildenstern
RE CLAUDIUS	Dolce Gertrude, lasciateci anche voi, Ché segretamente abbiamo mandato a chiamar qui Hamlet, Affinché egli, come per caso, possa qui Incontrare Ophelia. Suo padre ed io, spie legittime, Ci porremo in modo che, vedendo non visti, Possiamo giudicare apertamente del loro incontro, E arguire da lui, dal suo contegno, Se sia o no il tormento del suo amore Quello per cui così soffre.
REGINA GERTRUDE	Vi obbedirò. E quanto a voi, Ophelia, io desidero Che le vostre belle grazie siano la felice cagione Della stranezza di Hamlet; così spererò che le vostre virtù Lo riconducano al suo consueto cammino, A onore d’entrambi.
OPHELIA	Signora, lo desidero anch’io.
(didascalia)	Esce Gertrude
POLONIUS	Ophelia, passeggiate qui.—Grazioso signore, se vi piace, Noi ci apposteremo.—Leggete in questo libro, Che l’apparenza di tale esercizio dia colore Alla vostra solitudine. Spesso in questo siamo da biasimare: È troppo provato che con volto di devozione E pia azione inzuccheriamo Il diavolo stesso.
RE CLAUDIUS	Oh, è troppo vero. (A parte) Che aspra sferzata dà quel discorso alla mia coscienza. La guancia della meretrice, imbellita d’arte stuccatrice, Non è più brutta rispetto a ciò che la aiuta Di quanto lo sia il mio atto alla mia parola dipinta. Oh grave fardello!
POLONIUS	Lo sento venire. Ritiriamoci, mio signore.
(didascalia)	Escono Claudius e Polonius
(didascalia)	Entra il principe Hamlet
HAMLET	Essere, o non essere; questo è il problema: Se sia più nobile all’animo soffrire I colpi di fionda e i dardi dell’oltraggiosa fortuna, O prender l’armi contro un mare d’affanni, E, opponendosi, finirli. Morire, dormire— Nulla più, e con un sonno dire che poniamo fine Al dolore del cuore e ai mille colpi naturali Di cui la carne è erede—è una consumazione Da desiderarsi devotamente. Morire, dormire. Dormire, forse sognare. Ah, qui è l’intoppo, Ché in quel sonno di morte quali sogni possano venire Quando ci saremo spogliati di questa spoglia mortale Deve farci esitare. È questo il riguardo Che dà alla sventura una vita così lunga, Ché chi sopporterebbe le sferze e gli scherni del tempo, Il torto dell’oppressore, la contumelia del superbo, Le fitte dell’amore disprezzato, l’indugio della legge, L’insolenza delle cariche, e i dispregi Che il paziente merito riceve dagl’indegni, Quando egli stesso potrebbe farsi quietanza Con un semplice stiletto? Chi porterebbe questi fardelli, A grugnire e sudare sotto una vita spossata, Se non fosse che il terrore di qualcosa dopo la morte, Il paese inesplorato dai cui confini Nessun viaggiatore ritorna, sconcerta la volontà, E ci fa piuttosto sopportare i mali che abbiamo Che volare verso altri che non conosciamo? Così la coscienza fa di noi tutti dei codardi, E così il nativo colore della risoluzione S’illividisce sotto la pallida tinta del pensiero, E imprese di gran nerbo e momento Per questo riguardo torcono il loro corso E perdono il nome d’azione. Piano, ora, La bella Ophelia!—Ninfa, nelle tue orazioni Siano ricordati tutti i miei peccati.
OPHELIA	Mio buon signore, Come sta il vostro onore da tanti giorni in qua?
HAMLET	Vi ringrazio umilmente, bene, bene, bene.
OPHELIA	Mio signore, ho vostri ricordi Che da lungo tempo desideravo restituirvi. Vi prego, ora, riprendeteli.
HAMLET	No, no, io non vi diedi mai nulla.
OPHELIA	Mio onorato signore, sapete assai bene che lo faceste, E con essi parole composte d’un sì dolce fiato Che rendevano più ricche quelle cose. Perduto il loro profumo, Riprendetevele; ché all’animo nobile I ricchi doni impoveriscono quando chi dona si mostra scortese. Ecco, mio signore.
HAMLET	Ah, ah? Siete onesta?
OPHELIA	Mio signore.
HAMLET	Siete bella?
OPHELIA	Che intende vostra signoria?
HAMLET	Che se siete onesta e bella, la vostra onestà non dovrebbe ammettere colloquio con la vostra bellezza.
OPHELIA	Potrebbe la bellezza, mio signore, avere miglior commercio che con l’onestà?
HAMLET	Sì, davvero, ché il potere della bellezza trasformerà l’onestà da ciò che è in una ruffiana più presto di quanto la forza dell’onestà possa tradurre la bellezza a sua somiglianza. Questo un tempo era un paradosso, ma ora il tempo ne dà la prova. Io vi amai un tempo.
OPHELIA	Davvero, mio signore, me lo faceste credere.
HAMLET	Non avreste dovuto credermi, ché la virtù non può innestarsi al nostro vecchio ceppo senza che noi ne serbiamo il sapore. Io non vi amai.
OPHELIA	Tanto più fui ingannata.
HAMLET	Vattene in un convento. Perché vorresti generare peccatori? Io stesso sono passabilmente onesto, eppure potrei accusarmi di tali cose che sarebbe stato meglio che mia madre non m’avesse partorito. Sono molto superbo, vendicativo, ambizioso, con più colpe al mio cenno di quanti pensieri abbia per contenerle, immaginazione per dar loro forma, o tempo per compierle. Che devono fare individui come me, striscianti fra il cielo e la terra? Siamo tutti bricconi matricolati. Non credete a nessuno di noi. Va’ per la tua via, in un convento. Dov’è vostro padre?
OPHELIA	A casa, mio signore.
HAMLET	Che gli si chiudano addosso le porte, così che possa fare il buffone in nessun luogo se non in casa sua. Addio.
OPHELIA	Oh soccorretelo, voi dolci cieli!
HAMLET	Se ti sposerai, ti darò questa piaga per dote: fossi tu casta come il ghiaccio, pura come la neve, non sfuggirai alla calunnia. Vattene in un convento, va’, addio. O se proprio devi sposarti, sposa uno sciocco; ché gli uomini saggi sanno assai bene quali mostri fate di loro. In un convento, va’, e presto, anche. Addio.
OPHELIA	Oh potenze celesti, risanatelo!
HAMLET	Ho sentito parlare anche dei vostri belletti, assai bene. Dio v’ha dato un volto, e voi ve ne fate un altro. Voi saltellate, voi ancheggiate, e voi bleserate, e storpiate i nomi delle creature di Dio, e fate della vostra lascivia ignoranza. Andiamo, non ne voglio più. M’ha fatto impazzire. Dico che non avremo più matrimoni. Quelli che sono già sposati—tutti tranne uno—vivranno. Gli altri resteranno come sono. In un convento, va’. Esce
OPHELIA	Oh, che nobile mente è qui rovinata! Del cortigiano, del soldato, del dotto l’occhio, la lingua, la spada, La speranza e la rosa del bello stato, Lo specchio della moda e lo stampo del contegno, L’osservato da tutti gli osservatori, del tutto, del tutto abbattuto! Ed io, fra le dame la più abbattuta e misera, Che suggevo il miele dei suoi voti di musica, Ora vedo quella nobile e sovrana ragione Come dolci campane stonate e stridule; Quella impareggiabile forma e figura di giovinezza in fiore Devastata dal delirio. Oh, me infelice, D’aver veduto quel che vidi, di veder quel che vedo!
(didascalia)	Entrano il Re Claudius e Polonius
RE CLAUDIUS	Amore? I suoi affetti non tendono da quella parte, Né quanto disse, benché mancasse un poco di forma, Era simile a follia. C’è qualcosa nella sua anima Su cui la sua malinconia sta covando, E io temo che la covata e lo schiudersi Saranno qualche pericolo; per prevenirlo Ho in rapida deliberazione Così stabilito: egli andrà con prestezza in Inghilterra A domandare il nostro trascurato tributo. Forse i mari e paesi diversi, Con oggetti mutevoli, scacceranno Questa cosa in qualche modo radicata nel suo cuore, Su cui il suo cervello, battendo di continuo, lo trae così Fuori dalla foggia di se stesso. Che ne pensate?
POLONIUS	Andrà bene. Eppure io credo Che l’origine e il principio di questo dolore Sian nati da amore negletto.—Ebbene, Ophelia? Non occorre che ci diciate ciò che disse il signor Hamlet; Abbiamo udito tutto.—Mio signore, fate come vi piace, Ma, se lo giudicate opportuno, dopo la recita Lasciate che sua madre la regina, tutta sola, lo preghi Di mostrare i suoi dolori. Ch’ella sia schietta con lui, E io mi porrò, se vi piace, all’orecchio Di tutto il loro colloquio. Se ella non lo scopre, Mandatelo in Inghilterra, o confinatelo dove La vostra saggezza meglio penserà.
RE CLAUDIUS	Così sarà. La follia nei grandi non deve andare senza vigilanza.
(didascalia)	Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Prince Hamlet and two or three of the Players
HAMLET	Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you—trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I had as lief the town-crier had spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and as I may say the whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious, periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb shows and noise. I would have such a fellow whipped for o’erdoing Termagant. It out-Herods Herod. Pray you avoid it. A PLAYER I warrant your honour.
HAMLET	Be not too tame, neither; but let your own discretion be your tutor. Suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this special observance: that you o‘erstep not the modesty of nature. For anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is to hold as ’twere the mirror up to nature, to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure. Now this overdone, or come tardy off, though it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the censure of the which one must in your allowance o’erweigh a whole theatre of others. O, there be players that I have seen play, and heard others praise, and that highly, not to speak it profanely, that neither having the accent of Christians nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor no man, have so strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of nature’s journeymen had made men, and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably. A PLAYER I hope we have reformed that indifferently with us, sir.
HAMLET	O, reform it altogether. And let those that play your clowns speak no more than is set down for them; for there be of them that will themselves laugh to set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too, though in the mean time some necessary question of the play be then to be considered. That’s villainous, and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. Go make you ready. Exeunt Players
(didascalia)	Enter Polonius, Guildenstern, and Rosencrantz
HAMLET	(To Polonius) How now, my lord? Will the King hear this piece of work?
POLONIUS	And the Queen too, and that presently. HAMLET Bid the players make haste. Exit Polonius Will you two help to hasten them?
ROSENCRANTZ	and GUILDENSTERN We will, my lord.
(didascalia)	Exeunt
HAMLET	What ho, Horatio!
(didascalia)	Enter Horatio
HORATIO	Here, sweet lord, at your service.
HAMLET	Horatio, thou art e‘en as just a man As e’er my conversation coped withal.
HORATIO	O my dear lord—
HAMLET	Nay, do not think I flatter; For what advancement may I hope from thee, That no revenue hast but thy good spirits To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be flattered? No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp, And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee Where thrift may follow feigning. Dost thou hear?— Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice And could of men distinguish, her election Hath sealed thee for herself; for thou hast been As one in suff‘ring all that suffers nothing, A man that Fortune’s buffets and rewards Hath ta’en with equal thanks; and blest are those Whose blood and judgement are so well commingled That they are not a pipe for Fortune’s finger To sound what stop she please. Give me that man That is not passion’s slave, and I will wear him In my heart’s core, ay, in my heart of heart, As I do thee. Something too much of this. There is a play tonight before the King. One scene of it comes near the circumstance Which I have told thee of my father’s death. I prithee, when thou seest that act afoot, Even with the very comment of thy soul Observe mine uncle. If his occulted guilt Do not itself unkennel in one speech, It is a damned ghost that we have seen, And my imaginations are as foul As Vulcan’s stithy. Give him heedful note, For I mine eyes will rivet to his face, And after, we will both our judgements join To censure of his seeming.
HORATIO	Well, my lord. If a steal aught the whilst this play is playing And scape detecting, I will pay the theft.
(didascalia)	Sound a flourish
HAMLET	They are coming to the play. I must be idle. Get you a place.
(didascalia)	Danish march. Enter King Claudius, Queen
HAMLET	Gertrude, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and other lords attendant, with the
(didascalia)	King’s guard carrying torches
KING CLAUDIUS	How fares our cousin Hamlet?
HAMLET	Excellent, i’faith, of the chameleon’s dish. I eat the air, promise-crammed. You cannot feed capons so.
KING CLAUDIUS	I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet. These words are not mine.
HAMLET	No, nor mine now. (To Polonius) My lord, you played once i’th’ university, you say.
POLONIUS	That I did, my lord, and was accounted a good actor.
HAMLET	And what did you enact?
POLONIUS	I did enact Julius Caesar. I was killed i’th’ Capitol. Brutus killed me.
HAMLET	It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf there.—Be the players ready?
ROSENCRANTZ	Ay, my lord, they stay upon your patience.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Come hither, my good Hamlet. Sit by me.
HAMLET	No, good-mother, here’s mettle more attractive. He sits by Ophelia
POLONTUS	(aside) O ho, do you mark that?
HAMLET	(to Ophelia) Lady, shall I lie in your lap?
OPHELIA	No, my lord.
HAMLET	I mean my head upon your lap?
OPHELIA	Ay, my lord.
HAMLET	Do you think I meant country matters?
OPHELIA	I think nothing, my lord.
HAMLET	That’s a fair thought to lie between maids’ legs.
OPHELIA	What is, my lord?
HAMLET	No thing.
OPHELIA	You are merry, my lord.
HAMLET	Who, I?
OPHELIA	Ay, my lord.
HAMLET	O God, your only jig-maker! What should a man do but be merry? For look you how cheerfully my mother looks, and my father died within ’s two hours.
OPHELIA	Nay, ’tis twice two mqnths, my lord. 122
HAMLET	So long? Nay then, let the devil wear black, for I’ll have a suit of sables. O heavens, die two months ago and not forgotten yet! Then there’s hope a great man’s memory may outlive his life half a year. But, by‘r Lady, a must build churches then, or else shall a suffer not thinking on, with the hobby-horse, whose epitaph is ‘For O, for O, the hobby-horse is forgot.’
(didascalia)	Hautboys play. The dumb show enters. Enter a King
HAMLET	and a Queen very lovingly, the Queen embracing him. She kneels and makes show of protestation unto him. He takes her up and declines his head upon her neck. He lays him down upon a bank of flowers. She, seeing him asleep, leaves him. Anon comes in a fellow, takes off his crown, kisses it, and pours poison in the King’s ears, and exits. The Queen returns, finds the King dead, and makes passionate action. The poisoner, with some two or three mutes, comes in again, seeming to lament with her. The dead body is carried away. The poisoner woos the Queen with gifts. She seems loath and unwilling a while, but in the end accepts his love. Exeunt the Players
OPHELIA	What means this, my lord?
HAMLET	Marry, this is miching malhecho. That means mischief.
OPHELIA	Belike this show imports the argument of the play. Enter Prologue
HAMLET	We shall know by this fellow. The players cannot keep counsel, they’ll tell all.
OPHELIA	Will a tell us what this show meant?
HAMLET	Ay, or any show that you’ll show him. Be not you ashamed to show, he’ll not shame to tell you what it means.
OPHELIA	You are naught, you are naught. I’ll mark the play.
PROLOGUE	For us and for our tragedy Here stooping to your clemency, We beg your hearing patiently. Exit
HAMLET	Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring?
OPHELIA	’Tis brief, my lord.
HAMLET	As woman’s love.
(didascalia)	Enter the Player King and his Queen
PLAYER KING	Full thirty times hath Phoebus’ cart gone round Neptune’s salt wash and Tellus’ orbèd ground, And thirty dozen moons with borrowed sheen About the world have times twelve thirties been Since love our hearts and Hymen did our hands Unite commutual in most sacred bands.
PLAYER QUEEN	So many journeys may the sun and moon Make us again count o’er ere love be done. But woe is me, you are so sick of late, So far from cheer and from your former state, That I distrust you. Yet, though I distrust, Discomfort you my lord it nothing must. For women’s fear and love holds quantity, In neither aught, or in extremity. Now what my love is, proof hath made you know, And as my love is sized, my fear is so.
PLAYER KING	Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly too. My operant powers their functions leave to do, And thou shalt live in this fair world behind, Honoured, beloved; and haply one as kind For husband shalt thou—
PLAYER QUEEN	O, confound the rest! Such love must needs be treason in my breast. In second husband let me be accurst; None wed the second but who killed the first.
HAMLET	Wormwood, wormwood.
PLAYER QUEEN	The instances that second marriage move Are base respects of thrift, but none of love. A second time I kill my husband dead When second husband kisses me in bed.
PLAYER KING	I do believe you think what now you speak; But what we do determine oft we break. Purpose is but the slave to memory, Of violent birth but poor validity, Which now like fruit unripe sticks on the tree, But fall unshaken when they mellow be. Most necessary ‘tis that we forget To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt. What to ourselves in passion we propose, The passion ending, doth the purpose lose. The violence of either grief or joy Their own enactures with themselves destroy. Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament; Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident. This world is not for aye, nor ’tis not strange That even our loves should with our fortunes change; For ’tis a question left us yet to prove Whether love lead fortune or else fortune love. The great man down, you mark his favourite flies; The poor advanced makes friends of enemies. And hitherto doth love on fortune tend, For who not needs shall never lack a friend, And who in want a hollow friend doth try Directly seasons him his enemy. But orderly to end where I begun, Our wills and fates do so contrary run That our devices still are overthrown; Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own. So think thou wilt no second husband wed; But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead.
PLAYER QUEEN	Nor earth to me give food, nor heaven light, Sport and repose lock from me day and night, Each opposite that blanks the face of joy Meet what I would have well and it destroy, Both here and hence pursue me lasting strife If, once a widow, ever I be wife.
HAMLET	If she should break it now!
PLAYER KING	(to Player Queen) ’Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here a while. My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile The tedious day with sleep.
PLAYER QUEEN	Sleep rock thy brain, And never come mischance between us twain. Player King sleeps. Player Queen exits
HAMLET	(to Gertrude) Madam, how like you this play?
QUEEN GERTRUDE	The lady protests too much, methinks.
HAMLET	O, but she’ll keep her word.
KING CLAUDIUS	Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in’t?
HAMLET	No, no, they do but jest, poison in jest. No offence i’th’ world.
KING CLAUDIUS	What do you call the play?
HAMLET	The Mousetrap. Marry, how? Tropically. This play is the image of a murder done in Vienna. Gonzago is the Duke’s name, his wife Baptista. You shall see anon. ’Tis a knavish piece of work; but what o’ that? Your majesty, and we that have free souls, it touches us not. Let the galled jade wince, our withers are unwrung.
(didascalia)	Enter Player Lucianus
HAMLET	This is one Lucianus, nephew to the King.
OPHELIA	You are as good as a chorus, my lord.
HAMLET	I could interpret between you and your love if I could see the puppets dallying.
OPHELIA	You are keen, my lord, you are keen.
HAMLET	It would cost you a groaning to take off mine edge.
OPHELIA	Still better, and worse.
HAMLET	So you mis-take your husbands. (To Lucianus) Begin, murderer. Pox, leave thy damnable faces and begin. Come: ‘the croaking raven doth bellow for revenge’.
PLAYER LUCIANUS	Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing, Confederate season, else no creature seeing; Thou mixture rank of midnight weeds collected, With Hecate’s ban thrice blasted, thrice infected, Thy natural magic and dire property On wholesome life usurp immediately. He pours the poison in the Player King’s ear
HAMLET	A poisons him i’th’ garden for ’s estate. His name’s Gonzago. The story is extant, and writ in choice Italian. You shall see anon how the murderer gets the love of Gonzago’s wife.
OPHELIA	The King rises.
HAMLET	What, frighted with false fire?
QUEEN GERTRUDE	(to Claudius) How fares my lord? POLONIUSGive o’er the play.
(didascalia)	KING CLAUDIUS Give me some light. Away. COURTIERS Lights, lights, lights!
(didascalia)	Exeunt all but Hamlet and Horatio
HAMLET	Why, let the stricken deer go weep, The hart ungallèd play, For some must watch, while some must sleep, So runs the world away. Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers, if the rest of my fortunes turn Turk with me, with two Provençal roses on my razed shoes, get me a fellowship in a cry of players, sir?
HORATIO	Half a share.
HAMLET	A whole one, I. For thou dost know, O Damon dear, This realm dismantled was Of Jove himself, and now reigns here A very, very—pajock.
HORATIO	You might have rhymed.
HAMLET	O good Horatio, I’ll take the Ghost’s word for a thousand pound. Didst perceive?
HORATIO	Very well, my lord.
HAMLET	Upon the talk of the pois’ning?
HORATIO	I did very well note him.
(didascalia)	Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
HAMLET	Ah ha! Come, some music, come, the recorders, For if the King like not the comedy, Why then, belike he likes it not, pardie. Come, some music.
GUILDENSTERN	Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you.
HAMLET	Sir, a whole history.
GUILDENSTERN	The King, sir—
HAMLET	Ay, sir, what of him?
GUILDENSTERN	Is in his retirement marvellous distempered.
HAMLET	With drink, sir?
GUILDENSTERN	No, my lord, rather with choler.
HAMLET	Your wisdom should show itself more richer to signify this to his doctor, for for me to put him to his purgation would perhaps plunge him into far more choler.
GUILDENSTERN	Good my lord, put your discourse into some frame, and start not so wildly from my affair.
HAMLET	I am tame, sir. Pronounce.
GUILDENSTERN	The Queen your mother, in most great affliction of spirit, hath sent me to you.
HAMLET	You are welcome.
GUILDENSTERN	Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the right breed. If it shall please you to make me a wholesome answer, I will do your mother’s commandment; if not, your pardon and my return shall be the end of my business.
HAMLET	Sir, I cannot.
GUILDENSTERN	What, my lord?
HAMLET	Make you a wholesome answer. My wit’s diseased. But, sir, such answers as I can make, you shall command; or rather, as you say, my mother. Therefore no more, but to the matter. My mother, you say?
ROSENCRANTZ	Then thus she says: your behaviour hath struck her into amazement and admiration.
HAMLET	O wonderful son, that can so astonish a mother! But is there no sequel at the heels of this mother’s admiration?
ROSENCRANTZ	She desires to speak with you in her closet ere you go to bed. 319
HAMLET	We shall obey, were she ten times our mother. Have you any further trade with us?
ROSENCRANTZ	My lord, you once did love me.
HAMLET	So I do still, by these pickers and stealers.
ROSENCRANTZ	Good my lord, what is your cause of distemper? You do freely bar the door of your own liberty if you deny your griefs to your friend.
HAMLET	Sir, I lack advancement.
ROSENCRANTZ	How can that be when you have the voice of the King himself for your succession in Denmark?
HAMLET	Ay, but ‘while the grass grows …’—the proverb is something musty.
(didascalia)	Enter one with a recorder
HAMLET	O, the recorder. Let me see. (To Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, taking them aside) To withdraw with you, why do you go about to recover the wind of me as if you would drive me into a toil?
GUILDENSTERN	O my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is too unmannerly.
HAMLET	I do not well understand that. Will you play upon this pipe?
GUILDENSTERN	My lord, I cannot.
HAMLET	I pray you.
GUILDENSTERN	Believe me, I cannot.
HAMLET	I do beseech you.
GUILDENSTERN	I know no touch of it, my lord.
HAMLET	’Tis as easy as lying. Govern these ventages with your fingers and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most excellent music. Look you, these are the stops.
GUILDENSTERN	But these cannot I command to any utterance of harmony. I have not the skill.
HAMLET	Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me! You would play upon me, you would seem to know my stops, you would pluck out the heart of my mystery, you would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass; and there is much music, excellent voice in this little organ, yet cannot you make it speak. ’Sblood, do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, you cannot play upon me.
(didascalia)	Enter Polonius
HAMLET	God bless you, sir.
POLONIUS	My lord, the Queen would speak with you, and presently.
HAMLET	Do you see yonder cloud that’s almost in shape of a camel?
POLONIUS	By th’ mass, and ’tis: like a camel, indeed.
HAMLET	Methinks it is like a weasel.
POLONIUS	It is backed like a weasel.
HAMLET	Or like a whale.
POLONIUS	Very like a whale.
HAMLET	Then will I come to my mother by and by. (Aside) They fool me to the top of my bent. (To Polonius) I will come by and by.
POLONIUS	I will say so.
HAMLET	’By and by’ is easily said. Exit Polonius Leave me, friends.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
HAMLET	’Tis now the very witching time of night, When churchyards yawn, and hell itself breathes out Contagion to this world. Now could I drink hot blood, And do such bitter business as the day Would quake to look on. Soft, now to my mother. 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

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano il principe Hamlet e due o tre degli Attori
HAMLET	Recitate la battuta, ve ne prego, come ve l’ho declamata io—scorrevole sulla lingua; ma se la masticate, come fanno tanti dei vostri attori, tanto varrebbe che i miei versi li avesse detti il banditore comunale. E non segate troppo l’aria con la mano, così, ma usate di tutto con garbo; ché nel torrente stesso, nella tempesta, e per così dire nel turbine della vostra passione, dovete acquistare e generare una temperanza che le dia levigatezza. Oh, mi offende fino all’anima udire un pezzo d’uomo robusto e imparruccato stracciare una passione a brandelli, a veri cenci, per spaccare gli orecchi della platea in piedi, che per la più parte non è capace di nulla se non di inspiegabili pantomime e di frastuono. Vorrei che un tale individuo fosse frustato per aver strafatto il Termagante. Supera Erode in erodismo. Vi prego, evitatelo. UN ATTORE Ne rispondo io, vostro onore.
HAMLET	Né siate troppo blandi, però; ma la vostra propria discrezione vi sia maestra. Adattate l’azione alla parola, la parola all’azione, con questa avvertenza particolare: di non oltrepassare la modestia della natura. Poiché ogni cosa a tal segno esagerata è fuori dallo scopo del recitare, il cui fine, da principio e ora, fu ed è di tenere per così dire lo specchio davanti alla natura, di mostrare alla virtù il suo proprio volto, allo scherno la sua propria immagine, e all’età stessa e al corpo del tempo la sua forma e la sua impronta. Ora, questo esagerato, o reso fiaccamente, benché faccia ridere gl’inesperti, non può che far dolere i giudiziosi; e la censura di uno solo di costoro deve, nella vostra stima, pesare più di un intero teatro degli altri. Oh, vi sono attori che ho visto recitare, e che ho udito lodare da altri, e altamente, per non dirlo profanamente, i quali, non avendo né l’accento dei cristiani né l’andatura di cristiano, di pagano, né d’uomo alcuno, si sono così impettiti e hanno così muggito che ho pensato che certi garzoni della natura avessero fatto degli uomini, e non li avessero fatti bene, tanto abominevolmente imitavano l’umanità. UN ATTORE Spero che presso di noi ciò sia stato corretto abbastanza, signore.
HAMLET	Oh, correggetelo del tutto. E quelli che fanno i vostri buffoni non dicano più di quanto è scritto per loro; ché ve n’è di quelli che si mettono a ridere essi stessi per far ridere anche una certa quantità di sterili spettatori, mentre in quel medesimo tempo qualche punto necessario del dramma dovrebbe essere considerato. È cosa infame, e mostra una pietosissima ambizione nel buffone che se ne serve. Andate a prepararvi. Escono gli Attori
(didascalia)	Entrano Polonius, Guildenstern e Rosencrantz
HAMLET	(A Polonius) Ebbene, mio signore? Il Re ascolterà questo lavoro?
POLONIUS	E anche la Regina, e subito. HAMLET Dite agli attori di far presto. Esce Polonius Volete voi due aiutare a sollecitarli?
ROSENCRANTZ	e GUILDENSTERN Lo faremo, mio signore.
(didascalia)	Escono
HAMLET	Ehilà, Horatio!
(didascalia)	Entra Horatio
HORATIO	Eccomi, dolce signore, al vostro servizio.
HAMLET	Horatio, tu sei un uomo giusto quanto mai ne incontrò il mio commercio con gli uomini.
