[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.HAMLETYou are welcome.GUILDENSTERNNay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the rightbreed.If it shall please you to make me awholesome answer, I will do your mother'scommandment: if not, your pardon and my returnshall be the end of my business.HAMLETSir, I cannot.GUILDENSTERNWhat, my lord?HAMLETMake you a wholesome answer; my wit's diseased: but,sir, such answer as I can make, you shall command;or, rather, as you say, my mother: therefore nomore, but to the matter: my mother, you say, --ROSENCRANTZThen thus she says; your behavior hath struck herinto amazement and admiration.HAMLETO wonderful son, that can so astonish a mother! Butis there no sequel at the heels of this mother'sadmiration? Impart.ROSENCRANTZShe desires to speak with you in her closet, ere yougo to bed.HAMLETWe shall obey, were she ten times our mother.Haveyou any further trade with us?ROSENCRANTZMy lord, you once did love me.HAMLETSo I do still, by these pickers and stealers.ROSENCRANTZGood my lord, what is your cause of distemper? youdo, surely, bar the door upon your own liberty, ifyou deny your griefs to your friend.HAMLETSir, I lack advancement.ROSENCRANTZHow can that be, when you have the voice of the kinghimself for your succession in Denmark?HAMLETAy, but sir, 'While the grass grows,' -- the proverbis something musty.[Re-enter Players with recorders]O, the recorders! let me see one.To withdraw withyou: -- why do you go about to recover the wind of me,as if you would drive me into a toil?GUILDENSTERNO, my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is toounmannerly.HAMLETI do not well understand that.Will you play uponthis pipe?GUILDENSTERNMy lord, I cannot.HAMLETI pray you.GUILDENSTERNBelieve me, I cannot.HAMLETI do beseech you.GUILDENSTERNI know no touch of it, my lord.HAMLET'Tis as easy as lying: govern these ventages withyour lingers and thumb, give it breath with yourmouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music.Look you, these are the stops.GUILDENSTERNBut these cannot I command to any utterance ofharmony; I have not the skill.HAMLETWhy, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make ofme! You would play upon me; you would seem to knowmy stops; you would pluck out the heart of mymystery; you would sound me from my lowest note tothe top of my compass: and there is much music,excellent voice, in this little organ; yet cannotyou make it speak.'Sblood, do you think I ameasier to be played on than a pipe? Call me whatinstrument you will, though you can fret me, yet youcannot play upon me.[Enter POLONIUS]God bless you, sir!LORD POLONIUSMy lord, the queen would speak with you, andpresently.HAMLETDo you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel?LORD POLONIUSBy the mass, and 'tis like a camel, indeed.HAMLETMethinks it is like a weasel.LORD POLONIUSIt is backed like a weasel.HAMLETOr like a whale?LORD POLONIUSVery like a whale.HAMLETThen I will come to my mother by and by.They foolme to the top of my bent.I will come by and by.LORD POLONIUSI will say so.HAMLETBy and by is easily said.[Exit POLONIUS]Leave me, friends.[Exeunt all but HAMLET]Tis now the very witching time of night,When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes outContagion to this world: now could I drink hot blood,And do such bitter business as the dayWould quake to look on.Soft! now to my mother.O heart, lose not thy nature; let not everThe 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 soever she be shent,To give them seals never, my soul, consent![Exit]--------------------------------------"scene" 3Scene 3[A room in the castle.][Enter KING CLAUDIUS, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN]KING CLAUDIUSI like him not, nor stands it safe with usTo 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 endureHazard so dangerous as doth hourly growOut of his lunacies.GUILDENSTERNWe will ourselves provide:Most holy and religious fear it isTo keep those many many bodies safeThat live and feed upon your majesty.ROSENCRANTZThe single and peculiar life is bound,With all the strength and armour of the mind,To keep itself from noyance; but much moreThat spirit upon whose weal depend and restThe lives of many.The cease of majestyDies not alone; but, like a gulf, doth drawWhat's near it with it: it is a massy wheel,Fix'd on the summit of the highest mount,To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser thingsAre mortised and adjoin'd; which, when it falls,Each small annexment, petty consequence,Attends the boisterous ruin.Never aloneDid the king sigh, but with a general groan.KING CLAUDIUSArm you, I pray you, to this speedy voyage;For we will fetters put upon this fear,Which now goes too free-footed.ROSENCRANTZWe will haste us.[Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN][Enter POLONIUS]LORD POLONIUSMy lord, he's going to his mother's closet:Behind the arras I'll convey myself,To hear the process; and 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'erhearThe 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 CLAUDIUSThanks, dear my lord.[Exit POLONIUS]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 handWere thicker than itself with brother's blood,Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavensTo wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercyBut to confront the visage of offence?And what's in prayer but this two-fold force,To be forestalled ere we come to fall,Or pardon'd being down? Then I'll look up;My fault is past.But, O, what form of prayerCan serve my turn? 'Forgive me my foul murder'?That cannot be; since I am still possess'dOf those effects for which I did the murder,My crown, mine own ambition and my queen.May one be pardon'd and retain the offence?In the corrupted currents of this worldOffence's gilded hand may shove by justice,And oft 'tis seen the wicked prize itselfBuys out the law: but 'tis not so above;There is no shuffling, there the action liesIn his true nature; and we ourselves compell'd,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 can not 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 newborn babe!All may be well.[Retires and kneels][Enter HAMLET]HAMLETNow might I do it pat, now he is praying;And now I'll do't.And so he goes to heaven;And so am I revenged [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]