HORATIO	Oh mio caro signore—
HAMLET	No, non credere ch’io ti aduli; ché quale avanzamento potrei sperare da te, che non hai altra rendita che il tuo buon animo per nutrirti e vestirti? Perché adulare il povero? No, lecchi la lingua zuccherata l’assurdo fasto, e pieghi i docili cardini del ginocchio dove il guadagno segua la finzione. Mi ascolti?— Da quando la mia cara anima fu padrona di scegliere e seppe distinguere fra gli uomini, la sua elezione ti ha segnato per sé; poiché tu sei stato come uno che, patendo tutto, nulla patisce, un uomo che i colpi e i doni della Fortuna ha preso con pari gratitudine; e beati coloro il cui sangue e il cui giudizio sono così bene mescolati da non essere un flauto per il dito della Fortuna che vi suoni il tasto che le piace. Dammi quell’uomo che non sia schiavo della passione, e io lo porterò nel nocciolo del cuore, sì, nel cuore del mio cuore, come porto te. Ma di ciò fin troppo. C’è stasera una recita davanti al Re. Una scena di essa s’accosta alla circostanza che t’ho narrato della morte di mio padre. Ti prego, quando vedrai quell’atto in corso, con tutta quanta l’attenzione della tua anima osserva mio zio. Se la sua occulta colpa non si stana da sé a un certo discorso, è uno spettro dannato quello che abbiamo visto, e le mie fantasie sono immonde come l’incudine di Vulcano. Osservalo con cura, ché io inchioderò i miei occhi al suo volto, e dopo uniremo entrambi i nostri giudizi nel sentenziare sul suo apparire.
HORATIO	Bene, mio signore. Se mi ruberà qualcosa mentre si recita il dramma e sfuggirà all’occhio, pagherò io il furto.
(didascalia)	Squillo di trombe
HAMLET	Vengono alla recita. Devo fare l’ozioso. Prendetevi un posto.
(didascalia)	Marcia danese. Entrano il Re Claudius, la Regina
HAMLET	Gertrude, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, e altri signori del seguito, con la
(didascalia)	guardia del Re che porta le torce
RE CLAUDIUS	Come sta nostro cugino Hamlet?
HAMLET	Eccellentemente, in fede mia, del piatto del camaleonte. Mangio aria, rimpinzato di promesse. Non si ingrassano così i capponi.
RE CLAUDIUS	Non so che farmene di questa risposta, Hamlet. Queste parole non sono mie.
HAMLET	No, e ora neppure mie. (A Polonius) Mio signore, voi recitaste una volta all’università, dite.
POLONIUS	Sì, mio signore, ed ero reputato un buon attore.
HAMLET	E che cosa rappresentaste?
POLONIUS	Rappresentai Giulio Cesare. Fui ucciso in Campidoglio. Bruto mi uccise.
HAMLET	Fu da bruto, da parte sua, uccidere lì un vitello così capitale.—Sono pronti gli attori?
ROSENCRANTZ	Sì, mio signore, attendono il vostro comodo.
REGINA GERTRUDE	Vieni qua, mio buon Hamlet. Siediti accanto a me.
HAMLET	No, buona madre, qui c’è un metallo più attraente. Si siede accanto a Ophelia
POLONTUS	(a parte) Oh oh, notate questo?
HAMLET	(a Ophelia) Signora, posso coricarmi nel vostro grembo?
OPHELIA	No, mio signore.
HAMLET	Voglio dire, il mio capo sul vostro grembo?
OPHELIA	Sì, mio signore.
HAMLET	Credete che intendessi cose contadine?
OPHELIA	Non penso nulla, mio signore.
HAMLET	È un bel pensiero, da giacere fra le gambe di una fanciulla.
OPHELIA	Che cosa, mio signore?
HAMLET	Nessuna cosa.
OPHELIA	Siete allegro, mio signore.
HAMLET	Chi, io?
OPHELIA	Sì, mio signore.
HAMLET	Oh Dio, il vostro unico compositore di giighe! Che dovrebbe fare un uomo se non stare allegro? Ché guardate come appare lieta mia madre, e mio padre è morto da due ore.
OPHELIA	No, sono due volte due mesi, mio signore. 122
HAMLET	Tanto tempo? E allora porti il diavolo il nero, ché io vestirò di zibellino. Oh cieli, morto due mesi fa e non ancora dimenticato! Allora c’è speranza che la memoria d’un grand’uomo sopravviva alla sua vita di mezz’anno. Ma, per la Madonna, deve allora edificare chiese, o altrimenti patirà d’essere dimenticato, come il cavallo di legno, il cui epitaffio è ‘Ché oh, ché oh, il cavallo di legno è dimenticato.’
(didascalia)	Suonano gli oboi. Entra la pantomima. Entrano un Re
HAMLET	e una Regina molto amorosi, la Regina lo abbraccia. Ella s’inginocchia e gli fa mostra di giuramenti. Egli la rialza e reclina il capo sul suo collo. Si corica su un letto di fiori. Ella, vedendolo addormentato, lo lascia. Poco dopo entra un tale, gli toglie la corona, la bacia, e versa veleno negli orecchi del Re, ed esce. La Regina ritorna, trova il Re morto, e fa gesti appassionati. L’avvelenatore, con due o tre comparse mute, rientra di nuovo, fingendo di dolersi con lei. Il corpo morto è portato via. L’avvelenatore corteggia la Regina con doni. Ella pare riluttante e restia per un poco, ma alla fine accetta il suo amore. Escono gli Attori
OPHELIA	Che significa questo, mio signore?
HAMLET	Perbacco, questo è miching malhecho. Vuol dire misfatto.
OPHELIA	Forse questa pantomima reca l’argomento del dramma. Entra il Prologo
HAMLET	Lo sapremo da costui. Gli attori non sanno tenere un segreto: diranno tutto.
OPHELIA	Ci dirà che cosa significava questa pantomima?
HAMLET	Sì, o qualunque cosa voi vogliate mostrargli. Non vergognatevi voi di mostrare, e lui non si vergognerà di dirvi che cosa significa.
OPHELIA	Siete cattivo, siete cattivo. Starò attenta al dramma.
PROLOGO	Per noi e per la nostra tragedia, qui inchinandoci alla vostra clemenza, vi chiediamo un ascolto paziente. Esce
HAMLET	È questo un prologo, o il motto inciso in un anello?
OPHELIA	È breve, mio signore.
HAMLET	Come l’amore di donna.
(didascalia)	Entrano il Re attore e la sua Regina
RE ATTORE	Ben trenta volte il carro di Febo ha girato il salso lavacro di Nettuno e il tondo suolo di Tellure, e trenta dozzine di lune di splendore preso in prestito hanno fatto attorno al mondo dodici volte trenta giri da che l’amore i nostri cuori e Imeneo le nostre mani unirono scambievoli in vincoli sacratissimi.
REGINA ATTRICE	Altrettanti viaggi il sole e la luna ci facciano ancora contare prima che l’amore finisca. Ma ahimè, siete da poco così malato, così lontano dalla letizia e dal vostro stato di prima, che io temo per voi. Pure, se anche temo, ciò non deve, mio signore, darvi sgomento. Ché nella donna timore e amore tengono misura: o in nessuno dei due, o all’estremo. Ora quale sia il mio amore, la prova ve l’ha fatto sapere, e quanto è grande il mio amore, tanto è il mio timore.
RE ATTORE	In fede, devo lasciarti, amore, e presto anche. Le mie facoltà operanti cessano le loro funzioni, e tu vivrai in questo bel mondo dopo di me, onorata, amata; e forse uno altrettanto gentile per marito tu—
REGINA ATTRICE	Oh, taci il resto! Un tale amore sarebbe tradimento nel mio petto. Sia maledetta se prendo un secondo marito; nessuna sposi il secondo, se non chi uccise il primo.
HAMLET	Assenzio, assenzio.
REGINA ATTRICE	I motivi che muovono a seconde nozze sono vili riguardi di lucro, non già d’amore. Una seconda volta uccido il mio sposo morto quando un secondo sposo mi bacia nel letto.
RE ATTORE	Io credo che pensiate ciò che ora dite; ma quanto decidiamo, spesso lo rompiamo. Il proposito non è che schiavo della memoria, di nascita violenta ma di povera durata: ora, come frutto acerbo, sta stretto all’albero, ma cade senza scossa quando è maturo. È necessarissimo che dimentichiamo di pagare a noi stessi ciò che a noi stessi è debito. Ciò che nella passione a noi stessi proponiamo, finita la passione, perde il suo proposito. La violenza o del dolore o della gioia distrugge con sé i propri stessi atti. Dove più esulta la gioia, più il dolore si lagna; il dolore gioisce, la gioia duole, per lieve accidente. Questo mondo non è per sempre, né è strano che anche i nostri amori mutino con le nostre fortune; ché è questione ancora da provare per noi se l’amore guidi la fortuna o la fortuna l’amore. Caduto il grande, vedi fuggire il suo favorito; il povero innalzato fa amici dei nemici. E fin qui l’amore tiene dietro alla fortuna, ché chi non ha bisogno non mancherà mai d’amico, e chi nel bisogno mette alla prova un amico vuoto senz’altro lo matura a proprio nemico. Ma per finire ordinatamente dove ho cominciato, i nostri voleri e i nostri fati corrono così contrari che i nostri disegni sono sempre rovesciati: nostri sono i pensieri, ma i loro fini non sono nostri. Così tu pensi di non sposare un secondo marito; ma muoiano i tuoi pensieri quando il tuo primo signore è morto.
REGINA ATTRICE	Né la terra mi dia cibo, né il cielo luce, mi siano chiusi svago e riposo giorno e notte, ogni avversità che spegne il volto della gioia incontri quanto vorrei che andasse bene e lo distrugga, e qui e nell’aldilà mi perseguiti eterno travaglio se, una volta vedova, sarò mai sposa.
HAMLET	E se ora lo rompesse!
RE ATTORE	(alla Regina attrice) È giurato profondamente. Dolce, lasciami qui un poco. I miei spiriti si fanno torpidi, e volentieri ingannerei il tedioso giorno col sonno.
REGINA ATTRICE	Il sonno culli il tuo cervello, e mai sventura venga fra noi due. Il Re attore dorme. La Regina attrice esce
HAMLET	(a Gertrude) Signora, come vi piace questo dramma?
REGINA GERTRUDE	La dama protesta troppo, mi pare.
HAMLET	Oh, ma manterrà la parola.
RE CLAUDIUS	Avete udito l’argomento? Non c’è offesa in esso?
HAMLET	No, no, non fanno che scherzare, veleno per scherzo. Nessuna offesa al mondo.
RE CLAUDIUS	Come chiamate il dramma?
HAMLET	La trappola per topi. Perbacco, e come mai? Tropicamente. Questo dramma è l’immagine di un assassinio compiuto a Vienna. Gonzago è il nome del Duca, sua moglie Battista. Vedrete fra poco. È un lavoro da furfanti; ma che importa? Vostra maestà, e noi che abbiamo l’anima libera, non ci tocca. S’imbizzarrisca pure la rozza scorticata: il nostro garrese è illeso.
(didascalia)	Entra l’attore Lucianus
HAMLET	Costui è un tal Lucianus, nipote del Re.
OPHELIA	Valete quanto un coro, mio signore.
HAMLET	Potrei fare da interprete fra voi e il vostro amore, se vedessi le marionette folleggiare.
OPHELIA	Siete tagliente, mio signore, siete tagliente.
HAMLET	Vi costerebbe un gemito smussare il mio filo.
OPHELIA	Sempre meglio, e peggio.
HAMLET	Così voi pigliate a torto i mariti. (A Lucianus) Comincia, assassino. Peste, lascia quelle tue facce dannate e comincia. Su: ‘il corvo gracchiante mugge vendetta’.
ATTORE LUCIANUS	Pensieri neri, mani pronte, droghe adatte, e il tempo consenziente, l’ora complice, e nessuna creatura che veda; tu, mistura fetida d’erbe colte a mezzanotte, tre volte appestata, tre volte infetta dalla maledizione d’Ecate, la tua naturale magia e la tua tremenda virtù usurpino all’istante la vita sana. Versa il veleno nell’orecchio del Re attore
HAMLET	Lo avvelena nel giardino per averne i beni. Il suo nome è Gonzago. La storia esiste, ed è scritta in eletto italiano. Vedrete fra poco come l’assassino conquisti l’amore della moglie di Gonzago.
OPHELIA	Il Re si alza.
HAMLET	Come, spaventato da un falso fuoco?
REGINA GERTRUDE	(a Claudius) Come sta il mio signore? POLONIUSInterrompete la recita.
(didascalia)	RE CLAUDIUS Datemi un lume. Via. CORTIGIANI Lumi, lumi, lumi!
(didascalia)	Escono tutti tranne Hamlet e Horatio
HAMLET	Su, vada a piangere il cervo ferito, giochi il cervo illeso, ché alcuni devono vegliare, altri dormire, così se ne va il mondo. Non basterebbe questo, signore, e una selva di piume, se il resto delle mie fortune mi si facesse turco, con due rose provenzali sulle scarpe tagliate, a procurarmi una parte in una banda di attori, signore?
HORATIO	Mezza parte.
HAMLET	Una intera, io. Ché tu ben sai, o caro Damone, questo regno fu spogliato di Giove stesso, e ora vi regna un vero, vero—pavone.
HORATIO	Avreste potuto far rima.
HAMLET	Oh buon Horatio, prenderei la parola dello Spettro per mille sterline. Hai notato?
HORATIO	Molto bene, mio signore.
HAMLET	Al discorso dell’avvelenamento?
HORATIO	L’ho notato molto bene.
(didascalia)	Entrano Rosencrantz e Guildenstern
HAMLET	Ah ah! Su, un po’ di musica, su, i flauti, ché se al Re non piace la commedia, ebbene, forse non gli piace, perbacco. Su, un po’ di musica.
GUILDENSTERN	Mio buon signore, degnatevi d’una parola con me.
HAMLET	Signore, d’un’intera storia.
GUILDENSTERN	Il Re, signore—
HAMLET	Sì, signore, che c’è di lui?
GUILDENSTERN	Si è ritirato ed è mirabilmente sconvolto.
HAMLET	Dal bere, signore?
GUILDENSTERN	No, mio signore, piuttosto dalla collera.
HAMLET	La vostra saggezza si mostrerebbe assai più ricca se lo significasse al suo medico, ché s’io lo mettessi alla purga, forse lo sprofonderei in assai maggiore collera.
GUILDENSTERN	Mio buon signore, date qualche ordine al vostro discorso, e non balzate così selvaggiamente fuori dal mio affare.
HAMLET	Sono docile, signore. Parlate.
GUILDENSTERN	La Regina vostra madre, in grandissima afflizione di spirito, mi ha mandato da voi.
HAMLET	Siate il benvenuto.
GUILDENSTERN	No, mio buon signore, questa cortesia non è di buona razza. Se vi piacerà darmi una risposta sana, eseguirò il comando di vostra madre; se no, il vostro perdono e il mio ritorno saranno la fine della mia incombenza.
HAMLET	Signore, non posso.
GUILDENSTERN	Che cosa, mio signore?
HAMLET	Darvi una risposta sana. Il mio ingegno è malato. Ma, signore, di quelle risposte che posso dare, disponete voi; o piuttosto, come dite, mia madre. Dunque basta, veniamo al fatto. Mia madre, dite?
ROSENCRANTZ	Ecco dunque che cosa dice: il vostro contegno l’ha gettata in stupore e in meraviglia.
HAMLET	Oh figlio mirabile, che sa stupire così una madre! Ma non c’è nessun seguito alle calcagna di questa meraviglia materna?
ROSENCRANTZ	Ella desidera parlarvi nel suo gabinetto prima che andiate a letto. 319
HAMLET	Obbediremo, fosse anche dieci volte nostra madre. Avete altri traffici con noi?
ROSENCRANTZ	Mio signore, un tempo mi amavate.
HAMLET	E ancora vi amo, per queste mani ladre e rapaci.
ROSENCRANTZ	Mio buon signore, qual è la causa del vostro turbamento? Voi sbarrate di vostra volontà la porta della vostra stessa libertà, se negate i vostri dolori all’amico.
HAMLET	Signore, mi manca l’avanzamento.
ROSENCRANTZ	Come può essere, se avete la voce del Re stesso per la vostra successione in Danimarca?
HAMLET	Sì, ma ‘mentre l’erba cresce…’—il proverbio è alquanto ammuffito.
(didascalia)	Entra uno con un flauto
HAMLET	Oh, il flauto. Fatemi vedere. (A Rosencrantz e Guildenstern, traendoli in disparte) Per parlarvi in disparte, perché andate cercando di prendermi sopra vento, come se voleste spingermi in una rete?
GUILDENSTERN	Oh mio signore, se il mio dovere è troppo ardito, il mio affetto è troppo scortese.
HAMLET	Non capisco bene questo. Volete suonare su questo flauto?
GUILDENSTERN	Mio signore, non so.
HAMLET	Ve ne prego.
GUILDENSTERN	Credetemi, non so.
HAMLET	Ve ne supplico.
GUILDENSTERN	Non ne conosco alcun tocco, mio signore.
HAMLET	È facile come mentire. Governate questi fori con le dita e col pollice, dategli fiato con la bocca, ed esso discorrerà musica eccellentissima. Guardate, questi sono i tasti.
GUILDENSTERN	Ma io non so comandarli a esprimere alcuna armonia. Non ne ho l’abilità.
HAMLET	Ebbene, guardate ora che cosa indegna fate di me! Vorreste suonare su di me, vorreste mostrare di conoscere i miei tasti, vorreste strapparmi il cuore del mio mistero, vorreste sondarmi dalla mia nota più bassa alla cima della mia estensione; e c’è molta musica, voce eccellente in questo piccolo strumento, eppure non sapete farlo parlare. Sangue di Dio, credete che io sia più facile da suonare di un flauto? Chiamatemi pure qual istrumento volete: potrete anche irritarmi, ma non suonarmi.
(didascalia)	Entra Polonius
HAMLET	Dio vi benedica, signore.
POLONIUS	Mio signore, la Regina vorrebbe parlarvi, e subito.
HAMLET	Vedete laggiù quella nuvola che ha quasi forma di cammello?
POLONIUS	Per la messa, ed è così: proprio come un cammello.
HAMLET	Mi pare che somigli a una donnola.
POLONIUS	Ha il dorso di una donnola.
HAMLET	Oppure a una balena.
POLONIUS	Proprio come una balena.
HAMLET	Allora andrò da mia madre fra poco. (A parte) Mi burlano fin dove giunge la mia pazienza. (A Polonius) Verrò fra poco.
POLONIUS	Così dirò.
HAMLET	‘Fra poco’ è presto detto. Esce Polonius Lasciatemi, amici.
(didascalia)	Escono Rosencrantz e Guildenstern
HAMLET	È ora la vera ora stregata della notte, quando i cimiteri sbadigliano e l’inferno stesso esala contagio a questo mondo. Ora potrei bere sangue caldo e compiere azioni così amare che il giorno tremerebbe a guardarle. Piano, ora da mia madre. O cuore, non perdere la tua natura! Mai l’anima di Nerone entri in questo saldo petto. Ch’io sia crudele, non snaturato. Le parlerò con pugnali, ma non ne userò alcuno. La mia lingua e la mia anima siano in ciò ipocrite: per quanto ella sia dalle mie parole svergognata, a suggellarle mai la mia anima consenta. Esce

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter King Claudius, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern
KING 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 dangerous as doth hourly grow Out of his lunacies.
GUILDENSTERN	We will ourselves provide. Most holy and religious fear it is To keep those many many bodies safe That live and feed upon your majesty.
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 cease of majesty
(didascalia)	Dies not alone, but like a gulf doth draw
ROSENCRANTZ	What’s near it with it. It is a massy wheel Fixed on the summit of the highest mount, To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things Are mortised and adjoined, which when it falls Each small annexment, petty consequence, Attends the boist’rous ruin. Never alone Did the King sigh, but with a general groan.
KING CLAUDIUS	Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy voyage, For we will fetters put upon this fear Which now goes too free-footed.
ROSENCRANTZ	and GUILDENSTERN We will haste us.
(didascalia)	Exeunt both
(didascalia)	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’erhear The speech of vantage. Fare you well, my liege. I’ll call upon you ere you go to bed, And tell you what I know.
KING CLAUDIUS	Thanks, dear my lord.
(didascalia)	Exit Polonius
KING 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. 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-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? 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 can it not? Yet what can it when one cannot repent? 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. He kneels.
(didascalia)	Enter Prince Hamlet behind him
HAMLET	Now might I do it pat, now a is praying, And now I’ll do‘t,
(didascalia)	He draws his sword
HAMLET	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. O, this is hire and salary, not revenge! 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. He sheathes his sword Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hint. When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage, Or in th‘incestuous pleasure of his bed, At gaming, 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 goes. My mother stays. This physic but prolongs thy sickly days.
(didascalia)	Exit
KING CLAUDIUS	My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. Words without thoughts never to heaven go.
(didascalia)	Exit

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano il re Claudius, Rosencrantz e Guildenstern
RE CLAUDIUS	Non mi piace, né è sicuro per noi lasciar vagare la sua follia. Perciò preparatevi. Farò subito spedire il vostro mandato, ed egli partirà per l’Inghilterra con voi. Le condizioni del nostro stato non possono tollerare un rischio così pericoloso come quello che d’ora in ora cresce dalle sue lunatiche stranezze.
GUILDENSTERN	Ci prepareremo noi stessi. È santissimo e religioso timore tenere al sicuro quei molti, molti corpi che vivono e si nutrono della vostra maestà.
ROSENCRANTZ	La vita singola e privata è tenuta con tutta la forza e l’armatura della mente a difendersi dal danno; ma assai più quello spirito dal cui bene dipende e riposa la vita di molti. Il cessare della maestà
(didascalia)	Non muore sola, ma come un gorgo trascina
ROSENCRANTZ	con sé quanto le è vicino. È una massiccia ruota fissata sulla cima del monte più alto, ai cui enormi raggi diecimila cose minori sono incastrate e congiunte; e quando essa cade, ogni piccolo annesso, ogni minima conseguenza accompagna la fragorosa rovina. Mai solo il re sospirò, ma con un gemito universale.
RE CLAUDIUS	Armatevi, vi prego, per questo rapido viaggio, ché noi porremo i ceppi a questo timore che ora va con piede troppo libero.
ROSENCRANTZ	e GUILDENSTERN Ci affretteremo.
(didascalia)	Escono entrambi
(didascalia)	Entra Polonius
POLONIUS	Mio signore, sta andando nel gabinetto di sua madre. Dietro l’arazzo mi nasconderò per udire il colloquio. Vi garantisco che lo rimprovererà a fondo. E, come diceste—e saggiamente fu detto— è opportuno che qualche altro uditore oltre una madre, giacché la natura le rende parziali, ascolti di nascosto il discorso, per averne vantaggio. State bene, mio sovrano. Verrò da voi prima che andiate a letto, e vi dirò quel che so.
RE CLAUDIUS	Grazie, mio caro signore.
(didascalia)	Esce Polonius
RE CLAUDIUS	Oh, la mia colpa è fetida! Puzza fino al cielo. Porta su di sé la prima, la più antica maledizione, l’assassinio d’un fratello. Pregare non posso. Benché l’inclinazione sia acuta quanto la volontà, la mia più forte colpa sconfigge il mio forte intento, e come un uomo obbligato a duplice impresa resto sospeso su quale cominciare per primo, e trascuro entrambe. E se questa mano maledetta fosse più spessa di sé del sangue fraterno, non c’è pioggia bastante nei dolci cieli a lavarla bianca come neve? A che serve la misericordia se non ad affrontare il volto dell’offesa? E che c’è nella preghiera se non questa duplice forza, d’esser prevenuti prima di cadere, o perdonati una volta caduti? Dunque leverò lo sguardo. La mia colpa è passata—ma oh, quale forma di preghiera può giovare al mio caso? ‘Perdonami il mio turpe assassinio’? Non può essere, poiché ancora possiedo quegli effetti per cui commisi l’assassinio— la mia corona, la mia stessa ambizione, e la mia regina. Si può essere perdonati e ritenere l’offesa? Nelle correnti corrotte di questo mondo la mano indorata dell’offesa può spingere via la giustizia, e spesso si vede che il malvagio premio medesimo compra la legge. Ma non è così lassù. Là non c’è imbroglio, là l’azione appare nella sua vera natura, e noi stessi siamo costretti, fin contro i denti e la fronte delle nostre colpe, a deporre. Che dunque? Che resta? Prova quel che può il pentimento. Che cosa non può? Eppure che può, quando non ci si può pentire? Oh misero stato, oh petto nero come la morte, oh anima invischiata che, lottando per liberarsi, più s’impania! Aiuto, angeli! Fate una prova. Piegatevi, ginocchia ostinate; e tu, cuore dalle corde d’acciaio, fatti tenero come i nervi d’un bimbo appena nato. Tutto può andar bene. S’inginocchia.
(didascalia)	Entra il principe Hamlet dietro di lui
HAMLET	Ora potrei farlo comodamente, ora che sta pregando, e ora lo farò,
(didascalia)	Sguaina la spada
HAMLET	e così egli va in cielo, e così io sono vendicato. Questo andrebbe esaminato. Un malvagio uccide mio padre, e per questo io, suo unico figlio, mando questo stesso malvagio in cielo. Oh, questa è mercede e salario, non vendetta! Egli colse mio padre grossolanamente, sazio di pane, con tutte le sue colpe in pieno rigoglio, floride come maggio; e come stia il suo rendiconto, chi lo sa se non il cielo? Ma secondo la nostra condizione e il corso del nostro pensiero è greve per lui. E sarei dunque vendicato cogliendolo nella purgazione della sua anima, quando è pronto e stagionato per il suo passaggio? No. Rinfodera la spada Su, spada, e conosci tu un’occasione più orrenda. Quando dorme ubriaco, o è in preda all’ira, o nell’incestuoso piacere del suo letto, al gioco, alla bestemmia, o intento a qualche atto che non abbia in sé sapore di salvezza, allora fallo inciampare, sì che i suoi calcagni scalcino verso il cielo, e la sua anima sia dannata e nera come l’inferno dove va. Mia madre attende. Questa medicina non fa che prolungare i tuoi giorni malati.
(didascalia)	Esce
RE CLAUDIUS	Le mie parole volano in alto, i miei pensieri restano quaggiù. Parole senza pensieri non giungono mai al cielo.
(didascalia)	Esce

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Queen 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 e’en here. Pray you be round with him.
HAMLET	(within) Mother, mother, mother!
QUEEN GERTRUDE	I’ll warr’nt you. Fear me not. Withdraw; I hear him coming. Polonius hides behind the arras.
(didascalia)	Enter Prince Hamlet
HAMLET	Now, mother, what’s the matter?
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended,.
HAMLET	Mother, you have my father much offended.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.
HAMLET	Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Why, how now, Hamlet?
HAMLET	What’s the matter now?
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Have you forgot me?
HAMLET	No, by the rood, not so. You are the Queen, your husband’s brother’s wife. But—would you were not so—you are my mother.
QUEEN 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.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murder me? Help, help, ho!
POLONIUS	(behind the arras) What ho! Help, help, help!
HAMLET	How now, a rat? Dead for a ducat, dead. He thrusts his sword through the arras
POLONIUS	O, I am slain!
QUEEN GERTRUDE	(to Hamlet) O me, what hast thou done?
HAMLET	Nay, I know not. Is it the King?
QUEEN 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.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	As kill a king?
HAMLET	Ay, lady, ’twas my word. (To Polonius) Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell. I took thee for thy better. Take thy fortune. Thou find’st to be too busy is some danger.— Leave wringing of your hands. Peace, sit you down, And let me wring your heart; for so I shall If it be made of penetrable stuff, If damned custom have not brassed it so That it is proof and bulwark against sense.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	What have I done, that thou dar’st wag thy tongue In noise so rude against me?
HAMLET	Such an act That blurs the grace and blush of modesty, Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the rose From the fair forehead of an innocent love And sets a blister there, makes marriage vows As false as dicers’ oaths—O, such a deed As from the body of contraction plucks The very soul, and sweet religion makes A rhapsody of words. Heaven’s face doth glow, Yea, this solidity and compound mass With tristful visage, as against the doom, Is thought-sick at the act.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Ay me, what act, That roars so loud and thunders in the index?
HAMLET	Look here upon this picture, and on this, The counterfeit presentment of two brothers. See what a grace was seated on this brow— Hyperion’s curls, the front of Jove himself, An eye like Mars, to threaten or command, A station like the herald Mercury New lighted on a heaven-kissing hill; A combination and a form indeed Where every god did seem to set his seal To give the world assurance of a man. This was your husband. Look you now what follows. Here is your husband, like a mildewed ear Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes? Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed, And batten on this moor? Ha, have you eyes? You cannot call it love, for at your age The heyday in the blood is tame, it’s humble, And waits upon the judgement; and what judgement Would step from this to this? What devil was’t That thus hath cozened you at hood-man blind? O shame, where is thy blush? Rebellious hell, If thou canst mutine in a matron’s bones, To flaming youth let virtue be as wax And melt in her own fire. Proclaim no shame When the compulsive ardour gives the charge, Since frost itself as actively doth burn, And reason panders will.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	O Hamlet, speak no more! Thou turn’st mine eyes into my very soul, And there I see such black and grained spots As will not leave their tinct.
HAMLET	Nay, but to live In the rank sweat of an enseamèd bed, Stewed in corruption, honeying and making love Over the nasty sty—
QUEEN GERTRUDE	O, speak to me no more! These words like daggers enter in mine ears. No more, sweet Hamlet.
HAMLET	A murderer and a villain, A slave that is not twenti’th part the tithe Of your precedent lord, a vice of kings, A cutpurse of the empire and the rule, That from a shelf the precious diadem stole And put it in his pocket—
QUEEN GERTRUDE	No more.
HAMLET	A king of shreds and patches—
(didascalia)	Enter the Ghost in his nightgown
HAMLET	Save me and hover o’er me with your wings, You heavenly guards! (To the Ghost) What would you, gracious figure? 95
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Alas, he’s mad.
HAMLET	(to the Ghost) Do you not come your tardy son to chide, That, lapsed in time and passion, lets go by Th’important acting of your dread command? O, say!
GHOST	Do not forget. This visitation Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose. But look, amazement on thy mother sits. O, step between her and her fighting soul. Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works. Speak to her, Hamlet.
HAMLET	How is it with you, lady?
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Alas, how is’t with you, That you do bend your eye on vacancy, And with th‘incorporal air do hold discourse? Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep, And, as the sleeping soldiers in th’alarm, Your bedded hair, like life in excrements, Start up and stand on end. O gentle son, Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper Sprinkle cool patience! Whereon do you look?
HAMLET	On him, on him. Look you how pale he glares. His form and cause conjoined, preaching to stones, Would make them capable. (To the Ghost) Do not look upon me, Lest with this piteous action you convert My stern effects. Then what I have to do Will want true colour—tears perchance for blood.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	To whom do you speak this?
HAMLET	Do you see nothing there?
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Nothing at all, yet all that is I see.
HAMLET	Nor did you nothing hear?
QUEEN GERTRUDE	No, nothing but ourselves.
HAMLET	Why, look you there. Look how it steals away. My father, in his habit as he lived. Look where he goes even now out at the portal.
(didascalia)	Exit the Ghost
QUEEN GERTRUDE	This is the very coinage of your brain. This bodiless creation ecstasy Is very cunning in.
HAMLET	Ecstasy? My pulse as yours doth temperately keep time, And makes as healthful music. It is not madness That I have uttered. Bring me to the test, And I the matter will reword, which madness Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace Lay not a flattering unction to your soul That not your trespass but my madness speaks. It will but skin and film the ulcerous place Whilst rank corruption, mining all within, Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven; Repent what’s past, avoid what is to come, And do not spread the compost o’er the weeds To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue, For in the fatness of these pursy times Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg, Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain!
HAMLET	O, throw away the worser part of it, And live the purer with the other half! Good night—but go not to mine uncle’s bed. Assume a virtue if you have it not. Refrain tonight, And that shall lend a kind of easiness To the next abstinence. Once more, good night; And when you are desirous to be blest, I’ll blessing beg of you. 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, good night. I must be cruel only to be kind. Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.
QUEEN 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 not in madness, But mad in craft. ’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 conclusions in the basket creep, And break your own neck down.
QUEEN 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?
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Alack, I had forgot. ’Tis so concluded on.
HAMLET	This man shall set me packing. I’ll lug the guts into the neighbour room. Mother, good night indeed. This counsellor Is now most still, most secret, and most grave, Who was in life a foolish prating knave.— Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you.— Good night, mother. Exit, tugging in Polonius

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano la Regina Gertrude e Polonius
POLONIUS	Verrà subito. Badate di colpirlo a fondo. Ditegli che le sue stravaganze sono state troppo grosse da sopportare, e che vostra grazia ha fatto schermo e s’è frapposta fra molta collera e lui. Io mi farò silenzio qui stesso. Vi prego, siate schietta con lui.
HAMLET	(da dentro) Madre, madre, madre!
REGINA GERTRUDE	Ve ne rispondo. Non abbiate timore di me. Ritiratevi; lo sento venire. Polonius si nasconde dietro l’arazzo.
(didascalia)	Entra il Principe Hamlet
HAMLET	Ebbene, madre, di che si tratta?
REGINA GERTRUDE	Hamlet, tu hai molto offeso tuo padre.
HAMLET	Madre, voi avete molto offeso mio padre.
REGINA GERTRUDE	Suvvia, suvvia, tu rispondi con lingua oziosa.
HAMLET	Andiamo, andiamo, voi interrogate con lingua malvagia.
REGINA GERTRUDE	Ma come, Hamlet?
HAMLET	Che c’è ora?
REGINA GERTRUDE	Ti sei scordato di me?
HAMLET	No, per la santa croce, non è così. Voi siete la Regina, moglie del fratello di vostro marito. E—così non foste—siete mia madre.
REGINA GERTRUDE	E allora ti manderò contro chi sappia parlare.
HAMLET	Venite, venite, e sedetevi. Non vi moverete. Non andrete via finché non v’avrò posto uno specchio dove possiate vedere la parte più intima di voi.
REGINA GERTRUDE	Che vuoi fare? Non vorrai assassinarmi? Aiuto, aiuto, olà!
POLONIUS	(dietro l’arazzo) Olà! Aiuto, aiuto, aiuto!
HAMLET	Come, un topo? Morto per un ducato, morto. Trafigge l’arazzo con la spada
POLONIUS	Oh, sono ucciso!
REGINA GERTRUDE	(a Hamlet) Oh me, che cosa hai fatto?
HAMLET	Non so. È il Re?
REGINA GERTRUDE	Oh, che atto avventato e sanguinoso è questo!
HAMLET	Un atto sanguinoso—quasi tanto malvagio, buona madre, quanto uccidere un re e sposarne il fratello.
REGINA GERTRUDE	Uccidere un re?
HAMLET	Sì, signora, questa fu la mia parola. (A Polonius) Tu, misero, avventato, intrigante sciocco, addio. Ti presi per uno da più di te. Prenditi la tua sorte. Vedi che l’esser troppo faccendiere ha i suoi pericoli.— Smettete di torcervi le mani. Calma, sedetevi, e lasciate ch’io vi torca il cuore; e lo farò se è fatto di materia penetrabile, se la dannata abitudine non l’ha così corazzato di bronzo da renderlo scudo e bastione contro il sentire.
REGINA GERTRUDE	Che cosa ho fatto, che tu osi agitar la lingua in così rozzo strepito contro di me?
HAMLET	Un atto tale che offusca la grazia e il rossore del pudore, chiama ipocrita la virtù, toglie la rosa dalla bella fronte d’un amore innocente e vi pone un marchio, fa dei voti di nozze cosa falsa come i giuramenti dei giocatori—oh, un atto tale che dal corpo del patto nuziale strappa l’anima stessa, e della dolce religione fa una rapsodia di parole. Il volto del cielo avvampa, sì, questa solida e composita mole con viso mesto, come innanzi al giudizio, è malata di pensiero per quell’atto.
REGINA GERTRUDE	Ahimè, quale atto, che ruggisce sì forte e tuona già nell’indice?
HAMLET	Guardate qui questo ritratto, e quest’altro, l’effigie dipinta di due fratelli. Vedete che grazia sedeva su questa fronte— i riccioli d’Hyperion, la fronte di Giove stesso, un occhio come Marte, per minacciare o comandare, un portamento come l’araldo Mercurio appena posato su un colle che bacia il cielo; un insieme e una forma, in verità, in cui ogni dio pareva aver posto il suo sigillo per dare al mondo la garanzia d’un uomo. Questo era vostro marito. Guardate ora ciò che segue. Ecco vostro marito, come una spiga ammuffita che infetta il fratello sano. Avete occhi? Poteste cessare di pascere su questa bella montagna, e ingrassare su questa brughiera? Ah, avete occhi? Non potete chiamarlo amore, ché alla vostra età il rigoglio del sangue è domo, è umile, e serve il giudizio; e quale giudizio passerebbe da questo a questo? Qual diavolo fu che così vi gabbò a mosca cieca? O vergogna, dov’è il tuo rossore? Inferno ribelle, se puoi ammutinarti nelle ossa d’una matrona, sia per l’ardente giovinezza la virtù come cera e si sciolga nel proprio fuoco. Non si gridi vergogna quando l’ardore che costringe dà l’assalto, poiché il gelo stesso brucia con pari vigore, e la ragione fa da ruffiana al volere.
REGINA GERTRUDE	O Hamlet, non dire di più! Tu volgi i miei occhi dentro l’anima mia, e là vedo macchie così nere e incarnate che non lasceranno il loro colore.
HAMLET	Sì, ma vivere nel sudore fetido d’un letto ingrassato, stufati nella corruzione, a mieleggiare e far l’amore sopra quel lercio porcile—
REGINA GERTRUDE	Oh, non parlarmi più! Queste parole entrano come pugnali nelle mie orecchie. Basta, dolce Hamlet.
HAMLET	Un assassino e uno scellerato, uno schiavo che non è la ventesima parte della decima del vostro signore precedente, un buffone di re, un tagliaborse dell’impero e del potere, che da una mensola rubò il prezioso diadema e se lo mise in tasca—
REGINA GERTRUDE	Basta.
HAMLET	Un re di cenci e di toppe—
(didascalia)	Entra lo Spettro in veste da notte
HAMLET	Salvatemi e libratevi su di me con le vostre ali, o guardie celesti! (Allo Spettro) Che volete, graziosa figura? 95
REGINA GERTRUDE	Ahimè, è pazzo.
HAMLET	(allo Spettro) Non venite a rimproverare il vostro tardo figlio, che, mancando di tempo e di passione, lascia passare l’importante esecuzione del vostro terribile comando? Oh, parlate!
SPETTRO	Non dimenticare. Questa visita non è che per affilare il tuo proposito quasi spuntato. Ma guarda, lo sgomento siede su tua madre. Oh, frapponiti fra lei e la sua anima in lotta. L’immaginazione opera più forte nei corpi più deboli. Parlale, Hamlet.
HAMLET	Come state, signora?
REGINA GERTRUDE	Ahimè, come stai tu, che pieghi lo sguardo sul vuoto, e con l’aria incorporea tieni discorso? Fuori dai tuoi occhi i tuoi spiriti guardano selvaggi, e, come i soldati addormentati all’allarme, i tuoi capelli distesi, come vita in ciò che vita non ha, balzano su e si rizzano. O gentile figlio, sul calore e sulla fiamma del tuo turbamento spargi la fresca pazienza! Che cosa guardi?
HAMLET	Lui, lui. Guardate come fissa, pallido. La sua forma e la sua causa unite, predicando alle pietre, le renderebbero capaci di sentire. (Allo Spettro) Non guardare verso di me, ché con quest’atto pietoso potresti mutare i miei severi propositi. Allora ciò che devo fare mancherà del vero colore—lacrime forse invece di sangue.
REGINA GERTRUDE	A chi lo dici questo?
HAMLET	Non vedete nulla là?
REGINA GERTRUDE	Nulla affatto, eppure vedo tutto quello che c’è.
HAMLET	E non avete udito nulla?
REGINA GERTRUDE	No, nulla se non noi stessi.
HAMLET	Ma guardate là. Guardate come se ne va furtivo. Mio padre, nella veste che portava in vita. Guardate, proprio ora esce dal portale.
(didascalia)	Esce lo Spettro
REGINA GERTRUDE	Questa è pura moneta coniata dal tuo cervello. Di queste creazioni senza corpo il delirio è assai maestro.
HAMLET	Delirio? Il mio polso come il vostro batte temperato il tempo, e fa musica altrettanto sana. Non è follia ciò che ho detto. Mettetemi alla prova, e ripeterò la cosa parola per parola, dal che la follia salterebbe via. Madre, per amor della grazia non stendete un lusinghiero unguento sulla vostra anima che non sia la vostra colpa ma la mia follia a parlare. Non farà che coprire d’una pelle il luogo ulceroso mentre la fetida corruzione, scavando tutto di dentro, infetta invisibile. Confessatevi al cielo; pentitevi del passato, evitate ciò che deve venire, e non spargete il concime sulle erbacce per farle crescere più rigogliose. Perdonatemi questa mia virtù, ché nella pinguedine di questi tempi ansimanti la virtù stessa deve chiedere perdono al vizio, sì, inchinarsi e supplicare il permesso di fargli del bene.
REGINA GERTRUDE	O Hamlet, mi hai spaccato il cuore in due!
HAMLET	Oh, gettatene via la parte peggiore, e vivete più pura con l’altra metà! Buona notte—ma non andate al letto di mio zio. Assumete una virtù se non l’avete. Astenetevi stanotte, e ciò darà una certa facilità alla prossima astinenza. Ancora una volta, buona notte; e quando desidererete d’essere benedetta, vi chiederò io la benedizione. Quanto a questo signore, me ne pento. Ma al cielo è piaciuto così, punire me con lui, e lui con me, ch’io debba essere il suo flagello e il suo ministro. Lo porterò via, e risponderò bene della morte che gli ho dato. E dunque, ancora, buona notte. Devo essere crudele solo per essere pietoso. Così il male comincia, e il peggio resta ancora dietro.
REGINA GERTRUDE	Che devo fare?
HAMLET	Non questo, in nessun modo, che ora vi dico di fare: lasciare che il Re gonfio vi tenti di nuovo a letto, vi pizzichi lascivo la guancia, vi chiami il suo topolino, e lasciare che, per un paio di baci untuosi, o palpandovi il collo con le sue dannate dita, vi faccia sbrogliare tutta questa faccenda, e cioè che io in sostanza non sono in follia, ma pazzo per astuzia. Sarebbe bene che glielo faceste sapere, ché chi, essendo solo una regina, bella, sobria, saggia, vorrebbe a un rospo, a un pipistrello, a un gattaccio, nascondere cose sì care? Chi lo farebbe? No, a dispetto del senno e del segreto, aprite la cesta in cima alla casa, lasciate volare gli uccelli, e, come la famosa scimmia, per provar l’esperimento entrate nella cesta, e cadendo rompetevi il collo.
REGINA GERTRUDE	Sii certo che, se le parole son fatte di fiato, e il fiato di vita, io non ho vita per respirare ciò che tu m’hai detto.
HAMLET	Devo andare in Inghilterra. Lo sapete?
REGINA GERTRUDE	Ahimè, l’avevo scordato. Così è stato deciso.
HAMLET	Quest’uomo mi farà far fagotto. Trascinerò queste budella nella stanza accanto. Madre, buona notte davvero. Questo consigliere è ora quanto mai quieto, quanto mai segreto e quanto mai grave, lui che in vita fu uno sciocco furfante chiacchierone.— Venite, signore, per farla finita con voi.— Buona notte, madre. Esce, trascinando Polonius

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter King Claudius to Queen Gertrude
KING CLAUDIUS	There’s matter in these sighs, these profound heaves; You must translate. ’Tis fit we understand them. Where is your son?
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Ah, my good lord, what have I seen tonight!
KING CLAUDIUS	What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet?
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Mad as the sea and wind when both contend Which is the mightier. In his lawless fit, Behind the arras hearing something stir, He whips his rapier out and cries ‘A rat, a ratl’, And in his brainish apprehension kills The unseen good old man.
KING 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. 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?
QUEEN 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—a weeps for what is done.
KING 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, Guildensternl
(didascalia)	Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
KING CLAUDIUS	Friends both, go join you with some further aid. Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain, And from his mother’s closet hath he dragged him. Go seek him out, speak fair, and bring the body Into the chapel. I pray you haste in this.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
KING CLAUDIUS	Come, Gertrude, we’ll call up our wisest friends To let them know both what we mean to do And what’s untimely done. O, come away! My soul is full of discord and dismay.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entra il re Claudius presso la regina Gertrude
RE CLAUDIUS	C’è sostanza in questi sospiri, in questi profondi singulti; dovete tradurli. È giusto che li comprendiamo. Dov’è vostro figlio?
REGINA GERTRUDE	Ah, mio buon signore, che cosa ho veduto questa notte!
RE CLAUDIUS	Che c’è, Gertrude? Come sta Hamlet?
REGINA GERTRUDE	Folle come il mare e il vento quando entrambi contendono chi sia il più forte. Nel suo accesso sfrenato, udendo qualcosa muoversi dietro l’arazzo, sguaina lo stocco e grida ‘Un topo, un topo!’, e nella sua stravolta immaginazione uccide l’invisibile, buon vecchio.
RE CLAUDIUS	Oh, atto grave! Così sarebbe stato di noi, se ci fossimo trovati là. La sua libertà è piena di minacce per tutti— per voi stessa, per noi, per ognuno. Ahimè, come si risponderà di questo atto sanguinoso? Sarà addossato a noi, la cui provvidenza avrebbe dovuto tener corto, frenato e fuori dal consorzio questo giovane folle. Ma tanto fu il nostro amore, che non volemmo intendere ciò che più conveniva, ma, come chi è colpito da un morbo immondo, per impedirne la divulgazione, lo lasciammo pascersi perfino del midollo della vita. Dov’è andato?
REGINA GERTRUDE	A trarre in disparte il corpo che ha ucciso, sul quale—la sua stessa follia, come una vena d’oro in un filone di metalli vili, si mostra pura—egli piange per ciò che è compiuto.
RE CLAUDIUS	Oh Gertrude, vieni via! Non appena il sole avrà toccato le montagne lo imbarcheremo via di qui; e questo vile atto dobbiamo con tutta la nostra maestà e destrezza insieme avallare e scusare.—Olà, Guildenstern!
(didascalia)	Entrano Rosencrantz e Guildenstern
RE CLAUDIUS	Amici entrambi, andate e unitevi a qualche altro aiuto. Hamlet nella follia ha ucciso Polonius, e l’ha trascinato fuori dal gabinetto di sua madre. Andate a cercarlo, parlategli con garbo, e portate il corpo nella cappella. Vi prego, fate presto in questo.
(didascalia)	Escono Rosencrantz e Guildenstern
RE CLAUDIUS	Venite, Gertrude, chiameremo i nostri amici più saggi per far loro sapere sia ciò che intendiamo fare sia ciò che è stato compiuto intempestivamente. Oh, andiamo via! La mia anima è piena di discordia e sgomento.
(didascalia)	Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Prince Hamlet
HAMLET	Safely stowed.
ROSENCRANTZ	and GUILDENSTERN (within) Hamlet, Lord Hamlet!
HAMLET	What noise? Who calls on Hamlet?
(didascalia)	Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
HAMLET	O, here they come.
ROSENCRANTZ	What have you done, my lord, with the dead body?
HAMLET	Compounded it with dust, whereto ’tis kin.
ROSENCRANTZ	Tell us where ’tis, that we may take it thence And bear it to the chapel.
HAMLET	Do not believe it.
ROSENCRANTZ	Believe what?
HAMLET	That I can keep your counsel and not mine own. Besides, to be demanded of a sponge—what replication should be made by the son of a king?
ROSENCRANTZ	Take you me for a sponge, my lord?
HAMLET	Ay, sir, that soaks up the King’s countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the King best service in the end. He keeps them, like an ape an apple in the corner of his jaw, first mouthed to be last swallowed. When he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again.
ROSENCRANTZ	I understand you not, my lord.
HAMLET	I am glad of it. A knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear.
ROSENCRANTZ	My lord, you must tell us where the body is, and go with us to the King.
HAMLET	The body is with the King, but the King is not with the body. The King is a thing—
GUILDENSTERN	A thing, my lord?
HAMLET	Of nothing. Bring me to him. Hide fox, and all after.
(didascalia)	Exit running, pursued by the others

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entra il principe Hamlet
HAMLET	Al sicuro, riposto.
ROSENCRANTZ	e GUILDENSTERN (da dentro) Hamlet, messer Hamlet!
HAMLET	Che fracasso? Chi chiama Hamlet?
(didascalia)	Entrano Rosencrantz e Guildenstern
HAMLET	Oh, eccoli che vengono.
ROSENCRANTZ	Che ne avete fatto, mio signore, del corpo morto?
HAMLET	L’ho mescolato con la polvere, cui è congiunto per parentela.
ROSENCRANTZ	Diteci dov’è, che possiamo toglierlo di là e portarlo alla cappella.
HAMLET	Non crederci.
ROSENCRANTZ	Non credere a che cosa?
HAMLET	Che io sappia custodire i vostri segreti e non i miei. Del resto, essere interrogato da una spugna—quale replica dovrebbe darle il figlio d’un re?
ROSENCRANTZ	Mi prendete per una spugna, mio signore?
HAMLET	Sì, signore, una che succhia il favore del re, le sue ricompense, le sue autorità. Ma tali funzionari rendono al re il miglior servizio alla fine. Li tiene, come una scimmia tiene una mela nell’angolo della guancia: masticata per prima, inghiottita per ultima. Quando gli occorrerà ciò che avete spigolato, gli basterà spremervi, e voi, spugna, tornerete a esser secchi.
ROSENCRANTZ	Non vi comprendo, mio signore.
HAMLET	Me ne rallegro. Un discorso furbo dorme in un orecchio sciocco.
ROSENCRANTZ	Mio signore, dovete dirci dov’è il corpo, e venire con noi dal re.
HAMLET	Il corpo è con il re, ma il re non è con il corpo. Il re è una cosa—
GUILDENSTERN	Una cosa, mio signore?
HAMLET	Da nulla. Portatemi da lui. Nasconditi, volpe, e tutti dietro.
(didascalia)	Esce correndo, inseguito dagli altri

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter King Claudius
KING CLAUDIUS	I have sent to seek him, and to find the body. How dangerous is it that this man goes loose! Yet must not we put the strong law on him. He’s loved of the distracted multitude, Who like not in their judgement but their eyes, And where ‘tis so, th’offender’s scourge is weighed, But never the offence. To bear all smooth and even, This sudden sending him away must seem Deliberate pause. Diseases desperate grown By desperate appliance are relieved, Or not at all.
(didascalia)	Enter Rosencrantz
KING CLAUDIUS	How now, what hath befall’n?
ROSENCRANTZ	Where the dead body is bestowed, my lord, We cannot get from him.
KING CLAUDIUS	But where is he?
ROSENCRANTZ	Without, my lord, guarded to know your pleasure.
KING CLAUDIUS	Bring him before us.
ROSENCRANTZ	Ho, Guildenstern! Bring in my lord.
(didascalia)	Enter Prince Hamlet and Guildenstern
KING CLAUDIUS	Now, Hamlet, where’s Polonius?
HAMLET	At supper.
KING CLAUDIUS	At supper? Where?
HAMLET	Not where he eats, but where a is eaten. A certain convocation of politic worms are e’en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet. We fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots. Your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service—two dishes, but to one table. That’s the end.
KING CLAUDIUS	Alas, alas!
HAMLET	A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.
KING CLAUDIUS	What dost thou mean by this?
HAMLET	Nothing but to show you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar. 31
KING CLAUDIUS	Where is Polonius?
HAMLET	In heaven. Send thither to see. If your messenger find him not there, seek him i’th’ other place yourself. But indeed, if you find him not this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby. 36
(didascalia)	KING CLAUDIUS to Rosencrantz Go seek him there.
(didascalia)	HAMLET to Rosencrantz A will stay till ye come.
(didascalia)	Exit Rosencrantz
KING CLAUDIUS	Hamlet, this deed of thine, for thine especial safety— Which we do tender as we dearly grieve For that which thou hast done—must send thee hence With fiery quickness. Therefore prepare thyself. The barque is ready, and the wind at help, Th’associates tend, and everything is bent For England.
HAMLET	For England?
KING CLAUDIUS	Ay, Hamlet.
HAMLET	Good.
KING CLAUDIUS	So is it if thou knew’st our purposes.
HAMLET	I see a cherub that sees them. But come, for England. Farewell, dear mother.
KING CLAUDIUS	Thy loving father, Hamlet.
HAMLET	My mother. Father and mother is man and wife, man and wife is one flesh, and so my mother. Come, for England. Exit
(didascalia)	KING CLAUDIUS to Guildenstern
HAMLET	Follow him at foot. Tempt him with speed aboard. 56 Delay it not. I’ll have him hence tonight. Away, for everything is sealed and done That else leans on th’affair. Pray you, make haste.
(didascalia)	Exit Guildenstern
HAMLET	And, England, if my love thou hold‘st at aught— As my great power thereof may give thee sense, Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red After the Danish sword, and thy free awe Pays homage to us—thou mayst not coldly set Our sovereign process, which imports at full, By letters conjuring to that effect, The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England, For like the hectic in my blood he rages, And thou must cure me. Till I know ’tis done, Howe‘er my haps, my joys were ne’er begun.
(didascalia)	Exit

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entra il re Claudius
RE CLAUDIUS	Ho mandato a cercarlo, e a trovare il corpo. Quanto è pericoloso che quest’uomo vada libero! Eppure non dobbiamo applicargli il rigore della legge. È amato dalla moltitudine stravolta, che ama non col giudizio ma con gli occhi, e dove è così, si pesa il castigo dell’offensore, mai l’offesa. Perché tutto proceda liscio e pari, questo improvviso allontanarlo dovrà sembrare una decisione ponderata. I mali fattisi disperati si alleviano con rimedi disperati, o non si alleviano affatto.
(didascalia)	Entra Rosencrantz
RE CLAUDIUS	Ebbene, che è accaduto?
ROSENCRANTZ	Dove sia riposto il corpo morto, mio signore, non riusciamo a cavarglielo di bocca.
RE CLAUDIUS	Ma dov’è lui?
ROSENCRANTZ	Fuori, mio signore, sorvegliato, in attesa del vostro volere.
RE CLAUDIUS	Conducetelo al nostro cospetto.
ROSENCRANTZ	Olà, Guildenstern! Fate entrare il mio signore.
(didascalia)	Entrano il principe Hamlet e Guildenstern
RE CLAUDIUS	Dunque, Hamlet, dov’è Polonius?
HAMLET	A cena.
RE CLAUDIUS	A cena? Dove?
HAMLET	Non dove mangia lui, ma dove è mangiato. Una certa assemblea di vermi politici è proprio addosso a lui. Il verme è il solo imperatore in fatto di dieta. Noi ingrassiamo tutte le altre creature per ingrassare noi, e ingrassiamo noi stessi per i vermi. Il vostro grasso re e il vostro magro pezzente non sono che portate diverse—due piatti, ma per una sola tavola. Questa è la fine.
RE CLAUDIUS	Ahimè, ahimè!
HAMLET	Si può pescare col verme che ha mangiato d’un re, e mangiare il pesce che si è nutrito di quel verme.
RE CLAUDIUS	Che intendi dire con questo?
HAMLET	Nulla, se non mostrarvi come un re possa fare un viaggio regale attraverso le budella d’un pezzente. 31
RE CLAUDIUS	Dov’è Polonius?
HAMLET	In cielo. Mandate lassù a vedere. Se il vostro messaggero non lo trova là, cercatelo voi stesso nell’altro luogo. Ma in verità, se non lo trovate entro questo mese, lo fiuterete salendo le scale verso la loggia. 36
(didascalia)	RE CLAUDIUS a Rosencrantz Andate a cercarlo là.
(didascalia)	HAMLET a Rosencrantz Aspetterà finché tornate.
(didascalia)	Esce Rosencrantz
RE CLAUDIUS	Hamlet, questo tuo atto, per la tua speciale sicurezza— che ci sta a cuore quanto amaramente ci duole ciò che hai compiuto—deve mandarti via di qui con ignea prestezza. Perciò preparati. La nave è pronta, e il vento favorevole, i compagni t’attendono, e tutto è disposto per l’Inghilterra.
HAMLET	Per l’Inghilterra?
RE CLAUDIUS	Sì, Hamlet.
HAMLET	Bene.
RE CLAUDIUS	Lo è, se tu conoscessi i nostri propositi.
HAMLET	Vedo un cherubino che li vede. Ma andiamo, per l’Inghilterra. Addio, cara madre.
RE CLAUDIUS	Il tuo amoroso padre, Hamlet.
HAMLET	Mia madre. Padre e madre sono marito e moglie, marito e moglie sono una sola carne, e dunque mia madre. Andiamo, per l’Inghilterra. Esce
(didascalia)	RE CLAUDIUS a Guildenstern
HAMLET	Seguitelo passo passo. Sospingetelo con prestezza a bordo. 56 Non indugiate. Voglio che parta stanotte. Via, ché tutto è sigillato e compiuto quanto altro attiene all’affare. Vi prego, fate presto.
(didascalia)	Esce Guildenstern
HAMLET	E tu, Inghilterra, se il mio amore tieni in qualche conto— come la mia grande potenza può fartene accorta, giacché la tua cicatrice appare ancora viva e rossa dopo la spada danese, e il tuo libero timore ci rende omaggio—non porrai in freddo il nostro sovrano decreto, che pienamente comporta, con lettere che a tale effetto scongiurano, l’immediata morte di Hamlet. Fallo, Inghilterra, ché come la febbre etica nel mio sangue egli infuria, e tu devi guarirmi. Finché non so che è compiuto, qualunque sia la mia sorte, le mie gioie non son mai cominciate.
(didascalia)	Esce

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Fortinbras with an army over the stage
FORTINBRAS	Go, captain, from me greet the Danish king. Tell him that by his licence Fortinbras Claims the conveyance of a promised march Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous. If that his majesty would aught with us, We shall express our duty in his eye, And let him know so.
CAPTAIN	I will do’t, my lord.
(didascalia)	Exit
FORTINBRAS	Go safely on.
(didascalia)	Exeunt marching

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entra Fortinbras con un esercito attraversando la scena
FORTINBRAS	Andate, capitano, e salutate da parte mia il re di Danimarca. Ditegli che, col suo permesso, Fortinbras reclama il transito d’una marcia promessa attraverso il suo regno. Conoscete il luogo del convegno. Se sua maestà volesse alcunché da noi, gli esprimeremo il nostro dovere al suo cospetto, e così glielo faremo sapere.
CAPITANO	Lo farò, mio signore.
(didascalia)	Esce
FORTINBRAS	Procedete sicuri.
(didascalia)	Escono marciando

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Queen Gertrude and Horatio
QUEEN GERTRUDE	I will not speak with her.
HORATIO	She is importunate, Indeed distraught. Her mood will needs be pitied.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	What would she have?
HORATIO	She speaks much of her father, says she hears There’s tricks i’th’ world, and hems, and beats her heart, Spurns enviously at straws, speaks things in doubt That carry but half sense. Her speech is nothing, Yet the unshapèd use of it doth move The hearers to collection. They aim at it, And botch the words up fit to their own thoughts, Which, as her winks and nods and gestures yield them, Indeed would make one think there might be thought, Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	’Twere good she were spoken with, for she may strew Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds. Let her come in.
(didascalia)	Horatio withdraws to admit Ophelia
QUEEN GERTRUDE	To my sick soul, as sin’s true nature is, Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss. So full of artless jealousy is guilt, It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.
(didascalia)	Enter Ophelia mad, her hair down, with a lute
OPHELIA	Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark?
QUEEN GERTRUDE	How now, Ophelia?
OPHELIA	(sings) How should I your true love know From another one?— By his cockle hat and staff, And his sandal shoon.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Alas, sweet lady, what imports this song?
OPHELIA	Say you? Nay, pray you, mark. (Sings) He is dead and gone, lady, He is dead and gone. At his head a grass-green turf, At his heels a stone.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Nay, but Ophelia—
OPHELIA	Pray you, mark. (Sings) White his shroud as the mountain snow—
(didascalia)	Enter King Claudius
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Alas, look here, my lord.
OPHELIA	(sings) Larded with sweet flowers, Which bewept to the grave did—not—go With true-love showers.
KING CLAUDIUS	How do ye, pretty lady?
OPHELIA	Well, God’ield you. They say the owl was a baker’s daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be. God be at your table!
KING CLAUDIUS	(to Gertrude) Conceit upon her father.
OPHELIA	Pray you, let’s have no words of this, but when they ask you what it means, say you this. (Sings) Tomorrow is Saint Valentine’s day, All in the morning betime, And I a maid at your window To be your Valentine. Then up he rose, and donned his clothes, And dupped the chamber door; Let in the maid, that out a maid Never departed more.
KING CLAUDIUS	Pretty Ophelia—
OPHELIA	Indeed, la? Without an oath, I’ll make an end on’t. (Sings) By Gis, and by Saint Charity, Alack, and fie for shame! Young men will do’t if they come to‘t, By Cock, they are to blame. Quoth she ‘Before you tumbled me, You promised me to wed.’ So would I ‘a’ done, by yonder sun, An thou hadst not come to my bed.
KING CLAUDIUS	(to Gertrude) How long hath she been thus?
OPHELIA	I hope all will be well. We must be patient. But I cannot choose but weep to think they should lay him i’th’ cold ground. My brother shall know of it. And so I thank you for your good counsel. Come, my coach! Good night, ladies, good night, sweet ladies, good night, good night. Exit
KING CLAUDIUS	(to Horatio) Follow her close. Give her good watch, I pray you.
(didascalia)	Exit Horatio
KING CLAUDIUS	O, this is the poison of deep grief! It springs All from her father’s death. O Gertrude, Gertrude, When sorrows come they come not single spies, But in battalions. First, her father slain; Next, your son gone, and he most violent author Of his own just remove; the people muddied, Thick and unwholesome in their thoughts and whispers For good Polonius’ death; and we have done but greenly In hugger-mugger to inter him; poor Ophelia Divided from herself and her fair judgement, Without the which we are pictures or mere beasts; Last, and as much containing as all these, Her brother is in secret come from France, Feeds on this wonder, keeps himself in clouds, And wants not buzzers to infect his ear With pestilent speeches of his father’s death; Wherein necessity, of matter beggared, Will nothing stick our persons to arraign In ear and ear. O my dear Gertrude, this, Like to a murd’ring-piece, in many places Gives me superfluous death.
(didascalia)	A noise within
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Alack, what noise is this?
KING CLAUDIUS	Where is my Switzers? Let them guard the door.
(didascalia)	Enter a Messenger
KING CLAUDIUS	What is the matter?
MESSENGER	Save yourself, my lord. The ocean, overpeering of his list, Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste Than young Laertes, in a riotous head, O‘erbears your officers. The rabble call him lord, And, as the world were now but to begin, Antiquity forgot, custom not known, The ratifiers and props of every word, They cry ‘Choose we! Laertes shall be king.’ Caps, hands, and tongues applaud it to the clouds, ‘Laertes shall be king, Laertes king.’
QUEEN GERTRUDE	How cheerfully on the false trail they cry!
(didascalia)	A noise within
QUEEN GERTRUDE	O, this is counter, you false Danish dogs!
KING CLAUDIUS	The doors are broke.
(didascalia)	Enter Laertes with his followers at the door
LAERTES	Where is the King?—Sirs, stand you all without.
ALL HIS FOLLOWERS	No, let’s come in.
LAERTES	I pray you, give me leave.
ALL HIS FOLLOWERS	We will, we will.
LAERTES	I thank you. Keep the door.
(didascalia)	exeunt followers
LAERTES	O thou vile king, Give me my father.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Calmly, good Laertes.
LAERTES	That drop of blood that’s calm proclaims me bastard, Cries cuckold to my father, brands the harlot Even here between the chaste unsmirchèd brow Of my true mother.
KING CLAUDIUS	What is the cause, Laertes, That thy rebellion looks so giant-like?— Let him go, Gertrude. Do not fear our person. There’s such divinity doth hedge a king That treason can but peep to what it would, Acts little of his will.—Tell me, Laertes, Why thou art thus incensed.—Let him go, Gertrude.— Speak, man.
LAERTES	Where is my father?
KING CLAUDIUS	Dead.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	(to Laertes) But not by him.
KING CLAUDIUS	Let him demand his fill.
LAERTES	How came he dead? I’ll not be juggled with. To hell, allegiance! Vows to the blackest devil! Conscience and grace to the profoundest pit! I dare damnation. To this point I stand, That both the worlds I give to negligence, Let come what comes. Only I’ll be revenged Most throughly for my father.
KING CLAUDIUS	Who shall stay you?
LAERTES	My will, not all the world; And for my means, I’ll husband them so well They shall go far with little.
KING CLAUDIUS	Good Laertes, If you desire to know the certainty Of your dear father’s death, is’t writ in your revenge That, sweepstake, you will draw both friend and foe, Winner and loser?
LAERTES	None but his enemies.
KING CLAUDIUS	Will you know them then?
LAERTES	To his good friends thus wide I’ll ope my arms, And, like the kind life-rend’ring pelican, Repast them with my blood.
KING CLAUDIUS	Why, now you speak Like a good child and a true gentleman. That I am guiltless of your father’s death, And am most sensibly in grief for it, It shall as level to your judgement pierce As day does to your eye.
(didascalia)	A noise within
VOICES	(within) Let her come in.
LAERTES	How now, what noise is that?
(didascalia)	Enter Ophelia as before
LAERTES	O heat dry up my brains! Tears seven times salt Burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye! By heaven, thy madness shall be paid by weight Till our scale turns the beam. O rose of May, Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia! O heavens, is’t possible a young maid’s wits Should be as mortal as an old man’s life? Nature is fine in love, and where ’tis fine It sends some precious instance of itself After the thing it loves.
OPHELIA	(sings) They bore him barefaced on the bier, Hey non nony, nony, hey nony, And on his grave rained many a tear— Fare you well, my dove.
LAERTES	Hadst thou thy wits and didst persuade revenge, It could not move thus.
OPHELIA	You must sing ‘Down, a-down’, and you, ‘Call him a-down-a’. O, how the wheel becomes it! It is the false steward that stole his master’s daughter. LAERTES This nothing’s more than matter.
OPHELIA	There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance. Pray, love, remember. And there is pansies; that’s for thoughts.
LAERTES	A document in madness—thoughts and remembrance fitted.
OPHELIA	There’s fennel for you, and columbines. There’s rue for you, and here’s some for me. We may call it herb-grace o’ Sundays. O, you must wear your rue with a difference. There’s a daisy. I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died. They say a made a good end. (Sings) For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy.
LAERTES	Thought and affliction, passion, hell itself She turns to favour and to prettiness.
OPHELIA	(sings) And will a not come again, And will a not come again? No, no, he is dead, Go to thy death-bed, He never will come again. His beard as white as snow, All flaxen was his poll. He is gone, he is gone, And we cast away moan. God ‘a’ mercy on his soul. And of all Christian souls, I pray God. God b’wi’ ye.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Ophelia and Gertrude
LAERTES	Do you see this, O God?
KING CLAUDIUS	Laertes, I must commune with your grief, Or you deny me right. Go but apart, Make choice of whom your wisest friends you will, And they shall hear and judge ’twixt you and me. If by direct or by collateral hand They find us touched, we will our kingdom give, Our crown, our life, and all that we call ours, To you in satisfaction. But if not, Be you content to lend your patience to us, And we shall jointly labour with your soul To give it due content.
LAERTES	Let this be so. His means of death, his obscure burial— No trophy, sword, nor hatchment o‘er his bones, No noble rite nor formal ostentation— Cry to be heard, as ’twere from heaven to earth, That I must call’t in question.
KING CLAUDIUS	So you shall; And where th’offence is, let the great axe fall. I pray you go with me.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano la Regina Gertrude e Horatio
REGINA GERTRUDE	Non voglio parlarle.
HORATIO	È importuna, e invero stravolta. Il suo stato muove a pietà.
REGINA GERTRUDE	Che cosa vuole?
HORATIO	Molto parla di suo padre, dice d’aver sentito che vi son inganni al mondo, e fa hm, e si batte il petto, s’adira per un fuscello, dice cose in dubbio che han solo mezzo senso. Il suo dire è nulla, eppure quell’uso informe di esso muove chi ascolta a raccoglierne un senso. Vi mirano, e rattoppano le parole a misura dei propri pensieri, le quali, come i suoi cenni e i suoi gesti le porgono, farebbero in verità pensare che vi sia da pensare, nulla di certo, eppur molto, e assai infelicemente.
REGINA GERTRUDE	Sarebbe bene parlarle, ché può spargere pericolose congetture in menti malnate. Fatela entrare.
(didascalia)	Horatio si ritira per far entrare Ophelia
REGINA GERTRUDE	Alla mia anima inferma, com’è vera natura del peccato, ogni inezia par prologo a qualche gran sciagura. Tanto è piena d’inetto sospetto la colpa, che si versa da sé nel temere d’esser versata.
(didascalia)	Entra Ophelia pazza, coi capelli sciolti, con un liuto
OPHELIA	Dov’è la bella maestà di Danimarca?
REGINA GERTRUDE	Ebbene, Ophelia?
OPHELIA	(canta) Come dal vostro vero amore saprò distinguere un altro?— Dal cappello a conchiglie e dal bordone, e dai sandali ai piedi.
REGINA GERTRUDE	Ahimè, dolce signora, che significa questo canto?
OPHELIA	Dite? No, vi prego, ascoltate. (Canta) È morto e andato, signora, è morto e andato. Al capo una zolla verde d’erba, ai piedi una pietra.
REGINA GERTRUDE	Ma no, Ophelia—
OPHELIA	Vi prego, ascoltate. (Canta) Bianco il suo sudario come la neve dei monti—
(didascalia)	Entra il Re Claudius
REGINA GERTRUDE	Ahimè, guardate qui, mio signore.
OPHELIA	(canta) Cosparso di dolci fiori, che alla tomba non—andò—pianto da piogge di vero amore.
RE CLAUDIUS	Come state, graziosa signora?
OPHELIA	Bene, Dio vi ricompensi. Dicono che la civetta era la figlia d’un fornaio. Signore, sappiamo ciò che siamo, ma non sappiamo ciò che potremmo essere. Dio sia alla vostra mensa!
RE CLAUDIUS	(a Gertrude) Fantastica sul padre.
OPHELIA	Vi prego, non facciamone parola, ma quando vi chiedano che voglia dire, rispondete così. (Canta) Domani è il giorno di San Valentino, di buon mattino per tempo, e io fanciulla alla vostra finestra per essere la vostra Valentina. Allora egli si levò, e indossò le vesti, e schiuse la porta della camera; fece entrar la fanciulla, che fanciulla non ne uscì mai più.
RE CLAUDIUS	Graziosa Ophelia—
OPHELIA	Davvero, eh? Senza giuramento, la finirò. (Canta) Per Gesù, e per Santa Carità, ahimè, e vergogna, che vergogna! I giovani lo fanno se ci arrivano, per Dio, la colpa è loro. Diss’ella: ‘Prima che mi rovesciassi, promettesti di sposarmi.’ L’avrei ben fatto, per quel sole lassù, se al mio letto tu non venivi.
RE CLAUDIUS	(a Gertrude) Da quanto tempo è così?
OPHELIA	Spero che tutto andrà bene. Bisogna aver pazienza. Ma non posso non piangere al pensiero che lo deporranno nella fredda terra. Mio fratello lo saprà. E dunque vi ringrazio del vostro buon consiglio. Venga la mia carrozza! Buona notte, signore, buona notte, dolci signore, buona notte, buona notte. Esce
RE CLAUDIUS	(a Horatio) Seguitela da presso. Vegliate bene su di lei, vi prego.
(didascalia)	Esce Horatio
RE CLAUDIUS	Oh, questo è il veleno d’un dolore profondo! Nasce tutto dalla morte del padre. O Gertrude, Gertrude, quando vengono i dolori non vengono come spie isolate, ma in battaglioni. Prima, il padre ucciso; poi, vostro figlio partito, e lui violentissimo autore del proprio giusto allontanamento; il popolo torbido, denso e malsano nei pensieri e nei bisbigli per la morte del buon Polonius; e noi abbiamo agito da sprovveduti a seppellirlo di soppiatto; la povera Ophelia divisa da se stessa e dal suo bel giudizio, senza il quale siamo immagini o mere bestie; infine, e grave quanto tutto questo insieme, suo fratello è tornato in segreto dalla Francia, si nutre di questo stupore, si tiene fra le nubi, e non gli mancano ronzii che gl’infettino l’orecchio con discorsi pestilenziali sulla morte del padre; nei quali la necessità, mendica di materia, non esiterà punto ad accusare la nostra persona d’orecchio in orecchio. O mia cara Gertrude, questo, come una bocca da fuoco a mitraglia, in molti punti mi dà una morte superflua.
(didascalia)	Rumore da dentro
REGINA GERTRUDE	Ahimè, che rumore è questo?
RE CLAUDIUS	Dove sono i miei Svizzeri? Guardino la porta.
(didascalia)	Entra un Messaggero
RE CLAUDIUS	Che cosa succede?
MESSAGGERO	Salvatevi, mio signore. L’oceano, traboccando oltre il suo confine, non divora le piane con più impetuosa furia di quanto il giovane Laertes, a capo d’una rivolta, travolga i vostri ufficiali. La plebaglia lo chiama signore, e, come se il mondo cominciasse solo adesso, dimenticata l’antichità, ignota l’usanza, che ratificano e sorreggono ogni parola, gridano ‘Scegliamo noi! Laertes sia re.’ Berretti, mani e lingue lo acclamano fino alle nubi, ‘Laertes sia re, Laertes re.’
REGINA GERTRUDE	Con che allegria latrano sulla falsa traccia!
(didascalia)	Rumore da dentro
REGINA GERTRUDE	Oh, seguite a ritroso, falsi cani danesi!
RE CLAUDIUS	Le porte sono sfondate.
(didascalia)	Entra Laertes coi suoi seguaci alla porta
LAERTES	Dov’è il Re?—Signori, restate tutti fuori.
TUTTI I SUOI SEGUACI	No, entriamo anche noi.
LAERTES	Vi prego, lasciatemi solo.
TUTTI I SUOI SEGUACI	Sta bene, sta bene.
LAERTES	Vi ringrazio. Sorvegliate la porta.
(didascalia)	escono i seguaci
LAERTES	O tu, vile re, rendimi mio padre.
REGINA GERTRUDE	Con calma, buon Laertes.
LAERTES	Quella goccia di sangue che stia calma mi proclama bastardo, grida cornuto a mio padre, marchia meretrice proprio qui, sulla casta fronte immacolata della mia vera madre.
RE CLAUDIUS	Qual è la causa, Laertes, che la tua ribellione ha aspetto di gigante?— Lascialo andare, Gertrude. Non temere per la nostra persona. Tale divinità fa siepe attorno a un re che il tradimento può appena adocchiare ciò che vorrebbe, e poco compie del suo volere.—Dimmi, Laertes, perché sei tanto infiammato.—Lascialo andare, Gertrude.— Parla, uomo.
LAERTES	Dov’è mio padre?
RE CLAUDIUS	Morto.
REGINA GERTRUDE	(a Laertes) Ma non per mano sua.
RE CLAUDIUS	Lo si lasci domandare a sazietà.
LAERTES	Come è morto? Non voglio esser giocato. All’inferno, fedeltà! I voti al più nero demonio! Coscienza e grazia nell’abisso più profondo! Sfido la dannazione. A questo punto sto fermo: che entrambi i mondi abbandono alla noncuranza, venga ciò che verrà. Solo, sarò vendicato fino in fondo per mio padre.
RE CLAUDIUS	Chi vi tratterrà?
LAERTES	La mia volontà, non il mondo intero; e quanto ai miei mezzi, li amministrerò così bene che andranno lontano con poco.
RE CLAUDIUS	Buon Laertes, se desiderate conoscere la certezza della morte del vostro caro padre, è scritto nella vostra vendetta che, facendo piazza pulita, trascinerete amico e nemico, vincitore e perdente?
LAERTES	Nessuno se non i suoi nemici.
RE CLAUDIUS	Saprete allora riconoscerli?
LAERTES	Ai suoi buoni amici aprirò così larghe le braccia, e, come il pio pellicano che dona la vita, li nutrirò col mio sangue.
RE CLAUDIUS	Ecco, ora parlate da buon figlio e da vero gentiluomo. Che io sia innocente della morte di vostro padre, e ne provi il più sensibile dolore, penetrerà nel vostro giudizio così diritto come il giorno nel vostro occhio.
(didascalia)	Rumore da dentro
VOCI	(da dentro) Fatela entrare.
LAERTES	Ebbene, che rumore è quello?
(didascalia)	Entra Ophelia come prima
LAERTES	O calore, disseccami il cervello! Lacrime sette volte salate bruciate il senso e la virtù del mio occhio! Per il cielo, la tua follia sarà pagata a peso finché il nostro piatto non pieghi la stadera. O rosa di maggio, cara fanciulla, buona sorella, dolce Ophelia! O cieli, è possibile che il senno d’una giovane sia mortale come la vita d’un vecchio? La natura è sottile nell’amore, e dov’è sottile manda qualche prezioso pegno di sé dietro la cosa che ama.
OPHELIA	(canta) Lo portarono a viso scoperto sulla bara, ehi non nonny, nonny, ehi nonny, e sulla sua tomba piovve più d’una lacrima— Sta’ bene, colomba mia.
LAERTES	Avessi il tuo senno e mi spingessi alla vendetta, non potresti commuovermi così.
OPHELIA	Voi dovete cantare ‘Giù, a-giù’, e voi, ‘Chiamatelo a-giù-a’. Oh, come le sta bene la ruota! È il falso castaldo che rubò la figlia del padrone. LAERTES Questo nulla è più che sostanza.
OPHELIA	Ecco il rosmarino, è per il ricordo. Ti prego, amore, ricorda. E ci sono le viole del pensiero; sono per i pensieri.
LAERTES	Un insegnamento nella follia—pensieri e ricordo bene appaiati.
OPHELIA	Ecco il finocchio per voi, e le aquilegie. Ecco la ruta per voi, e un poco ne serbo per me. La possiamo chiamare erba della grazia della domenica. Oh, voi dovete portare la vostra ruta in altra maniera. Ecco una margherita. Vi darei delle violette, ma appassirono tutte quando mio padre morì. Dicono che fece una buona fine. (Canta) Ché il bel dolce Robin è tutta la mia gioia.
LAERTES	Pensiero e afflizione, passione, l’inferno stesso ella muta in grazia e in leggiadria.
OPHELIA	(canta) E non tornerà più, e non tornerà più? No, no, egli è morto, va’ al tuo letto di morte, egli non tornerà mai più. La sua barba bianca come neve, tutto di lino il suo capo. È andato, è andato, e noi gettiamo via il lamento. Dio abbia pietà della sua anima. E di tutte le anime cristiane, ne prego Dio. Dio sia con voi.
(didascalia)	Escono Ophelia e Gertrude
LAERTES	Vedi questo, o Dio?
RE CLAUDIUS	Laertes, devo aver parte al vostro dolore, o mi negate un diritto. Ritiratevi in disparte, scegliete quelli che volete fra i vostri amici più saggi, ed essi udranno e giudicheranno fra voi e me. Se per mano diretta o indiretta ci trovino implicati, daremo il nostro regno, la nostra corona, la nostra vita, e tutto ciò che diciamo nostro, a voi in riparazione. Ma se no, contentatevi di prestarci la vostra pazienza, e insieme opereremo con la vostra anima per darle la giusta soddisfazione.
LAERTES	Sia dunque così. Il modo della sua morte, l’oscura sepoltura— né trofeo, né spada, né stemma sulle sue ossa, né nobile rito né solenne pompa— gridano d’esser uditi, come dal cielo alla terra, sì ch’io debba chiederne conto.
RE CLAUDIUS	E così sarà; e dov’è il delitto, cada la grande scure. Vi prego, venite con me.
(didascalia)	Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Horatio with a Servant
HORATIO	What are they that would speak with me?
SERVANT	Sailors, sir. They say they have letters for you.
HORATIO	Let them come in.
(didascalia)	Exit Servant
HORATIO	I do not know from what part of the world I should be greeted if not from Lord Hamlet.
(didascalia)	Enter Sailors
HORATIO	A SAILOR God bless you, sir.
HORATIO	Let him bless thee too. A SAILOR A shall, sir, an’t please him. There’s a letter for you, sir. It comes from th’ambassador that was bound for England—if your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is.
HORATIO	(reads) ‘Horatio, when thou shalt have overlooked this, give these fellows some means to the King. They have letters for him. Ere we were two days old at sea, a pirate of very warlike appointment gave us chase. Finding ourselves too slow of sail, we put on a compelled valour, and in the grapple I boarded them. On the instant they got clear of our ship, so I alone became their prisoner. They have dealt with me like thieves of mercy; but they knew what they did: I am to do a good turn for them. Let the King have the letters I have sent, and repair thou to me with as much haste as thou wouldst fly death. I have words to speak in thine ear will make thee dumb, yet are they much too light for the bore of the matter. These good fellows will bring thee where I am. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern hold their course for England. Of them I have much to tell thee. Farewell. He that thou knowest thine, Hamlet.’ Come, I will give you way for these your letters, And do’t the speedier that you may direct me To him from whom you brought them. Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entra Horatio con un servo
HORATIO	Chi sono costoro che vogliono parlarmi?
SERVO	Marinai, signore. Dicono d’aver lettere per voi.
HORATIO	Falli entrare.
(didascalia)	Esce il servo
HORATIO	Non so da quale parte del mondo mi debba venire un saluto, se non da messer Hamlet.
(didascalia)	Entrano i marinai
HORATIO	UN MARINAIO Dio vi benedica, signore.
HORATIO	Che benedica anche te. UN MARINAIO Lo farà, signore, se così gli piace. C’è una lettera per voi, signore. Viene dall’ambasciatore che era diretto in Inghilterra—se il vostro nome è Horatio, come mi si dà a intendere che sia.
HORATIO	(legge) ‘Horatio, quando avrai scorso questa, procura a costoro qualche modo d’accedere al re. Hanno lettere per lui. Prima che fossimo due giorni in mare, un pirata d’armamento assai bellicoso ci diede la caccia. Trovandoci troppo lenti di vela, ci vestimmo d’un valore forzato, e nell’arrembaggio io saltai a bordo loro. Sull’istante si liberarono della nostra nave, sicché io solo rimasi loro prigioniero. Si sono comportati con me da ladroni di misericordia; ma sapevano quel che facevano: dovrò render loro un buon servigio. Fa’ che il re abbia le lettere che ho mandato, e vieni da me con la stessa fretta con cui fuggiresti la morte. Ho parole da dirti all’orecchio che ti faranno ammutolire, eppure sono troppo leggere per il calibro della faccenda. Questi bravi uomini ti condurranno dove mi trovo. Rosencrantz e Guildenstern tengono la rotta per l’Inghilterra. Di loro ho molto da raccontarti. Addio. Colui che sai esser tuo, Hamlet.’ Venite, vi darò modo di recapitare queste vostre lettere, e tanto più in fretta perché possiate guidarmi a colui dal quale le portaste. Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter King Claudius and Laertes
KING CLAUDIUS	Now must your conscience my acquittance seal, And you must put me in your heart for friend, Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear, That he which hath your noble father slain Pursued my life.
LAERTES	It well appears. But tell me Why you proceeded not against these feats, So crimeful and so capital in nature, As by your safety, wisdom, all things else, You mainly were stirred up.
KING CLAUDIUS	O, for two special reasons, Which may to you perhaps seem much unsinewed, And yet to me they’re strong. The Queen his mother Lives almost by his looks; and for myself— My virtue or my plague, be it either which— She’s so conjunctive to my life and soul That, as the star moves not but in his sphere, I could not but by her. The other motive Why to a public count I might not go Is the great love the general gender bear him, Who, dipping all his faults in their affection, Would, like the spring that turneth wood to stone, Convert his guilts to graces; so that my arrows, Too slightly timbered for so loud a wind, Would have reverted to my bow again, And not where I had aimed them.
LAERTES	And so have I a noble father lost, A sister driven into desp’rate terms, Who has, if praises may go back again, Stood challenger, on mount, of all the age For her perfections. But my revenge will come.
KING CLAUDIUS	Break not your sleeps for that. You must not think That we are made of stuff so flat and dull That we can let our beard be shook with danger, And think it pastime. You shortly shall hear more. I loved your father, and we love ourself. And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine—
(didascalia)	Enter a Messenger with letters
KING CLAUDIUS	How now? What news?
MESSENGER	Letters, my lord, from Hamlet. This to your majesty; this to the Queen.
KING CLAUDIUS	From Hamlet? Who brought them?
MESSENGER	Sailors, my lord, they say. I saw them not. They were given me by Claudio. He received them.
KING CLAUDIUS	Laertes, you shall hear them.—Leave us.
(didascalia)	Exit Messenger
KING CLAUDIUS	(Reads) ‘High and mighty, you shall know I am set naked on your kingdom. Tomorrow shall I beg leave to see your kingly eyes, when I shall, first asking your pardon, thereunto recount th’occasions of my sudden and more strange return. Hamlet.’ What should this mean? Are all the rest come back? Or is it some abuse, and no such thing?
LAERTES	Know you the hand?
KING CLAUDIUS	’Tis Hamlet’s character. ‘Naked’—and in a postscript here he says ‘Alone’. Can you advise me?
LAERTES	I’m lost in it, my lord. But let him come. It warms the very sickness in my heart That I shall live and tell him to his teeth, ‘Thus diddest thou’.
KING CLAUDIUS	If it be so, Laertes— As how should it be so, how otherwise?— Will you be ruled by me?
LAERTES	If so you’ll not o’errule me to a peace.
KING CLAUDIUS	To thine own peace. If he be now returned, As checking at his voyage, and that he means No more to undertake it, I will work him To an exploit, now ripe in my device, Under the which he shall not choose but fall; And for his death no wind of blame shall breathe; But even his mother shall uncharge the practice And call it accident. Some two months since Here was a gentleman of Normandy. I’ve seen myself, and served against, the French, And they can well on horseback; but this gallant Had witchcraft in’t. He grew into his seat, And to such wondrous doing brought his horse As had he been incorpsed and demi-natured With the brave beast. So far he passed my thought That I in forgery of shapes and tricks Come short of what he did.
LAERTES	A Norman was’t?
KING CLAUDIUS	A Norman.
LAERTES	Upon my life, Lamord.
KING CLAUDIUS	The very same.
LAERTES	I know him well. He is the brooch indeed, And gem, of all the nation.
KING CLAUDIUS	He made confession of you, And gave you such a masterly report For art and exercise in your defence, And for your rapier most especially, That he cried out ‘twould be a sight indeed If one could match you. Sir, this report of his Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy That he could nothing do but wish and beg Your sudden coming o’er to play with him. Now, out of this—
LAERTES	What out of this, my lord?
KING CLAUDIUS	Laertes, was your father dear to you? Or are you like the painting of a sorrow, A face without a heart?
LAERTES	Why ask you this?
KING CLAUDIUS	Not that I think you did not love your father, But that I know love is begun by time, And that I see, in passages of proof, Time qualifies the spark and fire of it. Hamlet comes back. What would you undertake To show yourself your father’s son in deed More than in words?
LAERTES	To cut his throat i’th’ church.
KING CLAUDIUS	No place indeed should murder sanctuarize. Revenge should have no bounds. But, good Laertes, Will you do this?—keep close within your chamber. Hamlet returned shall know you are come home. We’ll put on those shall praise your excellence, And set a double varnish on the fame The Frenchman gave you; bring you, in fine, together, And wager on your heads. He, being remiss, Most generous, and free from all contriving, Will not peruse the foils; so that with ease, Or with a little shuffling, you may choose A sword unbated, and, in a pass of practice, Requite him for your father.
LAERTES	I will do’t, And for that purpose I’ll anoint my sword. I bought an unction of a mountebank So mortal that, but dip a knife in it, Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare, Collected from all simples that have virtue Under the moon, can save the thing from death That is but scratched withal. I’ll touch my point With this contagion, that if I gall him slightly, It may be death.
KING CLAUDIUS	Let’s further think of this; Weigh what convenience both of time and means May fit us to our shape. If this should fail, And that our drift look through our bad performance, ‘Twere better not essayed. Therefore this project Should have a back or second that might hold If this should blast in proof. Soft, let me see. We’ll make a solemn wager on your cunnings … I ha’t! When in your motion you are hot and dry— As make your bouts more violent to that end— And that he calls for drink, I’ll have prepared him A chalice for the nonce, whereon but sipping, If he by chance escape your venomed stuck, Our purpose may hold there.—
(didascalia)	Enter Queen Gertrude
KING CLAUDIUS	How now, sweet Queen?
QUEEN GERTRUDE	One woe doth tread upon another’s heel, So fast they follow. Your sister’s drowned, Laertes.
LAERTES	Drowned? O, where?
QUEEN GERTRUDE	There is a willow grows aslant a brook That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream. Therewith fantastic garlands did she make Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples, That liberal shepherds give a grosser name, But our cold maids do dead men’s fingers call them. There on the pendent boughs her crownet weeds Clamb’ring to hang, an envious sliver broke, When down the weedy trophies and herself Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide, And mermaid-like a while they bore her up; Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes, As one incapable of her own distress, Or like a creature native and endued Unto that element. But long it could not be Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay To muddy death.
LAERTES	Alas, then is she drowned.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Drowned, drowned.
LAERTES	Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia, And therefore I forbid my tears. But yet It is our trick; nature her custom holds, Let shame say what it will. He weeps When these are gone, The woman will be out. Adieu, my lord. I have a speech of fire that fain would blaze, But that this folly douts it.
(didascalia)	Exit
KING CLAUDIUS	Let’s follow, Gertrude. How much I had to do to calm his rage! Now fear I this will give it start again; Therefore let’s follow.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano il Re Claudius e Laertes
RE CLAUDIUS	Ora la vostra coscienza deve sigillare il mio proscioglimento, E dovete accogliermi nel cuore come amico, Poiché avete udito, e con orecchio consapevole, Che colui che ha ucciso il vostro nobile padre Attentava alla mia vita.
LAERTES	Bene appare. Ma ditemi Perché non procedeste contro tali atti, Così criminosi e capitali per natura, Come dalla vostra sicurezza, saggezza e ogni altra cosa Eravate potentemente spinto.
RE CLAUDIUS	Oh, per due ragioni particolari, Che a voi forse parranno assai senza nerbo, E che pure a me son forti. La Regina sua madre Vive quasi dei suoi sguardi; e quanto a me— Mia virtù o mia piaga, sia l’una o l’altra— Ella è così congiunta alla mia vita e alla mia anima Che, come l’astro non si muove se non nella sua sfera, Io non potrei muovermi se non per lei. L’altro motivo Per cui non potei venire a un pubblico processo È il grande amore che il volgo gli porta, Il quale, immergendo tutte le sue colpe nel proprio affetto, Come la sorgente che muta il legno in pietra, Convertirebbe le sue colpe in grazie; sicché le mie frecce, Troppo leggere d’asta per un vento così forte, Sarebbero tornate al mio stesso arco, E non dove le avevo mirate.
LAERTES	E così ho perduto un nobile padre, Una sorella sospinta a disperate condizioni, Che aveva, se le lodi possono tornare indietro, Sfidato dall’alto tutta l’età presente Per le sue perfezioni. Ma la mia vendetta verrà.
RE CLAUDIUS	Non perdete il sonno per questo. Non dovete credere Che siamo fatti di stoffa così fiacca e ottusa Da lasciarci scuotere la barba dal pericolo E stimarlo un passatempo. Presto udrete di più. Amavo vostro padre, e amiamo noi stessi. E ciò, spero, v’insegnerà a immaginare—
(didascalia)	Entra un Messaggero con lettere
RE CLAUDIUS	Ebbene? Che notizie?
MESSAGGERO	Lettere, mio signore, da Hamlet. Questa a vostra maestà; questa alla Regina.
RE CLAUDIUS	Da Hamlet? Chi le ha portate?
MESSAGGERO	Marinai, mio signore, così dicono. Io non li ho veduti. Mi furono date da Claudio. Egli le ricevette.
RE CLAUDIUS	Laertes, le udrete.—Lasciateci.
(didascalia)	Esce il Messaggero
RE CLAUDIUS	(Legge) ‘Alto e potente, saprete che sono stato posto nudo nel vostro regno. Domani chiederò licenza di vedere i vostri occhi regali, quando, chiedendo dapprima il vostro perdono, esporrò le occasioni del mio subitaneo e più che strano ritorno. Hamlet.’ Che vorrà dir questo? Sono tornati tutti gli altri? O è qualche inganno, e nulla di simile?
LAERTES	Conoscete la scrittura?
RE CLAUDIUS	È il carattere di Hamlet. ‘Nudo’—e in un poscritto qui dice ‘Solo’. Potete consigliarmi?
LAERTES	Mi ci perdo, mio signore. Ma che venga. Riscalda proprio il male del mio cuore Il pensiero che vivrò per dirgli in faccia ‘Così tu facesti’.
RE CLAUDIUS	Se è così, Laertes— E come potrebbe esser così, come altrimenti?— Vi lascerete guidare da me?
LAERTES	Purché non mi guidiate a una pace.
RE CLAUDIUS	Alla vostra propria pace. Se ora è tornato, Rifiutando il suo viaggio, e se intende Non intraprenderlo più, io lo indurrò A un’impresa, ora matura nel mio disegno, Sotto la quale non potrà che cadere; E per la sua morte nessun vento di biasimo spirerà; Ma perfino sua madre assolverà la trama E la chiamerà accidente. Or son due mesi Era qui un gentiluomo di Normandia. Io stesso ho veduto, e ho combattuto contro, i Francesi, E sanno bene stare a cavallo; ma quel galante Aveva in ciò della stregoneria. Cresceva tutt’uno con la sella, E a tali prodigiose prove conduceva il suo cavallo Come s’ei fosse incorporato e mezzo naturato Con la brava bestia. Tanto superò il mio pensiero Che io, nel foggiare figure e destrezze, Resto al di sotto di quel ch’egli fece.
LAERTES	Era un Normanno?
RE CLAUDIUS	Un Normanno.
LAERTES	Sulla mia vita, Lamord.
RE CLAUDIUS	Proprio lui.
LAERTES	Lo conosco bene. È davvero il fermaglio, E la gemma, di tutta la nazione.
RE CLAUDIUS	Egli fece di voi confessione, E vi diede un elogio così magistrale Per l’arte e l’esercizio nella vostra difesa, E per lo stocco vostro specialmente, Che gridò che sarebbe uno spettacolo davvero Se alcuno potesse misurarsi con voi. Signore, questo suo elogio Avvelenò Hamlet a tal punto d’invidia Che altro non poté fare che desiderare e implorare Il vostro subitaneo ritorno per gareggiare con lui. Ora, da questo—
LAERTES	Che cosa, da questo, mio signore?
RE CLAUDIUS	Laertes, vi era caro vostro padre? O siete voi come la pittura d’un dolore, Un volto senza cuore?
LAERTES	Perché chiedete questo?
RE CLAUDIUS	Non ch’io pensi che non amaste vostro padre, Ma perché so che l’amore è generato dal tempo, E perché vedo, in prove d’esperienza, Che il tempo ne attenua la scintilla e il fuoco. Hamlet ritorna. Che cosa intraprendereste Per mostrarvi figlio di vostro padre in atto Più che in parole?
LAERTES	Tagliargli la gola in chiesa.
RE CLAUDIUS	Nessun luogo davvero dovrebbe far santuario all’omicidio. La vendetta non dovrebbe aver confini. Ma, buon Laertes, Volete far questo?—tenetevi chiuso nella vostra camera. Hamlet, tornato, saprà che siete giunto a casa. Metteremo su gente che lodi la vostra eccellenza, E porremo una doppia vernice sulla fama Che il Francese vi diede; vi metteremo, infine, a fronte, E scommetteremo sulle vostre teste. Egli, essendo negligente, Generosissimo, e alieno da ogni macchinazione, Non esaminerà i fioretti; sicché con facilità, O con un piccolo scambio, potrete scegliere Una spada non spuntata, e, in una botta d’esercizio, Ripagarlo per vostro padre.
LAERTES	Lo farò, E a tal fine ungerò la mia spada. Comprai un unguento da un ciarlatano Così mortale che, basta immergervi un coltello, E dove esso trae sangue nessun cataplasma, per raro che sia, Raccolto da tutti i semplici che hanno virtù Sotto la luna, può salvare dalla morte la creatura Che ne sia appena graffiata. Toccherò la mia punta Con questo contagio, sì che, se lo scalfisco appena, Possa esser morte.
RE CLAUDIUS	Pensiamoci ancora; Pesiamo quale convenienza di tempo e di mezzi Possa adattarci al nostro disegno. Se questo fallisse, E il nostro intento trasparisse dalla cattiva esecuzione, Meglio non averlo tentato. Perciò questo progetto Dovrebbe avere un sostegno o un secondo che tenga Se il primo scoppiasse alla prova. Piano, lasciate ch’io veda. Faremo una solenne scommessa sulle vostre destrezze … L’ho trovato! Quando nel moto sarete caldo e assetato— E rendete a tal fine più violenti i vostri assalti— Ed egli chiederà da bere, io gli avrò preparato Un calice per l’occasione, che, appena sorseggiato, Se per caso sfuggisse alla vostra stoccata avvelenata, Il nostro scopo potrà reggersi là.—
(didascalia)	Entra la Regina Gertrude
RE CLAUDIUS	Ebbene, dolce Regina?
REGINA GERTRUDE	Una sciagura calca il calcagno di un’altra, Tanto in fretta si seguono. Vostra sorella è annegata, Laertes.
LAERTES	Annegata? Oh, dove?
REGINA GERTRUDE	C’è un salice che cresce obliquo sopra un ruscello E mostra le sue canute foglie nella corrente vitrea. Con esse ella intrecciava fantastiche ghirlande Di fiori di ranuncolo, ortiche, margherite e lunghi orchidei, Cui i licenziosi pastori danno un nome più grossolano, Ma che le nostre caste fanciulle chiaman dita di morto. Là, sui rami pendenti, mentre s’arrampicava Per appendervi le sue corone d’erbe, un ramo invidioso si ruppe, E giù i trofei d’erbe ed ella stessa Caddero nel ruscello piangente. Le vesti si distesero ampie, E come sirena per un poco la sostennero; Nel qual tempo ella cantava brani d’antiche arie, Come chi non sente la propria sciagura, O come creatura nata e adatta A quell’elemento. Ma lungo non poté durare Finché le sue vesti, pesanti dell’acqua bevuta, Trassero la povera infelice dal suo melodioso canto A una fangosa morte.
LAERTES	Ahimè, dunque è annegata.
REGINA GERTRUDE	Annegata, annegata.
LAERTES	Troppa acqua hai avuto, povera Ophelia, E perciò vieto le mie lacrime. Eppure È il nostro vezzo; la natura tiene la sua usanza, Dica la vergogna ciò che vuole. Piange Quando queste saran finite, La donna sarà fuori di me. Addio, mio signore. Ho un discorso di fuoco che vorrebbe divampare, Se non che questa follia lo spegne.
(didascalia)	Esce
RE CLAUDIUS	Seguiamolo, Gertrude. Quanto ho dovuto fare per calmare la sua furia! Ora temo che questo la faccia ripartire; Perciò seguiamolo.
(didascalia)	Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter two Clowns carrying a spade and a pickaxe
FIRST CLOWN	Is she to be buried in Christian burial that wilfully seeks her own salvation?
SECOND CLOWN	I tell thee she is, and therefore make her grave straight. The coroner hath sat on her, and finds it Christian burial.
FIRST CLOWN	How can that be unless she drowned herself in her own defence?
SECOND CLOWN	Why, ’tis found so.
FIRST CLOWN	It must be se offendendo, it cannot be else; for here lies the point: if I drown myself wittingly, it argues an act; and an act hath three branches: it is to act, to do, and to perform. Argal she drowned herself wittingly.
SECOND CLOWN	Nay, but hear you, Goodman Delver.
FIRST CLOWN	Give me leave. Here lies the water—good. Here stands the man—good. If the man go to this water and drown himself, it is, will he nill he, he goes. Mark you that. But if the water come to him and drown him, he drowns not himself; argal he that is not guilty of his own death shortens not his own life.
SECOND CLOWN	But is this law?
FIRST CLOWN	Ay, marry, is’t: coroner’s quest law.
SECOND CLOWN	Will you ha’ the truth on’t? If this had not been a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out o’ Christian burial.
FIRST CLOWN	Why, there thou sayst, and the more pity that great folk should have count’nance in this world to drown or hang themselves more than their even Christian. Come, my spade. There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers, and gravemakers; they hold up Adam’s profession.
(didascalia)	First Clown digs
SECOND CLOWN	Was he a gentleman?
FIRST CLOWN	A was the first that ever bore arms.
SECOND CLOWN	Why, he had none.
FIRST CLOWN	What, art a heathen? How dost thou understand the Scripture? The Scripture says Adam digged. Could he dig without arms? I’ll put another question to thee. If thou answerest me not to the purpose, confess thyself—
SECOND CLOWN	Go to.
FIRST CLOWN	What is he that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter?
SECOND CLOWN	The gallows-maker; for that frame outlives a thousand tenants.
FIRST CLOWN	I like thy wit well, in good faith. The gallows does well. But how does it well? It does well to those that do ill. Now thou dost ill to say the gallows is built stronger than the church, argal the gallows may do well to thee. To’t again, come.
SECOND CLOWN	‘Who builds stronger than a mason, a shipwright, or a carpenter?’
FIRST CLOWN	Ay, tell me that, and unyoke.
SECOND CLOWN	Marry, now I can tell.
FIRST CLOWN	To’t.
SECOND CLOWN	Mass, I cannot tell.
(didascalia)	Enter Prince Hamlet and Horatio afar off
FIRST CLOWN	Cudgel thy brains no more about it, for your dull ass will not mend his pace with beating; and when you are asked this question next, say ‘a grave-maker’; the houses that he makes lasts till doomsday. Go, get thee to Johan. Fetch me a stoup of liquor.
(didascalia)	Exit Second Clown
FIRST CLOWN	(Sings) In youth when I did love, did love, Methought it was very sweet To contract-O-the time for-a-my behove, O methought there-a-was nothing-a-meet.
HAMLET	Has this fellow no feeling of his business that a sings at grave-making?
HORATIO	Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness.
HAMLET	‘Tis e’en so; the hand of little employment hath the daintier sense.
FIRST CLOWN	(sings) But age with his stealing steps Hath caught me in his clutch, And hath shipped me intil the land, As if I had never been such.
(didascalia)	He throws up a skull
HAMLET	That skull had a tongue in it and could sing once. How the knave jowls it to th’ ground as if ‘twere Cain’s jawbone, that did the first murder! This might be the pate of a politician which this ass o’er-offices, one that would circumvent God, might it not? HORATIO It might, my lord.
HAMLET	Or of a courtier, which could say ‘Good morrow, sweet lord. How dost thou, good lord?’ This might be my lord such a one, that praised my lord such a one’s horse when a meant to beg it, might it not?
HORATIO	Ay, my lord.
HAMLET	Why, e‘en so, and now my lady Worm’s, chapless, and knocked about the mazard with a sexton’s spade. Here’s fine revolution, an we had the trick to see’t. Did these bones cost no more the breeding but to play at loggats with ’em? Mine ache to think on’t.
FIRST CLOWN	(sings) A pickaxe and a spade, a spade, For and a shrouding-sheet; O, a pit of clay for to be made For such a guest is meet.
(didascalia)	He throws up another skull
HAMLET	There’s another. Why might not that be the skull of a lawyer? Where be his quiddits now, his quillets, his cases, his tenures, and his tricks? Why does he suffer this rude knave now to knock him about the sconce with a dirty shovel, and will not tell him of his action of battery? H‘m! This fellow might be in ’s time a great buyer of land, with his statutes, his recognizances, his fines, his double vouchers, his recoveries. Is this the fine of his fines and the recovery of his recoveries, to have his fine pate full of fine dirt? Will his vouchers vouch him no more of his purchases, and double ones too, than the length and breadth of a pair of indentures? The very conveyances of his lands will hardly lie in this box; and must th’inheritor himself have no more, ha?
HORATIO	Not a jot more, my lord.
HAMLET	Is not parchment made of sheepskins?
HORATIO	Ay, my lord, and of calf-skins too.
HAMLET	They are sheep and calves that seek out assurance in that. I will speak to this fellow. (To the First Clown) Whose grave’s this, sirrah?
FIRST CLOWN	Mine, sir. (Sings) O, a pit of clay for to be made For such a guest is meet.
HAMLET	I think it be thine indeed, for thou liest in’t.
FIRST CLOWN	You lie out on‘t, sir, and therefore it is not yours. For my part, I do not lie in’t, and yet it is mine.
HAMLET	Thou dost lie in‘t, to be in’t and say ’tis thine. ’Tis for the dead, not for the quick; therefore thou liest.
FIRST CLOWN	‘Tis a quick lie, sir, ’twill away again from me to you.
HAMLET	What man dost thou dig it for?
FIRST CLOWN	For no man, sir.
HAMLET	What woman, then?
FIRST CLOWN	For none, neither.
HAMLET	Who is to be buried in’t?
FIRST CLOWN	One that was a woman, sir; but, rest her soul, she’s dead.
HAMLET	How absolute the knave is! We must speak by the card, or equivocation will undo us. By the Lord, Horatio, these three years I have taken note of it. The age is grown so picked that the toe of the peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier he galls his kibe. (To the First Clown) How long hast thou been a grave-maker?
FIRST CLOWN	Of all the days i‘th’ year I came to’t that day that our last King Hamlet o’ercame Fortinbras.
HAMLET	How long is that since?
FIRST CLOWN	Cannot you tell that? Every fool can tell that. It was the very day that young Hamlet was born—he that was mad and sent into England.
HAMLET	Ay, marry, why was he sent into England?
FIRST CLOWN	Why, because a was mad. A shall recover his wits there; or if a do not, ’tis no great matter there.
HAMLET	Why?
FIRST CLOWN	’Twill not be seen in him there. There the men are as mad as he.
HAMLET	How came he mad?
FIRST CLOWN	Very strangely, they say.
HAMLET	How strangely?
FIRST CLOWN	Faith, e’en with losing his wits.
HAMLET	Upon what ground?
FIRST CLOWN	Why, here in Denmark. I have been sexton here, man and boy, thirty years.
HAMLET	How long will a man lie i’th’ earth ere he rot?
FIRST CLOWN	I’faith, if a be not rotten before a die—as we have many pocky corpses nowadays, that will scarce hold the laying in—a will last you some eight year or nine year. A tanner will last you nine year.
HAMLET	Why he more than another?
FIRST CLOWN	Why, sir, his hide is so tanned with his trade that a will keep out water a great while, and your water is a sore decayer of your whoreson dead body. Here’s a skull, now. This skull has lain in the earth three-and-twenty years.
HAMLET	Whose was it?
FIRST CLOWN	A whoreson mad fellow’s it was. Whose do you think it was?
HAMLET	Nay, I know not.
FIRST CLOWN	A pestilence on him for a mad rogue—a poured a flagon of Rhenish on my head once! This same skull, sir, was Yorick’s skull, the King’s jester.
HAMLET	This?
FIRST CLOWN	E’en that.
HAMLET	Let me see. He takes the skull Alas, poor Yorick. I knew him, Horatio—a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred my imagination is! My gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now, your gambols, your songs, your flashes of merriment that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now to mock your own grinning? Quite chop-fallen? Now get you to my lady’s chamber and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come. Make her laugh at that. Prithee, Horatio, tell me one thing.
HORATIO	What’s that, my lord?
HAMLET	Dost thou think Alexander looked o’ this fashion i’th’ earth?
HORATIO	E’en so.
HAMLET	And smelt so? Pah!
(didascalia)	He throws the skull down
HORATIO	E’en so, my lord.
HAMLET	To what base uses we may return, Horatio! Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander till a find it stopping a bung-hole?
HORATIO	’Twere to consider too curiously to consider so.
HAMLET	No, faith, not a jot; but to follow him thither with modesty enough, and likelihood to lead it, as thus: Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth into dust, the dust is earth, of earth we make loam, and why of that loam whereto he was converted might they not stop a beer-barrel? Imperial Caesar, dead and turned to clay, Might stop a hole to keep the wind away. O, that that earth which kept the world in awe Should patch a wall t’expel the winter’s flaw! But soft, but soft; aside. Hamlet and Horatio stand aside. Enter King Claudius, Queen Gertrude, Laertes, and a coffin, with a Priest and lords attendant Here comes the King, The Queen, the courtiers—who is that they follow, And with such maimed rites? This doth betoken The corpse they follow did with desp‘rate hand Fordo it own life. ’Twas of some estate. Couch we a while, and mark.
LAERTES	What ceremony else?
HAMLET	(aside to Horatio) That is Laertes, a very noble youth. Mark.
LAERTES	What ceremony else?
PRIEST	Her obsequies have been as far enlarged As we have warrantise. Her death was doubtful, And but that great command o’ersways the order She should in ground unsanctified have lodged Till the last trumpet. For charitable prayers, Shards, flints, and pebbles should be thrown on her, Yet here she is allowed her virgin rites, Her maiden strewments, and the bringing home Of bell and burial.
LAERTES	Must there no more be done?
PRIEST	No more be done. We should profane the service of the dead To sing sage requiem and such rest to her As to peace-parted souls.
LAERTES	Lay her i’th’ earth, And from her fair and unpolluted flesh May violets spring. I tell thee, churlish priest, A minist’ring angel shall my sister be When thou liest howling.
HAMLET	(aside) What, the fair Ophelia!
QUEEN GERTRUDE	(scattering flowers) Sweets to the sweet. Farewell. I hoped thou shouldst have been my Hamlet’s wife. I thought thy bride-bed to have decked, sweet maid, And not t’have strewed thy grave.
LAERTES	O, treble woe Fall ten times treble on that cursed head Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense Deprived thee of!—Hold off the earth a while, Till I have caught her once more in mine arms. He leaps into the grave Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead Till of this flat a mountain you have made To o’ertop old Pelion, or the skyish head Of blue Olympus.
HAMLET	(coming forward) What is he whose grief Bears such an emphasis, whose phrase of sorrow Conjures the wand’ring stars and makes them stand Like wonder-wounded hearers? This is I, Hamlet the Dane.
(didascalia)	Hamlet leaps in after Laertes
LAERTES	The devil take thy soul.
HAMLET	Thou pray’st not well. I prithee take thy fingers from my throat, For though I am not splenative and rash, Yet have I something in me dangerous, Which let thy wiseness fear. Away thy hand.
KING CLAUDIUS	(to Lords) Pluck them asunder.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Hamlet, Hamlet!
(didascalia)	ALL THE LORDS
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Gentlemen!
HORATIO	(to Hamlet) Good my lord, be quiet.
HAMLET	Why, I will fight with him upon this theme Until my eyelids will no longer wag.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	O my son, what theme?
HAMLET	I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers Could not, with all their quantity of love, Make up my sum.—What wilt thou do for her?
KING CLAUDIUS	O, he is mad, Laertes.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	(to Laertes) For love of God, forbear him.
HAMLET	(to Laertes) ‘Swounds, show me what thou’lt do. Woot weep, woot fight, woot fast, woot tear thyself, Woot drink up eisel, eat a crocodile? I’ll do’t. Dost thou come here to whine, To outface me with leaping in her grave? Be buried quick with her, and so will I. And if thou prate of mountains, let them throw Millions of acres on us, till our ground, Singeing his pate against the burning zone, Make Ossa like a wart. Nay, an thou’lt mouth, I’ll rant as well as thou.
(didascalia)	KING CLAUDIUS to Laertes This is mere madness,
HAMLET	And thus a while the fit will work on him. Anon, as patient as the female dove When that her golden couplets are disclosed, His silence will sit drooping.
HAMLET	(to Laertes) Hear you, sir, What is the reason that you use me thus? I loved you ever. But it is no matter. Let Hercules himself do what he may, The cat will mew, and dog will have his day. Exit
KING CLAUDIUS	I pray you, good Horatio, wait upon him. Exit Horatio (To Laertes).Strengthen your patience in our last night’s speech. We’ll put the matter to the present push.— Good Gertrude, set some watch over your son.— This grave shall have a living monument. An hour of quiet shortly shall we see; Till then, in patience our proceeding be.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano due Becchini con una vanga e un piccone
PRIMO BECCHINO	Deve avere sepoltura cristiana costei che di sua volontà cerca la propria salvezza?
SECONDO BECCHINO	Ti dico di sì, e perciò scavale la fossa senza indugio. Il magistrato ha tenuto inchiesta su di lei, e la giudica degna di sepoltura cristiana.
PRIMO BECCHINO	Come può essere, a meno che non si sia annegata per propria difesa?
SECONDO BECCHINO	Ma sì, così è stato accertato.
PRIMO BECCHINO	Dev’essere se offendendo, non può essere altrimenti; ché qui sta il punto: se io mi annego consapevolmente, ciò implica un atto; e un atto ha tre rami: cioè agire, fare ed eseguire. Argal, ella si è annegata consapevolmente.
SECONDO BECCHINO	No, ma stammi a sentire, compar Zappaterra.
PRIMO BECCHINO	Lascia fare a me. Qui giace l’acqua—bene. Qui sta l’uomo—bene. Se l’uomo va a quest’acqua e vi si annega, è, voglia o non voglia, lui che ci va. Nota bene. Ma se l’acqua viene a lui e lo annega, non è lui che si annega; argal, chi non è colpevole della propria morte non abbrevia la propria vita.
SECONDO BECCHINO	Ma è legge, questa?
PRIMO BECCHINO	Sì, perbacco, lo è: legge dell’inchiesta del magistrato.
SECONDO BECCHINO	Volete sapere la verità su questo? Se costei non fosse stata una gentildonna, l’avrebbero sepolta fuori dalla sepoltura cristiana.
PRIMO BECCHINO	Ecco, l’hai detto; e tanto più è un peccato che i gran signori abbiano in questo mondo licenza d’annegarsi o d’impiccarsi più dei loro pari cristiani. Qua la vanga. Non ci sono gentiluomini più antichi dei giardinieri, degli sterratori e dei becchini: essi tengono viva la professione d’Adamo.
(didascalia)	Il Primo Becchino scava
SECONDO BECCHINO	Era un gentiluomo, lui?
PRIMO BECCHINO	Fu il primo che mai portasse armi.
SECONDO BECCHINO	Ma va’, non ne aveva.
PRIMO BECCHINO	Come, sei un pagano? Come la intendi tu la Scrittura? La Scrittura dice che Adamo zappò. Poteva zappare senza braccia? Ti farò un’altra domanda. Se non mi rispondi a proposito, confessati—
SECONDO BECCHINO	Avanti.
PRIMO BECCHINO	Chi è colui che costruisce più solido del muratore, del maestro d’ascia o del falegname?
SECONDO BECCHINO	Il costruttore di forche; ché quell’intelaiatura sopravvive a mille inquilini.
PRIMO BECCHINO	Mi piace il tuo spirito, bene, in buona fede. La forca fa bene. Ma come fa bene? Fa bene a quelli che fanno male. Ora tu fai male a dire che la forca è costruita più solida della chiesa, argal la forca potrebbe far bene a te. Riprova, su.
SECONDO BECCHINO	‘Chi costruisce più solido d’un muratore, d’un maestro d’ascia o d’un falegname?’
PRIMO BECCHINO	Sì, dimmi questo, e poi stacca i buoi.
SECONDO BECCHINO	Perbacco, ora te lo so dire.
PRIMO BECCHINO	Avanti.
SECONDO BECCHINO	Per la messa, non te lo so dire.
(didascalia)	Entrano il principe Hamlet e Horatio, in lontananza
PRIMO BECCHINO	Non spremerti più il cervello su questo, ché il tuo asino ottuso non affretterà il passo per le bastonate; e quando ti sarà rifatta questa domanda, di’ ‘uno scavatore di fosse’: le case che fa lui durano fino al giorno del giudizio. Va’, corri da Johan. Portami un boccale di liquore.
(didascalia)	Esce il Secondo Becchino
PRIMO BECCHINO	(Canta) In gioventù, quand’io amavo, amavo, mi pareva cosa assai dolce stringere—oh—il tempo a mio profitto, oh, mi pareva che nulla-a-fosse-a-meglio.
HAMLET	Non ha alcun sentimento del suo mestiere costui, che canta mentre scava una fossa?
HORATIO	L’abitudine ne ha fatto in lui una cosa d’agevole indifferenza.
HAMLET	È proprio così; la mano che poco s’adopra ha il senso più delicato.
PRIMO BECCHINO	(canta) Ma l’età coi suoi passi furtivi m’ha ghermito nel suo artiglio, e m’ha spedito dentro la terra, come se mai fossi stato tale.
(didascalia)	Getta fuori un teschio
HAMLET	Quel teschio aveva una lingua dentro, e un tempo sapeva cantare. Come lo sbatte a terra il furfante, quasi fosse la mascella di Cain, che commise il primo omicidio! Questa potrebbe essere la zucca d’un politico, che quest’asino ora soverchia, uno che avrebbe voluto raggirare Dio, non è vero? HORATIO Potrebbe, mio signore.
HAMLET	O d’un cortigiano, che sapeva dire ‘Buon giorno, dolce signore. Come state, buon signore?’ Questo potrebbe essere il tal signore, che lodava il cavallo del tal altro signore quando intendeva mendicarglielo, non è vero?
HORATIO	Sì, mio signore.
HAMLET	Ebbene, proprio così, e ora è di madonna Verme, senza mascella, e picchiato sul cranio con la vanga d’un sagrestano. Bella rivoluzione, questa, se avessimo l’arte di vederla. Costò così poco allevare queste ossa, che non servano ad altro che a giocarci alle piastrelle? Le mie dolgono al pensarci.
PRIMO BECCHINO	(canta) Un piccone e una vanga, una vanga, e insieme un lenzuolo funebre; oh, una fossa d’argilla da scavare per un tale ospite conviene.
(didascalia)	Getta fuori un altro teschio
HAMLET	Eccone un altro. Perché non potrebbe essere il teschio d’un legulèio? Dove sono ora i suoi cavilli, i suoi sofismi, le sue cause, i suoi titoli e i suoi raggiri? Perché sopporta che questo rozzo villano ora lo percuota sulla zucca con una sudicia pala, e non gli intenta causa per percosse? Hm! Costui poteva essere ai suoi tempi un gran compratore di terre, coi suoi statuti, i suoi riconoscimenti, le sue multe, le sue doppie garanzie, le sue rivendicazioni. È questo il fine delle sue multe e la rivendicazione delle sue rivendicazioni, avere la sua fine zucca piena di fine terriccio? I suoi garanti non gli garantiranno dei suoi acquisti, e doppi per giunta, più della lunghezza e della larghezza d’un paio di contratti? Gli atti stessi delle sue terre a stento staranno in questa cassa; e l’erede in persona non deve avere più spazio, eh?
HORATIO	Non un briciolo di più, mio signore.
HAMLET	Non si fa la pergamena con pelli di pecora?
HORATIO	Sì, mio signore, e anche con pelli di vitello.
HAMLET	Sono pecore e vitelli quelli che cercano garanzia in ciò. Voglio parlare a costui. (Al Primo Becchino) Di chi è questa fossa, messere?
PRIMO BECCHINO	Mia, signore. (Canta) oh, una fossa d’argilla da scavare per un tale ospite conviene.
HAMLET	Credo davvero che sia tua, perché tu ci menti dentro.
PRIMO BECCHINO	Voi mentite di fuori, signore, e perciò non è vostra. Quanto a me, io non ci mento dentro, eppure è mia.
HAMLET	Tu ci menti dentro, a starci dentro e dire che è tua. È per i morti, non per i vivi; perciò tu menti.
PRIMO BECCHINO	È una menzogna viva, signore, se ne tornerà via da me a voi.
HAMLET	Per quale uomo la scavi?
PRIMO BECCHINO	Per nessun uomo, signore.
HAMLET	Per quale donna, allora?
PRIMO BECCHINO	Per nessuna, neppure.
HAMLET	Chi dev’essere sepolto lì dentro?
PRIMO BECCHINO	Una che era donna, signore; ma, pace all’anima sua, è morta.
HAMLET	Com’è preciso il furfante! Dobbiamo parlare con la bussola, o l’equivoco ci rovinerà. Per il Signore, Horatio, da tre anni ne prendo nota. L’epoca s’è fatta così affilata che la punta del piede del contadino sfiora il calcagno del cortigiano e gli irrita il gelone. (Al Primo Becchino) Da quanto tempo sei scavatore di fosse?
PRIMO BECCHINO	Di tutti i giorni dell’anno, venni a questo mestiere quel giorno in cui il nostro ultimo re Hamlet vinse Fortinbras.
HAMLET	Quanto tempo è da allora?
PRIMO BECCHINO	Non lo sapete dire? Ogni sciocco lo sa dire. Fu proprio il giorno in cui nacque il giovane Hamlet—quello che impazzì e fu mandato in Inghilterra.
HAMLET	Sì, davvero, e perché fu mandato in Inghilterra?
PRIMO BECCHINO	Ma perché era pazzo. Là ricupererà il senno; o se non lo ricupera, laggiù non importa granché.
HAMLET	Perché?
PRIMO BECCHINO	Là non si noterà in lui. Laggiù gli uomini sono pazzi quanto lui.
HAMLET	Come impazzì?
PRIMO BECCHINO	Molto stranamente, dicono.
HAMLET	Come stranamente?
PRIMO BECCHINO	In fede mia, proprio perdendo il senno.
HAMLET	Su quale terreno?
PRIMO BECCHINO	Ma qui, in Danimarca. Sono stato sagrestano qui, da ragazzo e da uomo, per trent’anni.
HAMLET	Quanto tempo giace un uomo nella terra prima di marcire?
PRIMO BECCHINO	In fede mia, se non è marcio prima di morire—come abbiamo oggigiorno molti cadaveri incancreniti, che a stento reggono la deposizione—vi durerà otto o nove anni. Un conciatore vi durerà nove anni.
HAMLET	Perché lui più d’un altro?
PRIMO BECCHINO	Ma perché, signore, la sua pelle è così conciata dal suo mestiere che terrà fuori l’acqua per un bel pezzo, e la vostra acqua è una gran guastatrice del vostro maledetto corpo morto. Ecco qua un teschio, ora. Questo teschio è stato nella terra ventitré anni.
HAMLET	Di chi era?
PRIMO BECCHINO	Era d’un maledetto pazzo. Di chi credete che fosse?
HAMLET	No, non lo so.
PRIMO BECCHINO	La peste lo colga, che fu un pazzo furfante—una volta mi versò in capo un fiasco di vino del Reno! Questo stesso teschio, signore, era il teschio di Yorick, il buffone del re.
HAMLET	Questo?
PRIMO BECCHINO	Proprio quello.
HAMLET	Fammi vedere. Prende il teschio Ahimè, povero Yorick. Io lo conobbi, Horatio—un uomo di spirito infinito, di eccellentissima fantasia. Mi ha portato sulla schiena mille volte; e ora, come mi ripugna la mia immaginazione! Mi si rivolta lo stomaco. Qui pendevano quelle labbra che ho baciato non so quante volte. Dove sono ora i tuoi frizzi, le tue capriole, le tue canzoni, i tuoi lampi d’allegria che solevano far scoppiare in risate tutta la tavola? Non ne resta uno per farsi beffe del tuo stesso ghigno? Del tutto a mascella cascante? Ora va’ nella camera della mia signora e dille che, per quanto s’imbelletti d’un dito di spessore, a questo aspetto dovrà venire. Fàlla ridere di questo. Ti prego, Horatio, dimmi una cosa.
HORATIO	Che cos’è, mio signore?
HAMLET	Credi tu che Alessandro avesse quest’aspetto sotto terra?
HORATIO	Proprio così.
HAMLET	E puzzasse così? Puah!
(didascalia)	Getta giù il teschio
HORATIO	Proprio così, mio signore.
HAMLET	A quali vili usi possiamo tornare, Horatio! Perché l’immaginazione non potrebbe seguire la nobile polvere d’Alessandro fino a trovarla a turare il foro d’una botte?
HORATIO	Sarebbe considerare con troppa curiosità, considerare così.
HAMLET	No, in fede mia, non d’un briciolo; ma seguirlo fin là con sufficiente modestia, e con la verosimiglianza per guida, in questo modo: Alessandro morì, Alessandro fu sepolto, Alessandro ritorna in polvere, la polvere è terra, di terra facciamo argilla, e perché con quell’argilla in cui fu convertito non potrebbero turare una botte di birra? Cesare imperatore, morto e mutato in creta, potrebbe turare un buco per tener fuori il vento. Oh, che quella terra che teneva il mondo in soggezione debba rappezzare un muro per scacciare la raffica d’inverno! Ma piano, piano; in disparte. Hamlet e Horatio si tirano in disparte. Entra il re Claudius, la regina Gertrude, Laertes, e una bara, con un Prete e signori del seguito Ecco viene il re, la regina, i cortigiani—chi è colui che seguono, e con riti così mutilati? Questo indica che il cadavere che seguono con mano disperata distrusse la propria vita. Era di qualche rango. Nascondiamoci un poco, e osserviamo.
LAERTES	Quale altra cerimonia?
HAMLET	(a parte a Horatio) Quello è Laertes, un giovane assai nobile. Osserva.
LAERTES	Quale altra cerimonia?
PRETE	Le sue esequie sono state ampliate quanto ci è consentito. La sua morte fu dubbia, e se un comando supremo non prevalesse sull’ordine ella avrebbe dovuto giacere in terra sconsacrata fino all’ultima tromba. In luogo di preghiere pietose, cocci, selci e sassi le sarebbero stati gettati addosso; eppure qui le si concedono i riti verginali, i suoi fiori di fanciulla, e l’accompagnamento a casa di campana e sepoltura.
LAERTES	Non si deve fare altro?
PRETE	Altro non si deve fare. Profaneremmo il servizio dei morti cantando solenne requiem e tale riposo per lei come per le anime dipartite in pace.
LAERTES	Ponetela nella terra, e dalla sua carne bella e incontaminata possano sbocciare violette. Ti dico, prete villano, un angelo ministrante sarà mia sorella quando tu giacerai urlando.
HAMLET	(a parte) Che! La bella Ophelia!
REGINA GERTRUDE	(spargendo fiori) Dolcezze alla dolce. Addio. Speravo che saresti stata la sposa del mio Hamlet. Pensavo d’ornare il tuo letto nuziale, dolce fanciulla, e non di cospargere la tua fossa.
LAERTES	Oh, triplice sciagura cada dieci volte triplicata su quel capo maledetto la cui azione scellerata ti privò del tuo ingegnosissimo senno!—Trattenete la terra un poco, finché non l’abbia stretta ancora una volta fra le mie braccia. Salta nella fossa Ora ammucchiate la vostra polvere sul vivo e sulla morta finché di questa pianura non abbiate fatto un monte da sovrastare il vecchio Pelio, o la vetta celeste dell’azzurro Olimpo.
HAMLET	(facendosi avanti) Chi è colui il cui dolore porta tale enfasi, la cui frase di sofferenza incanta le stelle erranti e le fa sostare come ascoltatrici ferite di stupore? Questo sono io, Hamlet il Danese.
(didascalia)	Hamlet salta dentro dietro a Laertes
LAERTES	Il diavolo si prenda la tua anima.
HAMLET	Non preghi bene. Ti prego, togli le dita dalla mia gola, ché sebbene io non sia collerico e avventato, pure ho in me qualcosa di pericoloso che la tua saggezza faccia bene a temere. Via la mano.
RE CLAUDIUS	(ai Signori) Separateli.
REGINA GERTRUDE	Hamlet, Hamlet!
(didascalia)	TUTTI I SIGNORI
REGINA GERTRUDE	Signori!
HORATIO	(a Hamlet) Mio buon signore, state calmo.
HAMLET	Ebbene, mi batterò con lui su questo tema finché le mie palpebre non si muoveranno più.
REGINA GERTRUDE	O figlio mio, quale tema?
HAMLET	Io amavo Ophelia. Quarantamila fratelli non potrebbero, con tutta la quantità del loro amore, eguagliare la mia somma.—Che cosa vuoi fare per lei?
RE CLAUDIUS	Oh, è pazzo, Laertes.
REGINA GERTRUDE	(a Laertes) Per l’amore di Dio, abbiate pazienza con lui.
HAMLET	(a Laertes) Per le piaghe di Cristo, mostrami che cosa farai. Vuoi piangere, vuoi batterti, vuoi digiunare, vuoi lacerarti, vuoi bere aceto, mangiare un coccodrillo? Lo farò io. Vieni qui a piagnucolare, a sfidarmi saltando nella sua fossa? Fatti seppellire vivo con lei, e lo farò anch’io. E se tu ciarli di montagne, che ne gettino milioni d’acri su di noi, finché il nostro suolo, bruciandosi la cima contro la zona infuocata, faccia dell’Ossa una verruca. Anzi, se tu vuoi declamare, declamerò bene quanto te.
(didascalia)	RE CLAUDIUS a Laertes Questa è pura follia,
HAMLET	E così per un poco l’accesso lavorerà in lui. Fra poco, paziente come la colomba quando la sua coppia dorata è schiusa, il suo silenzio siederà abbattuto.
HAMLET	(a Laertes) Udite, signore, qual è la ragione per cui mi trattate così? Vi ho sempre amato. Ma non importa. Faccia pure Ercole quel che può, il gatto miagolerà, e il cane avrà il suo giorno. Esce
RE CLAUDIUS	Vi prego, buon Horatio, vegliate su di lui. Esce Horatio (A Laertes).Rafforzate la vostra pazienza col discorso della scorsa notte. Porteremo la cosa a immediata prova.— Buona Gertrude, mettete qualche guardia su vostro figlio.— Questa fossa avrà un monumento vivente. Un’ora di quiete presto vedremo; fino ad allora, in pazienza sia il nostro procedere.
(didascalia)	Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Prince Hamlet and Horatio
HAMLET	So much for this, sir. Now, let me see, the other. You do remember all the circumstance?
HORATIO	Remember it, my lord!
HAMLET	Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting That would not let me sleep. Methought I lay Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly— And praised be rashness for it: let us know Our indiscretion sometime serves us well When our dear plots do pall, and that should teach us There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will—
HORATIO	That is most certain.
HAMLET	Up from my cabin, My sea-gown scarfed about me in the dark, Groped I to find out them, had my desire, Fingered their packet, and in fine withdrew To mine own room again, making so bold, My fears forgetting manners, to unseal Their grand commission; where I found, Horatio— O royal knavery!—an exact command, Larded with many several sorts of reasons Importing Denmark’s health, and England’s, too, With ho! such bugs and goblins in my life, That on the supervise, no leisure bated, No, not to stay the grinding of the axe, My head should be struck off.
HORATIO	Is’t possible?
HAMLET	(giving it to him) Here’s the commission. Read it at more leisure. But wilt thou hear me how I did proceed?
HORATIO	I beseech you.
HAMLET	Being thus benetted round with villainies— Ere I could make a prologue to my brains, They had begun the play—sat me down, Devised a new commission, wrote it fair. I once did hold it, as our statists do, A baseness to write fair, and laboured much How to forget that learning; but, sir, now It did me yeoman’s service. Wilt thou know Th’effect of what I wrote?
HORATIO	Ay, good my lord.
HAMLET	An earnest conjuration from the King, As England was his faithful tributary, As love between them like the palm should flourish, As peace should still her wheaten garland wear And stand a comma ‘tween their amities, And many such like ‘as’es of great charge, That on the view and know of these contents, Without debatement further more or less, He should the bearers put to sudden death, Not shriving-time allowed.
HORATIO	How was this sealed?
HAMLET	Why, even in that was heaven ordinant. I had my father’s signet in my purse, Which was the model of that Danish seal; Folded the writ up in the form of th‘other, Subscribed it, gave’t th’impression, placed it safely, The changeling never known. Now the next day Was our sea-fight; and what to this was sequent Thou know’st already.
HORATIO	So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to’t.
HAMLET	Why, man, they did make love to this employment. They are not near my conscience. Their defeat Doth by their own insinuation grow. ’Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes Between the pass and fell incensed points Of mighty opposites.
HORATIO	Why, what a king is this!
HAMLET	Does it not, think‘st thee, stand me now upon— He that hath killed my king and whored my mother, Popped in between th’election and my hopes, Thrown out his angle for my proper life, And with such coz’nage—is’t not perfect conscience To quit him with this arm? And is’t not to be damned To let this canker of our nature come In further evil?
HORATIO	It must be shortly known to him from England What is the issue of the business there.
HAMLET	It will be short. The interim’s mine, And a man’s life’s no more than to say ‘one’. But I am very sorry, good Horatio, That to Laertes I forgot myself; For by the image of my cause I see The portraiture of his. I’ll court his favours. But sure, the bravery of his grief did put me Into a tow’ring passion.
HORATIO	Peace, who comes here?
(didascalia)	Enter young Osric, a courtier, taking off his hat
OSRIC	Your lordship is right welcome back to Denmark.
HAMLET	I humbly thank you, sir. (To Horatio) Dost know this water-fly?
HORATIO	No, my good lord.
HAMLET	Thy state is the more gracious, for ‘tis a vice to know him. He hath much land, and fertile. Let a beast be lord of beasts, and his crib shall stand at the king’s mess. ’Tis a chuff, but, as I say, spacious in the possession of dirt.
OSRIC	Sweet lord, if your friendship were at leisure I should impart a thing to you from his majesty.
HAMLET	I will receive it, sir, with all diligence of spirit. Put your bonnet to his right use; ’tis for the head.
OSRIC	I thank your lordship, ’tis very hot.
HAMLET	No, believe me, ’tis very cold. The wind is northerly.
OSRIC	It is indifferent cold, my lord, indeed.
HAMLET	Methinks it is very sultry and hot for my complexion.
OSRIC	Exceedingly, my lord. It is very sultry, as ’twere—I cannot tell how. But, my lord, his majesty bade me signify to you that a has laid a great wager on your head. Sir, this is the matter.
HAMLET	I beseech you, remember.
OSRIC	Nay, good my lord, for mine ease, in good faith. Sir, you are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is at his weapon.
HAMLET	What’s his weapon?
OSRIC	Rapier and dagger.
HAMLET	That’s two of his weapons. But well.
OSRIC	The King, sir, hath wagered with him six Barbary horses, against the which he imponed, as I take it, six French rapiers and poniards, with their assigns as girdle, hanger, or so. Three of the carriages, in faith, are very dear to fancy, very responsive to the hilts, most delicate carriages, and of very liberal conceit.
HAMLET	What call you the carriages?
OSRIC	The carriages, sir, are the hangers.
HAMLET	The phrase would be more germane to the matter if we could carry cannon by our sides. I would it might be hangers till then. But on: six Barbary horses against six French swords, their assigns, and three liberal-conceited carriages—that’s the French bet against the Danish. Why is this ‘imponed’, as you call it?
OSRIC	The King, sir, hath laid, sir, that in a dozen passes between you and him he shall not exceed you three hits. He hath on’t twelve for nine, and it would come to immediate trial if your lordship would vouchsafe the answer.
HAMLET	How if I answer no?
OSRIC	I mean, my lord, the opposition of your person in trial.
HAMLET	Sir, I will walk here in the hall. If it please his majesty, ‘tis the breathing time of day with me. Let the foils be brought; the gentleman willing, an the King hold his purpose, I will win for him an I can. If not, I’ll gain nothing but my shame and the odd hits. OSRIC Shall I re-deliver you e’en so?
HAMLET	To this effect, sir; after what flourish your nature will.
OSRIC	I commend my duty to your lordship.
HAMLET	Yours, yours.
(didascalia)	Exit Osric
HAMLET	He does well to commend it himself; there are no tongues else for ’s turn.
HORATIO	This lapwing runs away with the shell on his head.
HAMLET	A did comply with his dug before a sucked it. Thus has he—and many more of the same bevy that I know the drossy age dotes on—only got the tune of the time and outward habit of encounter, a kind of yeasty collection which carries them through and through the most fanned and winnowed opinions; and do but blow them to their trial, the bubbles are out.
HORATIO	You will lose this wager, my lord.
HAMLET	I do not think so. Since he went into France, I have been in continual practice. I shall win at the odds. But thou wouldst not think how all here about my heart—but it is no matter.
HORATIO	Nay, good my lord—
HAMLET	It is but foolery, but it is such a kind of gain-giving as would perhaps trouble a woman.
HORATIO	If your mind dislike anything, obey it. I will forestall their repair hither, and say you are not fit.
HAMLET	Not a whit. We defy augury. There’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ’tis not to come. If it be not to come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all. Since no man has aught of what he leaves, what is’t to leave betimes?
(didascalia)	Enter King Claudius, Queen Gertrude, Laertes, and
HAMLET	lords, with Osric and other attendants with
(didascalia)	trumpets, drums, cushions, foils, and gauntlets; a
HAMLET	table, and flagons of wine on it
KING CLAUDIUS	Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me.
HAMLET	(to Laertes) Give me your pardon, sir. I’ve done you wrong; But pardon’t as you are a gentleman. This presence knows, And you must needs have heard, how I am punished With sore distraction. What I have done That might your nature, honour, and exception Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness. Was’t Hamlet wronged Laertes? Never Hamlet. If Hamlet from himself be ta‘en away, And when he’s not himself does wrong Laertes, Then Hamlet does it not, Hamlet denies it. Who does it then? His madness. If’t be so, Hamlet is of the faction that is wronged. His madness is poor Hamlet’s enemy. Sir, in this audience Let my disclaiming from a purposed evil Free me so far in your most generous thoughts That I have shot mine arrow o’er the house And hurt my brother.
LAERTES	I am satisfied in nature, Whose motive in this case should stir me most To my revenge. But in my terms of honour I stand aloof, and will no reconcilement Till by some elder masters of known honour I have a voice and precedent of peace To keep my name ungored; but till that time I do receive your offered love like love, And will not wrong it.
HAMLET	I do embrace it freely, And will this brothers’ wager frankly play.— (To attendants) Give us the foils. Come on.
LAERTES	(to attendants) Come, one for me.
HAMLET	I’ll be your foil, Laertes. In mine ignorance Your skill shall, like a star i’th’ darkest night, Stick fiery off indeed.
LAERTES	You mock me, sir.
HAMLET	No, by this hand.
KING CLAUDIUS	Give them the foils, young Osric. Cousin Hamlet, You know the wager?
HAMLET	Very well, my lord. Your grace hath laid the odds o’th’ weaker side.
KING CLAUDIUS	I do not fear it; I have seen you both. But since he is bettered, we have therefore odds.
LAERTES	(taking a foil) This is too heavy; let me see another.
HAMLET	(taking a foil) This likes me well. These foils have all a length?
OSRIC	Ay, my good lord. Hamlet and Laertes prepare to play
KING CLAUDIUS	(to attendants) Set me the stoups of wine upon that table. If Hamlet give the first or second hit, Or quit in answer of the third exchange, Let all the battlements their ordnance fire. The King shall drink to Hamlet’s better breath, And in the cup an union shall he throw Richer than that which four successive kings In Denmark’s crown have worn. Give me the cups, And let the kettle to the trumpet speak, The trumpet to the cannoneer without, The cannons to the heavens, the heaven to earth, ‘Now the King drinks to Hamlet’.
(didascalia)	Trumpets the while he drinks
KING CLAUDIUS	Come, begin. And you, the judges, bear a wary eye.
HAMLET	(to Laertes) Come on, sir.
LAERTES	Come, my lord. They play
HAMLET	One.
LAERTES	No.
HAMLET	(to Osric) Judgement.
OSRIC	A hit, a very palpable hit.
LAERTES	Well, again.
KING CLAUDIUS	Stay. Give me drink. Hamlet, this pearl is thine. Here’s to thy health.—
(didascalia)	Drum and trumpets sound, and shot goes off Give him the cup.
HAMLET	I’ll play this bout first. Set it by a while.— Come. They play again Another hit. What say you?
LAERTES	A touch, a touch, I do confess.
KING CLAUDIUS	Our son shall win.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	He’s fat and scant of breath.— Here, Hamlet, take my napkin. Rub thy brows. The Queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet.
HAMLET	Good madam.
KING CLAUDIUS	Gertrude, do not drink.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	I will, my lord, I pray you pardon me. She drinks, then offers the cup to Hamlet
KING CLAUDIUS	(aside) It is the poisoned cup; it is too late.
HAMLET	I dare not drink yet, madam; by and by.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	(to Hamlet) Come, let me wipe thy face.
LAERTES	(aside to Claudius) My lord, I’ll hit him now.
KING CLAUDIUS	(aside to Laertes) I do not think’t.
LAERTES	(aside) And yet ‘tis almost ’gainst my conscience.
HAMLET	Come for the third, Laertes, you but dally. I pray you pass with your best violence. I am afeard you make a wanton of me.
LAERTES	Say you so? Come on. They play
OSRIC	Nothing neither way.
LAERTES	(to Hamlet) Have at you now!
(didascalia)	Laertes wounds Hamlet. In scuffling, they change
(didascalia)	rapiers, and Hamlet wounds Laertes
KING CLAUDIUS	(to attendants) Part them, they are incensed.
HAMLET	(to Laertes) Nay, come again.
(didascalia)	The Queen falls down
OSRIC	Look to the Queen there, ho!
HORATIO	They bleed on both sides. (To Hamlet) How is’t, my lord?
OSRIC	How is’t, Laertes?
LAERTES	Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, Osric. I am justly killed with mine own treachery.
HAMLET	How does the Queen?
KING CLAUDIUS	She swoons to see them bleed.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	No, no, the drink, the drink! O my dear Hamlet,
(didascalia)	The drink, the drink—I am poisoned. She dies
(didascalia)	O villainy! Ho! Let the door be locked! Exit Osric
HAMLET	Treachery, seek it out.
LAERTES	It is here, Hamlet. Hamlet, thou art slain. No med’cine in the world can do thee good. In thee there is not half an hour of life. The treacherous instrument is in thy hand, Unbated and envenomed. The foul practice Hath turned itself on me. Lo, here I lie, Never to rise again. Thy mother’s poisoned. I can no more. The King, the King’s to blame.
HAMLET	The point envenomed too? Then, venom, to thy work. He hurts King Claudius
ALL THE COURTIERS	Treason, treason!
KING CLAUDIUS	O yet defend me, friends! I am but hurt.
HAMLET	Here, thou incestuous, murd’rous, damned Dane, Drink off this potion. Is thy union here? Follow my mother. King Claudius dies
LAERTES	He is justly served. It is a poison tempered by himself. Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet. Mine and my father’s death come not upon thee, Nor thine on me. He dies
HAMLET	Heaven make thee free of it! I follow thee. I am dead, Horatio. Wretched Queen, adieu! You that look pale and tremble at this chance, That are but mutes or audience to this act, Had I but time—as this fell sergeant Death Is strict in his arrest—O, I could tell you— But let it be. Horatio, I am dead, Thou liv’st. Report me and my cause aright To the unsatisfied.
HORATIO	Never believe it. I am more an antique Roman than a Dane. Here’s yet some liquor left.
HAMLET	As thou’rt a man, Give me the cup. Let go. By heaven, I’ll ha’t. O God, Horatio, what a wounded name, Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me! If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart, Absent thee from felicity a while, And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain To tell my story. March afar off, and shout within What warlike noise is this?
(didascalia)	Enter Osric
OSRIC	Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland, To th’ambassadors of England gives This warlike volley.
HAMLET	O, I die, Horatio! The potent poison quite o‘ercrows my spirit. I cannot live to hear the news from England, But I do prophesy th’election lights On Fortinbras. He has my dying voice. So tell him, with th’occurrents, more and less, Which have solicited. The rest is silence. O, O, O, O! He dies
HORATIO	Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince, And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.— Why does the drum come hither?
(didascalia)	Enter Fortinbras with the English Ambassadors, with a drummer, colours, and attendants
FORTINBRAS	Where is this sight?
HORATIO	What is it ye would see? If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search.
FORTINBRAS	This quarry cries on havoc. O proud death, What feast is toward in thine eternal cell That thou so many princes at a shot So bloodily hast struck!
AMBASSADOR	The sight is dismal, And our affairs from England come too late. The ears are senseless that should give us hearing To tell him his commandment is fulfilled, That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. Where should we have our thanks?
HORATIO	Not from his mouth, Had it th‘ability of life to thank you. He never gave commandment for their death. But since so jump upon this bloody question You from the Polack wars, and you from England, Are here arrived, give order that these bodies High on a stage be placed to the view; And let me speak to th’ yet unknowing world How these things came about. So shall you hear Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts, Of accidental judgements, casual slaughters, Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause; And, in this upshot, purposes mistook Fall’n on th’inventors’ heads. All this can I Truly deliver.
FORTINBRAS	Let us haste to hear it, And call the noblest to the audience. For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune. I have some rights of memory in this kingdom, Which now to claim my vantage doth invite me.
HORATIO	Of that I shall have also cause to speak, And from his mouth whose voice will draw on more. But let this same be presently performed, Even whiles men’s minds are wild, lest more mischance On plots and errors happen.
FORTINBRAS	Let four captains Bear Hamlet like a soldier to the stage, For he was likely, had he been put on, To have proved most royally; and for his passage, The soldiers’ music and the rites of war Speak loudly for him. Take up the body. Such a sight as this Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss. Go, bid the soldiers shoot.
(didascalia)	Exeunt, marching, with the bodies; after the which, a peal of ordnance are shot off
ADDITIONAL PASSAGES	A. Just before the second entrance of the Ghost in 1.1 (l. 106.1), Q2 has these additional lines:
BARNARDO	I think it be no other but e’en so. Well may it sort that this portentous figure Comes armed through our watch so like the king That was and is the question of these wars.
HORATIO	A mote it is to trouble the mind’s eye. In the most high and palmy state of Rome, A little ere the mightiest Julius fell, The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets At stars with trains of fire, and dews of blood, Disasters in the sun; and the moist star, Upon whose influence Neptune’s empire stands, Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse. And even the like precurse of feared events, As harbingers preceding still the fates, And prologue to the omen coming on, Have heaven and earth together demonstrated Unto our climature and countrymen. B. Just before the entrance of the Ghost in 1.4 (l. 18.1), Q2 has these additional lines continuing Hamlet’s speech: This heavy-headed revel east and west Makes us traduced and taxed of other nations. They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase Soil our addition; and indeed it takes From our achievements, though performed at height, So, oft it chances in particular men That, for some vicious mole of nature in them— As in their birth, wherein they are not guilty, Since nature cannot choose his origin, By the o‘ergrowth of some complexion, Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason, Or by some habit that too much o’erleavens The form of plausive manners—that these men, Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect, Being nature’s livery or fortune’s star, His virtues else be they as pure as grace, As infinite as man may undergo, Shall in the general censure take corruption From that particular fault. The dram of evil Doth all the noble substance over-daub To his own scandal. C. After 1.4.55, Q2 has these additional lines continuing Horatio’s speech: The very place puts toys of desperation, Without more motive, into every brain That looks so many fathoms to the sea And hears it roar beneath. D. After 3.2.163, Q2 has this additional couplet concluding the Player Queen’s speech: Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear; Where little fears grow great, great love grows there. E. After 3.2.208, Q2 has this additional couplet in the middle of the Player Queen’s speech: To desperation turn my trust and hope; An anchor’s cheer in prison be my scope. F. After ‘this?’ in 3.4.70, Q2 has this more expansive version of Hamlet’s lines of which F retains only ‘what devil … blind’: Sense sure you have, Else could you not have motion; but sure that sense Is apoplexed, for madness would not err, Nor sense to ecstasy was ne’er so thralled But it reserved some quantity of choice To serve in such a difference. What devil was’t That thus hath cozened you at hoodman-blind? Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight, Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all, Or but a sickly part of one true sense Could not so mope. G. After 3.4.151, Q2 has this more expansive version of Hamlet’s lines of which F retains only ‘refrain … abstinence’: That monster custom, who all sense doth eat, Of habits devilish, is angel yet in this: That to the use of actions fair and good He likewise gives a frock or livery That aptly is put on. 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 in the devil, or throw him out With wondrous potency. H. At 3.4.185, Q2 has these additional lines before ‘This man …’:
HAMLET	There’s letters sealed, and my two schoolfellows— Whom I will trust as I will adders fanged— They bear the mandate, they must sweep my way And marshal me to knavery. Let it work, For ‘tis the sport to have the engineer Hoised 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. 1. After ‘done’ in 4.1.39, Q2 has these additional lines continuing the King’s speech (the first three words are an editorial conjecture): So envious slander, 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. J. Q2 has this more expansive version of the ending of 4.4:
CAPTAIN	I will do’t, my lord.
FORTINBRAS	Go softly on.
(didascalia)	Exit with his army
(didascalia)	Enter Prince Hamlet, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, etc.
HAMLET	(to the Captain) Good sir, whose powers are these?
CAPTAIN	They are of Norway, sir.
HAMLET	How purposed, sir, I pray you?
CAPTAIN	Against some part of Poland.
HAMLET	Who commands them, sir?
CAPTAIN	The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras.
HAMLET	Goes it against the main of Poland, sir, Or for some frontier?
CAPTAIN	Truly to speak, and with no addition, We go to gain a little patch of ground That hath in it no profit but the name. To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it, Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee.
HAMLET	Why then, the Polack never will defend it.
CAPTAIN	Yes, it is already garrisoned.
HAMLET	Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats Will now debate the question of this straw. This is th’imposthume of much wealth and peace, That inward breaks and shows no cause without Why the man dies. I humbly thank you, sir.
CAPTAIN	God buy you, sir. Exit
ROSENCRANTZ	Will’t please you go, my lord?
HAMLET	I’ll be with you straight. Go a little before.
(didascalia)	Exeunt all but Hamlet
HAMLET	How all occasions do inform against me And spur my dull revenge! What is a man If his chief good and market of his time Be but to sleep and feed?—a beast, no more. Sure, he that made us with such large discourse, Looking before and after, gave us not That capability and god-like reason To fust in us unused. Now whether it be Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple Of thinking too precisely on th‘event— A thought which, quartered, hath but one part wisdom And ever three parts coward—I do not know Why yet I live to say ‘This thing’s to do’, Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means, To do’t. Examples gross as earth exhort me, Witness this army of such mass and charge, Led by a delicate and tender prince, Whose spirit with divine ambition puffed Makes mouths at the invisible event, Exposing what is mortal and unsure To all that fortune, death, and danger dare, Even for an eggshell. Rightly to be great Is not to stir without great argument, But greatly to find quarrel in a straw When honour’s at the stake. How stand I, then, That have a father killed, a mother stained, Excitements of my reason and my blood, And let all sleep while, to my shame, I see The imminent death of twenty thousand men That, for a fantasy and trick of fame, Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause, Which is not tomb enough and continent To hide the slain. O, from this time forth My thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth!
(didascalia)	Exit
HAMLET	K. After ‘accident’ at 4.7.67, Q2 has these additional lines:
LAERTES	My lord, I will be ruled, The rather if you could devise it so That I might be the organ.
KING CLAUDIUS	It falls right. You have been talked of, since your travel, much, And that in Hamlet’s hearing, for a quality Wherein they say you shine. Your sum of parts Did not together pluck such envy from him As did that one, and that, in my regard, Of the unworthiest siege.
LAERTES	What part is that, my lord?
KING CLAUDIUS	A very ribbon in the cap of youth, Yet needful too, for youth no less becomes The light and careless livery that it wears Than settled age his sables and his weeds Importing health and graveness. L. After ‘match you’ at 4.7.85, Q2 has these additional lines continuing the King’s speech: Th’escrimers of their nation He swore had neither motion, guard, nor eye If you opposed them. M. After 4.7.96, Q2 has these additional lines continuing the King’s speech: There lives within the very flame of love A kind of wick or snuff that will abate it, And nothing is at a like goodness still, For goodness, growing to a plurisy,
(didascalia)	Dies in his own too much. That we would do
KING CLAUDIUS	We should do when we would, for this ‘would’ changes, And hath abatements and delays as many As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents; And then this ‘should’ is like a spendthrift’s sigh, That hurts by easing. But to the quick of th’ulcer— N. After ‘Sir’ at 5.2.107, Q2 has these lines (in place of F’s ‘you are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is at his weapon’): here is newly come to court Laertes, believe me, an absolute gentleman, full of most excellent differences, of very soft society and great showing. Indeed, to speak feelingly of him, he is the card or calendar of gentry, for you shall find in him the continent of what part a gentleman would see.
HAMLET	Sir, his definement suffers no perdition in you, though I know to divide him inventorially would dizzy th’arithmetic of memory, and yet but yaw neither in respect of his quick sail. But in the verity of extolment, I take him to be a soul of great article, and his infusion of such dearth and rareness as, to make true diction of him, his semblable is his mirror, and who else would trace him his umbrage, nothing more.
OSRIC	Your lordship speaks most infallibly of him.
HAMLET	The concernancy, sir? Why do we wrap the gentleman in our more rawer breath?
OSRIC	Sir?
HORATIO	Is’t not possible to understand in another tongue? You will to’t, sir, rarely.
HAMLET	What imports the nomination of this gentleman? OSRIC Of Laertes?
HORATIO	(aside to Hamlet) His purse is empty already; all ’s golden words are spent.
HAMLET	(to Osric) Of him, sir.
OSRIC	I know you are not ignorant—
HAMLET	I would you did, sir; yet, in faith, if you did it would not much approve me. Well, sir?
OSRIC	You are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is.
HAMLET	I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with him in excellence. But to know a man well were to know himself.
OSRIC	I mean, sir, for his weapon. But in the imputation laid on him by them, in his meed he’s unfellowed. O. After 5.2.118, Q2 has the following additional speech:
HORATIO	(aside to Hamlet) I knew you must be edified by the margin ere you had done. P. After 5.2.154, Q2 has the following (in place of F’s ‘HORATIO You will lose this wager, my lord’):
(didascalia)	Enter a Lord
LORD	(to Hamlet) My lord, his majesty commended him to you by young Osric, who brings back to him that you attend him in the hall. He sends to know if your pleasure hold to play with Laertes, or that you will take longer time.
HAMLET	I am constant to my purposes; they follow the King’s pleasure. If his fitness speaks, mine is ready, now or whensoever, provided I be so able as now.
LORD	The King and Queen and all are coming down.
HAMLET	In happy time.
LORD	The Queen desires you to use some gentle entertainment to Laertes before you fall to play.
HAMLET	She well instructs me. Exit Lord
HORATIO	You will lose, my lord.
TWELFTH	NIGHT, the end of the Christmas season, was traditionally a time of revelry and topsy-turvydom; Shakespeare’s title for a play in which a servant aspires to his mistress’s hand has no more specific reference. It was thought appropriate to the festive occasion of Candlemas (2 February) 1602 when, in the first known allusion to it, John Manningham, a law student of the Middle Temple in London, noted ‘at our feast we had a play called Twelfth Night, or What You Will’. References to ‘the Sophy’—the Shah of Persia (2.5.174; 3.4.271)—probably post-date Sir Robert Shirley’s return from Persia, in a ship named The Sophy, in 1599; and ‘the new map with the augmentation of the Indies’ (3.2.75) appears to be one published in 1599 and reissued in 1600. Shakespeare may have picked up the name Orsino for his young duke from a Tuscan nobleman whom Queen Elizabeth entertained at Whitehall with a play performed by Shakespeare’s company on Twelfth Night 1601. Probably he wrote Twelfth Night during that year. Twelfth Night’s romantic setting is Illyria, the Greek and Roman name for Adriatic territory roughly corresponding to the former Yugoslavia. Manningham had noted that the play was ‘much like The Comedy of Errors or Menaechmi in Plautus’, thinking no doubt of the confusions created by identical twins. Shakespeare may also have known an anonymous Italian comedy, GI’Ingannati (The Deceived Ones), acted in 1531 and first printed in 1537, which influenced a number of other plays and prose tales including Barnaby Riche’s story of Apolonius and Silla printed as part of Riche’s Farewell to Military Profession (1581). Riche gave Shakespeare his main plot of a shipwrecked girl (Viola) who, disguised as a boy (Cesario), serves a young Duke (Orsino) and undertakes love-errands on his behalf to a noble lady (Olivia) who falls in love with her but mistakenly marries her twin brother (Sebastian). Shakespeare idealizes Riche’s characters and purges the story of some of its explicit sexuality: Riche’s Olivia, for example, is pregnant before marriage, and his Viola reveals her identity, in a manner impractical for a boy actor, by stripping to the waist. Shakespeare complicates the plot by giving Olivia a reprobate uncle, Sir Toby Belch, and two additional suitors, the asinine Sir Andrew Aguecheek and her steward, Malvolio, tricked by members of her household into believing that she loves him. More important to the play than to the plot is the entirely Shakespearian clown, Feste, a wry and oblique commentator whose wit in folly is opposed to Malvolio’s folly in wit. Twelfth Night is the consummation of Shakespeare’s romantic comedy, a play of wide emotional range, extending from the robust, brilliantly orchestrated humour of the scene of midnight revelry (2.2) to the rapt wonder of the antiphon of recognition (5.1.224-56) between the reunited twins. In performance the balance shifts, favouring sometimes the exposure and celebration of folly, at other times the poignancy of unattained love and of unheeded wisdom; but few other plays have so consistently provided theatrical pleasure of so high an order.
THE PERSONS OF THE	PLAY ORSINO, Duke of Illyria
SECOND OFFICER	VIOLA, a lady, later disguised as Cesario A CAPTAIN SEBASTIAN, her twin brother ANTONIO, another sea-captain OLIVIA, a Countess MARIA, her waiting-gentlewoman
SIR TOBY	Belch, Olivia’s kinsman
SIR ANDREW	Aguecheek, companion of Sir Toby MALVOLIO, Olivia’s steward FABIAN, a member of Olivia’s household
FESTE	the Clown, her jester A PRIEST A SERVANT of Olivia Musicians, sailors, lords, attendants

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano il principe Hamlet e Horatio
HAMLET	Tanto basti per questo, signore. Ora, vediamo, l’altro. Ricordi tutta la circostanza?
HORATIO	Se la ricordo, mio signore!
HAMLET	Signore, nel mio cuore c’era una sorta di battaglia che non mi lasciava dormire. Mi pareva di giacere peggio degli ammutinati nei ceppi. D’impeto— e sia lodata l’avventatezza per questo: sappiamo che la nostra sconsideratezza talvolta ci serve bene quando i disegni più cari falliscono, e ciò deve insegnarci che c’è una divinità che dà forma ai nostri fini, per quanto rozzamente noi li sgrossiamo—
HORATIO	Questo è certissimo.
HAMLET	Su dalla mia cabina, la casacca da mare gettata addosso nel buio, a tentoni li cercai, ebbi il mio desiderio, ghermii il loro plico, e infine mi ritrassi di nuovo nella mia stanza, osando tanto, le mie paure dimentiche del garbo, da dissigillare la loro grande commissione; dove trovai, Horatio— oh, regia furfanteria!—un ordine preciso, infarcito di ragioni d’ogni sorta che toccavano la salute di Danimarca, e d’Inghilterra anche, con—oh!—tali spauracchi e demoni nella mia vita, che alla sola lettura, senza indugio concesso, no, neppure il tempo d’affilare la scure, mi fosse mozzata la testa.
HORATIO	È possibile?
HAMLET	(dandogliela) Ecco la commissione. Leggila con più comodo. Ma vuoi udire come io procedetti?
HORATIO	Ve ne supplico.
HAMLET	Così irretito tutt’intorno da scelleratezze— prima ch’io potessi fare un prologo al mio cervello, esso aveva già cominciato il dramma—mi sedetti, ideai una nuova commissione, la scrissi in bella grafia. Un tempo ritenevo, come fanno i nostri uomini di stato, bassezza lo scrivere in bella grafia, e molto m’affaticai per dimenticare quell’arte; ma, signore, ora mi rese un servigio da fidato scudiero. Vuoi conoscere la sostanza di ciò che scrissi?
HORATIO	Sì, mio buon signore.
HAMLET	Una fervida scongiura da parte del Re, che, essendo l’Inghilterra suo fedele tributaria, che, dovendo l’amore fra loro fiorire come la palma, che, dovendo la pace portare ancora la sua ghirlanda di spighe e stare come virgola fra le loro amicizie, e molti altri simili «che» di gran peso, appena visto e conosciuto tale contenuto, senza ulteriore dibattito, né più né meno, egli mettesse i latori a subitanea morte, senza concedere il tempo della confessione.
HORATIO	Come fu sigillata?
HAMLET	Ebbene, anche in questo il cielo dispose. Avevo nella borsa il sigillo di mio padre, che era il modello di quel sigillo danese; piegai lo scritto nella forma dell’altro, lo sottoscrissi, v’impressi il suggello, lo riposi al sicuro, e il baratto non fu mai scoperto. Il giorno seguente fu quello della battaglia navale; e ciò che ne seguì tu già lo sai.
HORATIO	Così Guildenstern e Rosencrantz vanno incontro alla loro fine.
HAMLET	Ma via, uomo, essi fecero l’amore a quest’incarico. Non toccano la mia coscienza. La loro rovina nasce dal loro stesso insinuarsi. È pericoloso quando una natura più bassa si caccia fra l’affondo e le punte crudeli e infuocate di potenti avversari.
HORATIO	Ma che re è mai questo!
HAMLET	Non è forse, non credi, mio stretto dovere ormai— lui che ha ucciso il mio re e prostituito mia madre, si è intruso fra l’elezione e le mie speranze, ha gettato l’amo per la mia stessa vita, e con simile inganno—non è perfetta coscienza ripagarlo con questo braccio? E non è dannazione lasciare che questo cancro della nostra natura avanzi in ulteriore male?
HORATIO	Presto gli si dovrà sapere dall’Inghilterra quale sia l’esito di quell’affare.
HAMLET	Sarà breve. L’intervallo è mio, e la vita d’un uomo non è più che dire «uno». Ma molto mi duole, buon Horatio, d’aver perduto me stesso con Laertes; ché nell’immagine della mia causa vedo il ritratto della sua. Ne corteggerò il favore. Ma certo, l’ostentazione del suo dolore mi gettò in una collera altissima.
HORATIO	Silenzio, chi viene qui?
(didascalia)	Entra il giovane Osric, un cortigiano, togliendosi il cappello
OSRIC	Vostra signoria è davvero il benvenuto di ritorno in Danimarca.
HAMLET	Vi ringrazio umilmente, signore. (A Horatio) Conosci questo moscerino d’acqua?
HORATIO	No, mio buon signore.
HAMLET	La tua condizione è tanto più felice, ché conoscerlo è un vizio. Possiede molte terre, e fertili. Sia pure una bestia signore di bestie, e la sua greppia starà alla mensa del re. È un villano rifatto, ma, come dico, ampio nel possesso di terra.
OSRIC	Dolce signore, se la vostra amicizia avesse agio, dovrei comunicarvi qualcosa da parte di sua maestà.
HAMLET	Lo riceverò, signore, con ogni diligenza di spirito. Mettete il vostro berretto al suo giusto uso; è per la testa.
OSRIC	Ringrazio vostra signoria, fa molto caldo.
HAMLET	No, credetemi, fa molto freddo. Il vento è di tramontana.
OSRIC	Fa mediocremente freddo, mio signore, in verità.
HAMLET	A me pare molto afoso e caldo per la mia complessione.
OSRIC	Estremamente, mio signore. È molto afoso, come se—non saprei dire. Ma, mio signore, sua maestà mi ha ordinato di significarvi che ha posto una grande scommessa sul vostro capo. Signore, la faccenda è questa.
HAMLET	Vi supplico, ricordatevi.
OSRIC	No, mio buon signore, per mio agio, in buona fede. Signore, non vi è ignoto in quale eccellenza sia Laertes con la sua arma.
HAMLET	Qual è la sua arma?
OSRIC	Spada e pugnale.
HAMLET	Sono due sue armi. Ma sta bene.
OSRIC	Il Re, signore, ha scommesso con lui sei cavalli di Barberia, contro i quali egli ha impegnato, a quanto intendo, sei spade francesi e pugnali, con le loro guarnizioni, come cinture, pendagli e simili. Tre degli affusti, in fede mia, sono assai cari alla fantasia, molto rispondenti alle else, affusti delicatissimi, e di concezione assai liberale.
HAMLET	Che cosa chiamate gli affusti?
OSRIC	Gli affusti, signore, sono i pendagli.
HAMLET	L’espressione sarebbe più pertinente alla materia se potessimo portare cannoni al fianco. Fino allora vorrei che fossero pendagli. Ma andiamo: sei cavalli di Barberia contro sei spade francesi, le loro guarnizioni e tre affusti di liberale concezione—ecco la puntata francese contro la danese. Perché è stato «impegnato», come voi dite?
OSRIC	Il Re, signore, ha puntato, signore, che in una dozzina d’assalti fra voi e lui egli non vi supererà di tre colpi. Egli ha puntato dodici contro nove, e si verrebbe a immediata prova se vostra signoria si degnasse di rispondere.
HAMLET	E se rispondessi di no?
OSRIC	Intendo, mio signore, l’opposizione della vostra persona alla prova.
HAMLET	Signore, passeggerò qui nella sala. Se piace a sua maestà, è per me il momento del giorno in cui prendo aria. Si portino i fioretti; se il gentiluomo è disposto, e il Re mantiene il suo proposito, vincerò per lui se potrò. Se no, non guadagnerò altro che la mia vergogna e i colpi di troppo. OSRIC Devo riferire proprio così?
HAMLET	In questo senso, signore; con quali fioriture vorrà la vostra natura.
OSRIC	Raccomando il mio dovere a vostra signoria.
HAMLET	Vostro, vostro.
(didascalia)	Esce Osric
HAMLET	Fa bene a raccomandarlo da sé; non ci sono altre lingue disposte a farlo.
HORATIO	Questa pavoncella corre via col guscio in testa.
HAMLET	Faceva complimenti alla poppa prima di succhiarla. Così costui—e molti altri della stessa nidiata che io so essere gli idoli di quest’età scoriosa—hanno colto soltanto l’aria del tempo e l’abito esteriore del conversare, una sorta di schiuma lievitata che li porta attraverso e attraverso le opinioni più vagliate e ventilate; ma soffiate soltanto su di loro per metterli alla prova, e le bolle scoppiano.
HORATIO	Perderete questa scommessa, mio signore.
HAMLET	Non credo. Da quando egli è andato in Francia, io mi sono esercitato di continuo. Vincerò col vantaggio. Ma tu non immagineresti quanto mi si addensa qui intorno al cuore—ma non importa.
HORATIO	No, mio buon signore—
HAMLET	È solo una sciocchezza, ma è una specie di presentimento che turberebbe forse una donna.
HORATIO	Se il vostro animo aborre qualcosa, obbeditegli. Preverrò il loro venire qui, e dirò che non siete disposto.
HAMLET	Neppure un briciolo. Sfidiamo gli auguri. C’è una speciale provvidenza nella caduta d’un passero. Se è ora, non è a venire. Se non è a venire, sarà ora. Se non è ora, verrà comunque. Essere pronti è tutto. Poiché nessuno possiede nulla di ciò che lascia, che importa lasciare per tempo?
(didascalia)	Entrano Re Claudius, la Regina Gertrude, Laertes, e
HAMLET	signori, con Osric e altri servitori con
(didascalia)	trombe, tamburi, cuscini, fioretti e guanti; una
HAMLET	tavola, e boccali di vino sopra
RE CLAUDIUS	Vieni, Hamlet, vieni, e prendi da me questa mano.
HAMLET	(a Laertes) Datemi il vostro perdono, signore. Vi ho fatto torto; ma perdonatelo, da gentiluomo qual siete. Questa assemblea sa, e voi certo avrete udito, come io sia punito da grave alienazione. Ciò che ho fatto e che possa la vostra natura, il vostro onore e il vostro risentimento rudemente destare, qui proclamo che fu follia. Fu Hamlet a far torto a Laertes? Mai Hamlet. Se Hamlet è tolto via da se stesso, e, non essendo se stesso, fa torto a Laertes, allora non è Hamlet a farlo, Hamlet lo nega. Chi lo fa allora? La sua follia. Se è così, Hamlet è dalla parte di chi ha ricevuto il torto. La sua follia è nemica del povero Hamlet. Signore, dinanzi a questa udienza il mio ripudio d’ogni male premeditato mi assolva tanto nei vostri generosissimi pensieri ch’io sia come chi ha scagliato la freccia oltre la casa e ferito il proprio fratello.
LAERTES	Sono soddisfatto quanto alla natura, il cui movente in questo caso più d’ogni altro dovrebbe spingermi alla vendetta. Ma nelle ragioni del mio onore resto in disparte, e non voglio riconciliazione finché da anziani maestri di riconosciuto onore non abbia un parere e un precedente di pace che tenga illeso il mio nome; ma fino a quel tempo ricevo l’amore che m’offrite come amore, e non gli farò torto.
HAMLET	Lo abbraccio liberamente, e giocherò lealmente questa scommessa fra fratelli.— (Ai servitori) Dateci i fioretti. Avanti.
LAERTES	(ai servitori) Venite, uno per me.
HAMLET	Sarò io il vostro fioretto, Laertes. Nella mia ignoranza la vostra maestria, come astro nella notte più oscura, risalterà davvero fiammeggiante.
LAERTES	Mi schernite, signore.
HAMLET	No, per questa mano.
RE CLAUDIUS	Dà loro i fioretti, giovane Osric. Cugino Hamlet, conosci la scommessa?
HAMLET	Molto bene, mio signore. Vostra grazia ha dato il vantaggio alla parte più debole.
RE CLAUDIUS	Non lo temo; vi ho visti entrambi. Ma poiché egli è migliorato, abbiamo perciò il vantaggio.
LAERTES	(prendendo un fioretto) Questo è troppo pesante; fatemene vedere un altro.
HAMLET	(prendendo un fioretto) Questo mi piace bene. Hanno tutti la stessa lunghezza questi fioretti?
OSRIC	Sì, mio buon signore. Hamlet e Laertes si preparano a battersi
RE CLAUDIUS	(ai servitori) Ponetemi i boccali di vino su quella tavola. Se Hamlet mette a segno il primo o il secondo colpo, o pareggia in risposta al terzo scambio, tutti i bastioni facciano fuoco con le artiglierie. Il Re berrà al miglior fiato di Hamlet, e nella coppa getterà una perla più ricca di quella che quattro re successivi portarono nella corona di Danimarca. Datemi le coppe, e il timpano parli alla tromba, la tromba al cannoniere là fuori, i cannoni ai cieli, il cielo alla terra, «Ora il Re beve ad Hamlet».
(didascalia)	Trombe mentre egli beve
RE CLAUDIUS	Su, cominciate. E voi, giudici, tenete l’occhio attento.
HAMLET	(a Laertes) Avanti, signore.
LAERTES	Venite, mio signore. Si battono
HAMLET	Uno.
LAERTES	No.
HAMLET	(a Osric) Giudizio.
OSRIC	Un colpo, un colpo palpabilissimo.
LAERTES	Bene, ancora.
RE CLAUDIUS	Fermi. Datemi da bere. Hamlet, questa perla è tua. Alla tua salute.—
(didascalia)	Tamburo e trombe suonano, e parte una salva Dategli la coppa.
HAMLET	Prima giocherò questo assalto. Mettetela da parte un poco.— Avanti. Si battono di nuovo Un altro colpo. Che dite?
LAERTES	Un tocco, un tocco, lo confesso.
RE CLAUDIUS	Nostro figlio vincerà.
REGINA GERTRUDE	È grasso e corto di fiato.— Qua, Hamlet, prendi il mio fazzoletto. Asciugati la fronte. La Regina brinda alla tua fortuna, Hamlet.
HAMLET	Buona signora.
RE CLAUDIUS	Gertrude, non bere.
REGINA GERTRUDE	Berrò, mio signore, vi prego di perdonarmi. Beve, poi offre la coppa ad Hamlet
RE CLAUDIUS	(a parte) È la coppa avvelenata; è troppo tardi.
HAMLET	Non oso ancora bere, signora; fra poco.
REGINA GERTRUDE	(ad Hamlet) Vieni, lascia che t’asciughi il viso.
LAERTES	(a parte a Claudius) Mio signore, ora lo colpisco.
RE CLAUDIUS	(a parte a Laertes) Non lo credo.
LAERTES	(a parte) Eppure è quasi contro la mia coscienza.
HAMLET	Venite per il terzo, Laertes, voi non fate che scherzare. Vi prego, affondate con la vostra maggior violenza. Temo che facciate di me un bambino viziato.
LAERTES	Dite così? Avanti. Si battono
OSRIC	Nulla né da una parte né dall’altra.
LAERTES	(a Hamlet) A voi, ora!
(didascalia)	Laertes ferisce Hamlet. Nella colluttazione si scambiano
(didascalia)	le spade, e Hamlet ferisce Laertes
RE CLAUDIUS	(ai servitori) Separateli, sono infuriati.
HAMLET	(a Laertes) No, venite ancora.
(didascalia)	La Regina cade a terra
OSRIC	Badate alla Regina, ehi!
HORATIO	Sanguinano da entrambe le parti. (Ad Hamlet) Come state, mio signore?
OSRIC	Come state, Laertes?
LAERTES	Ma come una beccaccia al mio stesso laccio, Osric. Sono giustamente ucciso dal mio stesso tradimento.
HAMLET	Come sta la Regina?
RE CLAUDIUS	Sviene al vederli sanguinare.
REGINA GERTRUDE	No, no, la bevanda, la bevanda! Oh, mio caro Hamlet,
(didascalia)	La bevanda, la bevanda—sono avvelenata. Muore
(didascalia)	Oh scelleratezza! Ehi! Si serri la porta! Esce Osric
HAMLET	Tradimento: si cerchi.
LAERTES	È qui, Hamlet. Hamlet, tu sei ucciso. Nessuna medicina al mondo può giovarti. In te non c’è mezz’ora di vita. Lo strumento proditorio è nella tua mano, senza bottone e avvelenato. La turpe macchinazione s’è rivolta contro di me. Ecco, qui giaccio, per non rialzarmi mai più. Tua madre è avvelenata. Non posso più. Il Re, il Re è il colpevole.
HAMLET	Anche la punta avvelenata? Allora, veleno, al tuo lavoro. Ferisce Re Claudius
TUTTI I CORTIGIANI	Tradimento, tradimento!
RE CLAUDIUS	Oh, difendetemi ancora, amici! Sono solo ferito.
HAMLET	Qua, incestuoso, assassino, dannato danese, tracanna questa pozione. È qui la tua perla? Segui mia madre. Re Claudius muore
LAERTES	È giustamente servito. È un veleno temperato da lui stesso. Scambia il perdono con me, nobile Hamlet. La mia morte e quella di mio padre non ricadano su di te, né la tua su di me. Muore
HAMLET	Il cielo te ne assolva! Io ti seguo. Sono morto, Horatio. Misera Regina, addio! Voi che impallidite e tremate a questo caso, che siete solo comparse mute o pubblico di quest’atto, se avessi tempo—ma questo crudele sbirro, la Morte, è rigoroso nel suo arresto—oh, potrei dirvi— ma sia. Horatio, io sono morto, tu vivi. Riferisci giustamente di me e della mia causa a chi non è appagato.
HORATIO	Non crederlo mai. Sono più romano antico che danese. Qui resta ancora del liquore.
HAMLET	Come sei uomo, dammi la coppa. Lascia. Per il cielo, l’avrò. Oh Dio, Horatio, che nome ferito, restando le cose così ignorate, vivrà dopo di me! Se mai m’hai tenuto nel tuo cuore, tienti lontano dalla felicità ancora un poco, e in questo aspro mondo trai il tuo respiro nel dolore per raccontare la mia storia. Marcia in lontananza, e grida da dentro Che rumore di guerra è questo?
(didascalia)	Entra Osric
OSRIC	Il giovane Fortinbras, tornato vittorioso dalla Polonia, agli ambasciatori d’Inghilterra rende questa salva guerriera.
HAMLET	Oh, io muoio, Horatio! Il potente veleno soverchia del tutto il mio spirito. Non posso vivere per udire le notizie d’Inghilterra, ma profetizzo che l’elezione cadrà su Fortinbras. Egli ha il mio voto di morente. Diglielo, con gli avvenimenti, grandi e piccoli, che l’hanno sollecitata. Il resto è silenzio. Oh, oh, oh, oh! Muore
HORATIO	Ora s’infrange un nobile cuore. Buona notte, dolce principe, e voli d’angeli ti cantino il tuo riposo.— Perché viene qui il tamburo?
(didascalia)	Entra Fortinbras con gli Ambasciatori inglesi, con un tamburino, insegne e servitori
FORTINBRAS	Dov’è questo spettacolo?
HORATIO	Che cosa vorreste vedere? Se cosa di dolore o di meraviglia, cessate la ricerca.
FORTINBRAS	Questa preda grida strage. Oh superba Morte, qual banchetto s’appresta nella tua cella eterna, che tanti principi in un sol colpo hai abbattuto così sanguinosamente!
AMBASCIATORE	Lo spettacolo è funesto, e le nostre notizie d’Inghilterra giungono troppo tardi. Sono insensibili gli orecchi che dovrebbero ascoltarci per dirgli che il suo comando è compiuto, che Rosencrantz e Guildenstern sono morti. Da chi avremo il nostro ringraziamento?
HORATIO	Non dalla sua bocca, quand’anche avesse vita per ringraziarvi. Egli non diede mai ordine per la loro morte. Ma poiché così a ridosso di questa sanguinosa vicenda voi dalle guerre di Polonia, e voi d’Inghilterra, siete qui giunti, date ordine che questi corpi siano posti in alto su un palco alla vista di tutti; e lasciate ch’io dica al mondo ancora ignaro come queste cose siano accadute. Così udrete di atti carnali, sanguinari e contro natura, di giudizi fortuiti, di stragi casuali, di morti operate con astuzia e per causa forzata; e, in questo esito, di disegni sviati ricaduti sul capo dei loro inventori. Tutto questo io posso fedelmente riferire.
FORTINBRAS	Affrettiamoci a udirlo, e si chiamino i più nobili all’ascolto. Quanto a me, con dolore abbraccio la mia fortuna. Ho in questo regno alcuni diritti di memoria, che ora l’occasione m’invita a rivendicare.
HORATIO	Anche di ciò avrò motivo di parlare, e per bocca di colui la cui voce ne trarrà altre. Ma si compia subito quest’altra cosa, mentre gli animi degli uomini sono ancora selvaggi, perché altra sventura non nasca da trame ed errori.
FORTINBRAS	Quattro capitani portino Hamlet come un soldato sul palco, ché era probabile, se fosse stato messo alla prova, che si mostrasse regalmente; e per il suo transito la musica dei soldati e i riti di guerra parlino forte per lui. Sollevate il corpo. Uno spettacolo come questo s’addice al campo, ma qui appare assai fuori luogo. Andate, dite ai soldati di sparare.
(didascalia)	Escono, marciando, con i corpi; dopo di che parte una salva d’artiglieria
PASSI AGGIUNTIVI	A. Poco prima della seconda entrata dello Spettro in 1.1 (v. 106.1), Q2 ha questi versi aggiuntivi:
BARNARDO	Credo che non sia altro che proprio così. Bene può convenire che questa figura portentosa venga armata attraverso la nostra guardia, così simile al re che fu ed è il motivo di queste guerre.
HORATIO	È un granello che turba l’occhio della mente. Nello stato più alto e rigoglioso di Roma, poco prima che cadesse il potentissimo Giulio, le tombe restarono senza inquilini, e i morti nei sudari squittivano e farfugliavano per le vie romane fra astri con code di fuoco, e rugiade di sangue, funesti segni nel sole; e l’astro umido, sul cui influsso si regge l’impero di Nettuno, era malato d’eclissi quasi fino al giorno del giudizio. E proprio simili presagi di eventi temuti, quali araldi che sempre precedono i destini, e prologo al presagio che s’avvicina, cielo e terra insieme hanno mostrato al nostro clima e ai nostri compatrioti. B. Poco prima dell’entrata dello Spettro in 1.4 (v. 18.1), Q2 ha questi versi aggiuntivi che continuano il discorso di Hamlet: Questa gozzoviglia dal capo pesante, a oriente e a occidente, ci fa diffamare e biasimare dalle altre nazioni. Ci chiamano ubriaconi, e con parole porcine insozzano il nostro titolo; e in verità ciò toglie alle nostre imprese, benché compiute al sommo grado, Così accade spesso in uomini particolari che, per qualche vizioso neo di natura in loro— come nella nascita, di cui non sono colpevoli, poiché la natura non può scegliere la propria origine, per il soverchiare di qualche umore, che spesso abbatte gli steccati e i forti della ragione, o per qualche abitudine che troppo lievita la forma dei modi piacevoli—che questi uomini, portando, dico, l’impronta d’un solo difetto, sia livrea della natura o stella della fortuna, per quanto le altre loro virtù siano pure come la grazia e infinite quanto un uomo ne possa sostenere, nel giudizio generale prenderanno corruzione da quel particolare difetto. La dramma di male imbratta tutta la nobile sostanza a proprio scandalo. C. Dopo 1.4.55, Q2 ha questi versi aggiuntivi che continuano il discorso di Horatio: Il luogo stesso mette capricci di disperazione, senza altro motivo, in ogni cervello che guardi tante braccia giù verso il mare e lo oda ruggire là sotto. D. Dopo 3.2.163, Q2 ha questo distico aggiuntivo che conclude il discorso della Regina Attrice: Dov’è grande l’amore, i minimi dubbi sono timore; dove i piccoli timori si fanno grandi, ivi cresce grande l’amore. E. Dopo 3.2.208, Q2 ha questo distico aggiuntivo nel mezzo del discorso della Regina Attrice: In disperazione si mutino la mia fiducia e la mia speranza; il magro vitto d’un romito in prigione sia il mio scopo. F. Dopo «this?» in 3.4.70, Q2 ha questa versione più ampia dei versi di Hamlet di cui F conserva solo «what devil … blind»: Sensi di certo ne avete, altrimenti non potreste muovervi; ma certo quel senso è apoplettico, ché la follia non errerebbe, né mai il senso fu così asservito al delirio da non riservare qualche misura di scelta per servire in una differenza simile. Quale diavolo fu che così v’ha ingannata a mosca cieca? Occhi senza tatto, tatto senza vista, orecchi senza mani né occhi, odorato senza tutto, o anche solo una parte malata d’un vero senso non potrebbe smarrirsi tanto. G. Dopo 3.4.151, Q2 ha questa versione più ampia dei versi di Hamlet di cui F conserva solo «refrain … abstinence»: Quel mostro dell’abitudine, che divora ogni sentire, d’usanze diaboliche, è tuttavia angelo in questo: che all’esercizio di azioni belle e buone dà del pari una veste o una livrea che si indossa acconciamente. Astenetevi stanotte, e ciò darà una sorta di facilità alla prossima astinenza, e la seguente sarà più facile— ché l’uso può quasi mutare l’impronta della natura— e o alloggiare il diavolo, o cacciarlo fuori con mirabile potenza. H. In 3.4.185, Q2 ha questi versi aggiuntivi prima di «This man …»:
HAMLET	Ci sono lettere sigillate, e i miei due compagni di scuola— di cui mi fiderò come di vipere con le zanne— essi recano il mandato, devono spazzarmi la via e condurmi alla furfanteria. Che agisca pure, ché è bello spasso vedere l’artificiere sbalzato in aria dalla sua stessa mina; e sarà ben duro se non scaverò una iarda sotto le loro mine e non li farò saltare fino alla luna. Oh, è dolcissimo quando su una sola linea due astuzie s’incontrano dritte. 1. Dopo «done» in 4.1.39, Q2 ha questi versi aggiuntivi che continuano il discorso del Re (le prime tre parole sono congettura editoriale): Così l’invidiosa calunnia, il cui sussurro per il diametro del mondo, diritto come il cannone al suo bersaglio, porta il colpo avvelenato, può mancare il nostro nome e colpire l’aria invulnerabile. J. Q2 ha questa versione più ampia della fine di 4.4:
CAPITANO	Lo farò, mio signore.
FORTINBRAS	Procedete lentamente.
(didascalia)	Esce col suo esercito
(didascalia)	Entrano il principe Hamlet, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, ecc.
HAMLET	(al Capitano) Buon signore, di chi sono queste truppe?
CAPITANO	Sono di Norvegia, signore.
HAMLET	Con quale scopo, signore, vi prego?
CAPITANO	Contro qualche parte della Polonia.
HAMLET	Chi le comanda, signore?
CAPITANO	Il nipote del vecchio re di Norvegia, Fortinbras.
HAMLET	Muove contro il cuore della Polonia, signore, o contro qualche frontiera?
CAPITANO	A dire il vero, e senza aggiungere nulla, andiamo a conquistare un piccolo lembo di terra che in sé non ha altro profitto che il nome. Per cinque ducati, cinque, non lo prenderei in affitto, né renderebbe alla Norvegia o al Polacco una rendita maggiore, se fosse venduto in perpetuo.
HAMLET	Allora il Polacco non lo difenderà mai.
CAPITANO	Sì, è già presidiato.
HAMLET	Duemila anime e ventimila ducati ora dibatteranno la questione di questa pagliuzza. Questo è l’ascesso di troppa ricchezza e pace, che scoppia dentro e non mostra fuori la causa per cui l’uomo muore. Vi ringrazio umilmente, signore.
CAPITANO	Dio sia con voi, signore. Esce
ROSENCRANTZ	Vi piace andare, mio signore?
HAMLET	Sarò con voi subito. Andate un poco avanti.
(didascalia)	Escono tutti tranne Hamlet
HAMLET	Come ogni occasione depone contro di me e sprona la mia ottusa vendetta! Che cos’è un uomo se il suo bene supremo e il commercio del suo tempo sono solo dormire e nutrirsi?—una bestia, nulla più. Certo, colui che ci fece con sì ampio discernimento, capace di guardare avanti e indietro, non ci diede quella facoltà e quella ragione simile a Dio perché ammuffisse in noi inusata. Ora, sia essa bestiale oblio, o qualche vile scrupolo di pensare troppo minutamente all’esito— un pensiero che, diviso in quattro, ha una parte sola di saggezza e sempre tre parti di viltà—io non so perché ancora io viva a dire «questa cosa è da fare», giacché ho causa, e volontà, e forza, e mezzi per farla. Esempi grossi come la terra m’esortano: testimone quest’esercito di tanta mole e tanta spesa, guidato da un principe delicato e tenero, il cui spirito, gonfio di divina ambizione, fa smorfie all’esito invisibile, esponendo ciò che è mortale e incerto a tutto quanto osano la fortuna, la morte e il pericolo, e ciò per un guscio d’uovo. Essere grandi davvero non è muoversi senza grande ragione, ma trovare grandemente motivo di lite in una pagliuzza quando è in gioco l’onore. E io come sto, allora, che ho un padre ucciso, una madre contaminata, eccitamenti della mia ragione e del mio sangue, e lascio tutto dormire, mentre, a mia vergogna, vedo l’imminente morte di ventimila uomini che, per una fantasia e un inganno di gloria, vanno alle loro tombe come a letti, combattono per un lembo sul quale il loro numero non può contendere la causa, e che non è tomba abbastanza capace da nascondere gli uccisi. Oh, da questo tempo in poi i miei pensieri siano sanguinosi, o non valgano nulla!
(didascalia)	Esce
HAMLET	K. Dopo «accident» in 4.7.67, Q2 ha questi versi aggiuntivi:
LAERTES	Mio signore, mi lascerò guidare, tanto più se poteste disporre le cose in modo ch’io ne fossi lo strumento.
RE CLAUDIUS	Cade a proposito. Da quando siete in viaggio, molto s’è parlato di voi, e ciò all’udito di Hamlet, per una qualità nella quale dicono che eccelliate. La somma delle vostre doti non gli strappò tutta insieme tanta invidia quanta quell’unica, che, a mio giudizio, è del rango più indegno.
LAERTES	Quale dote è, mio signore?
RE CLAUDIUS	Un semplice nastro sul berretto della giovinezza, eppure necessario, ché alla giovinezza non meno s’addice la livrea leggera e spensierata che indossa di quanto all’età matura le sue zibelline e le sue vesti che significano salute e gravità. L. Dopo «match you» in 4.7.85, Q2 ha questi versi aggiuntivi che continuano il discorso del Re: Gli schermidori della loro nazione giurò che non avevano né movimento, né guardia, né occhio se voi li affrontavate. M. Dopo 4.7.96, Q2 ha questi versi aggiuntivi che continuano il discorso del Re: Vive dentro la fiamma stessa dell’amore una sorta di lucignolo o moccolo che la smorzerà, e nulla si mantiene sempre in ugual bontà, ché la bontà, crescendo fino alla pletora,
(didascalia)	Muore nel proprio eccesso. Ciò che vorremmo fare
RE CLAUDIUS	dovremmo farlo quando lo vogliamo, ché questo «vorremmo» muta, e ha altrettante diminuzioni e ritardi quante sono le lingue, le mani, gli accidenti; e allora questo «dovremmo» è come il sospiro d’un prodigo, che nuoce sollevando. Ma al vivo dell’ulcera— N. Dopo «Sir» in 5.2.107, Q2 ha questi versi (in luogo di «you are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is at his weapon» di F): è giunto or ora a corte Laertes, credetemi, un gentiluomo assoluto, pieno di eccellentissime distinzioni, di soavissima compagnia e di gran presenza. Invero, a parlarne con sentimento, egli è la carta o il calendario della gentilezza, ché in lui troverete il continente di quanto un gentiluomo desideri vedere.
HAMLET	Signore, la sua definizione non subisce alcuna perdita in voi, benché io sappia che dividerlo per inventario darebbe le vertigini all’aritmetica della memoria, e tuttavia non farebbe che sbandare rispetto alla sua rapida corsa. Ma nella verità dell’elogio, lo ritengo un’anima di grande portata, e la sua essenza di tale rarità e preziosità che, a dirne il vero, il suo simile è il suo specchio, e chiunque altro voglia seguirne le orme non ne è che l’ombra, nulla di più.
OSRIC	Vostra signoria parla di lui infallibilmente.
HAMLET	E il proposito, signore? Perché avvolgiamo il gentiluomo nel nostro fiato più rozzo?
OSRIC	Signore?
HORATIO	Non è possibile intendersi in un’altra lingua? Ci riuscirete, signore, e magnificamente.
HAMLET	Che importa la nominazione di questo gentiluomo? OSRIC Di Laertes?
HORATIO	(a parte ad Hamlet) La sua borsa è già vuota; tutte le sue parole d’oro sono spese.
HAMLET	(a Osric) Di lui, signore.
OSRIC	So che non vi è ignoto—
HAMLET	Vorrei che lo fosse a voi, signore; e tuttavia, in fede mia, se anche lo sapeste non tornerebbe molto a mio credito. Ebbene, signore?
OSRIC	Non vi è ignoto in quale eccellenza sia Laertes.
HAMLET	Non oso confessarlo, per non paragonarmi a lui in eccellenza. Ma conoscere bene un uomo sarebbe conoscere se stessi.
OSRIC	Intendo, signore, quanto alla sua arma. Ma per la fama che gliene attribuiscono, nel suo merito egli è senza pari. O. Dopo 5.2.118, Q2 ha il seguente discorso aggiuntivo:
HORATIO	(a parte ad Hamlet) Sapevo che avreste avuto bisogno delle note in margine prima di finire. P. Dopo 5.2.154, Q2 ha quanto segue (in luogo di «HORATIO You will lose this wager, my lord» di F):
(didascalia)	Entra un Signore
SIGNORE	(ad Hamlet) Mio signore, sua maestà si è raccomandato a voi per mezzo del giovane Osric, il quale gli riporta che voi lo attendete nella sala. Manda a sapere se il vostro proposito di battervi con Laertes regga ancora, o se preferiate prendere più tempo.
HAMLET	Sono costante nei miei propositi; essi seguono il piacere del Re. Se la sua disposizione parla, la mia è pronta, ora o in qualunque momento, purché io sia in grado come adesso.
SIGNORE	Il Re e la Regina e tutti stanno scendendo.
HAMLET	In buon punto.
SIGNORE	La Regina desidera che usiate qualche gentile cortesia a Laertes prima di mettervi a giocare.
HAMLET	Ella mi consiglia bene. Esce il Signore
HORATIO	Perderete, mio signore.
TWELFTH	NOTTE, la fine della stagione natalizia, era tradizionalmente un tempo di baldoria e di mondo alla rovescia; il titolo dato da Shakespeare a una commedia in cui una serva aspira alla mano della propria padrona non ha riferimento più specifico. Fu ritenuto adatto all’occasione festiva della Candelora (2 febbraio) 1602, quando, nella prima allusione nota all’opera, John Manningham, studente di legge del Middle Temple a Londra, annotò: «alla nostra festa avemmo una commedia intitolata La dodicesima notte, ovvero Quel che volete». I riferimenti al «Sophy»—lo Scià di Persia (2.5.174; 3.4.271)—sono probabilmente posteriori al ritorno di Sir Robert Shirley dalla Persia, su una nave chiamata The Sophy, nel 1599; e «la nuova carta con l’ampliamento delle Indie» (3.2.75) sembra essere quella pubblicata nel 1599 e ristampata nel 1600. Shakespeare può aver ricavato il nome Orsino per il suo giovane duca da un nobile toscano che la regina Elisabetta intrattenne a Whitehall con una commedia rappresentata dalla compagnia di Shakespeare nella dodicesima notte del 1601. Probabilmente scrisse La dodicesima notte durante quell’anno. L’ambientazione romanzesca di La dodicesima notte è l’Illiria, il nome greco e romano del territorio adriatico corrispondente grosso modo alla ex Iugoslavia. Manningham aveva osservato che la commedia era «molto simile alla Commedia degli errori o ai Menaechmi di Plauto», pensando senza dubbio alle confusioni create da gemelli identici. Shakespeare può aver conosciuto anche una commedia italiana anonima, GI’Ingannati, recitata nel 1531 e stampata per la prima volta nel 1537, che influenzò numerose altre commedie e novelle in prosa, fra cui la storia di Apolonius e Silla di Barnaby Riche, stampata come parte del Farewell to Military Profession di Riche (1581). Riche fornì a Shakespeare la trama principale di una fanciulla naufraga (Viola) che, travestita da ragazzo (Cesario), serve un giovane Duca (Orsino) e per suo conto porta ambasciate d’amore a una nobile dama (Olivia) la quale s’accende d’amore per lei, ma sposa per errore il suo fratello gemello (Sebastian). Shakespeare idealizza i personaggi di Riche e purga la storia di parte della sua esplicita sessualità: l’Olivia di Riche, per esempio, è incinta prima del matrimonio, e la sua Viola rivela la propria identità, in un modo impraticabile per un attore fanciullo, denudandosi fino alla cintura. Shakespeare complica l’intreccio dando a Olivia uno zio dissoluto, Sir Toby Belch, e due pretendenti in più, l’asinino Sir Andrew Aguecheek e il suo maggiordomo, Malvolio, ingannato dai membri della sua casa fino a credere ch’ella lo ami. Più importante per la commedia che per l’intreccio è il clown interamente shakespeariano, Feste, commentatore beffardo e obliquo, il cui senno nella follia si oppone alla follia nel senno di Malvolio. La dodicesima notte è il compimento della commedia romantica di Shakespeare, un dramma di ampia gamma emotiva, che si estende dall’umorismo robusto e brillantemente orchestrato della scena della gozzoviglia di mezzanotte (2.2) alla rapita meraviglia dell’antifona del riconoscimento (5.1.224-56) fra i gemelli riuniti. Nella rappresentazione l’equilibrio si sposta, favorendo talvolta lo smascheramento e la celebrazione della follia, talaltra la struggente pena dell’amore non ricambiato e della saggezza inascoltata; ma poche altre commedie hanno offerto con tanta costanza un piacere teatrale di così alto grado.
I PERSONAGGI DEL	DRAMMA ORSINO, Duca d’Illiria
SECONDO UFFICIALE	VIOLA, una dama, poi travestita da Cesario UN CAPITANO SEBASTIAN, suo fratello gemello ANTONIO, un altro capitano di mare OLIVIA, una contessa MARIA, la sua damigella di compagnia
SIR TOBY	Belch, parente di Olivia
SIR ANDREW	Aguecheek, compagno di Sir Toby MALVOLIO, maggiordomo di Olivia FABIAN, membro della casa di Olivia
FESTE	il Clown, suo buffone UN PRETE UN SERVO di Olivia Musicisti, marinai, signori, servitori