I pray you? Cap.

Against some part of Poland. Ham. Who commands them, sir? Cap. The nephew to old Norway,—Fortinbras. Ham. Goes it against the main of Poland, sir, Or for some frontier?

Cap. Truly to speak, sir, and with no addition, We go to gain a little patch of ground That hath in it no profit but the name. Το 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. Ham. Why, then the Polack never will defend it.

Cap. Yes, 'tis already garrisoned.

Ham. Two thousand souls, and twenty thousand ducats,

Will not debate the question of this straw!
This is the imposthume of much wealth and

peace;

That inward breaks, and shews no cause without
Why the man dies.-I humbly thank you, sir.
Cap. God be wi' you, sir.
[Exit.
Ros. Will't please you go, my lord?

Ham. I will be with you straight. Go a little before.

[Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.
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 the 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 egg-shell. 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!

[Exit.

SCENE V.-Elsinore. A Room in the Castle.

Enter QUEEN and HORATIO. Queen. I will not speak with her. Hor. She is importunate; indeed, distract; Her mood will needs be pitied. Queen. What would she have? Hor. She speaks much of her father; says, she hears

There's tricks i'the world; and hems, and beats

her heart;

Spurns enviously at straws; speaks things in doubt, That carry but half sense: her speech is nothing,

Sings.

Good morrow, 'tis St. 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. Pretty Ophelia.

Oph. Indeed, 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 ha' done, by yonder sun,
An thou hadst not come to my bed.

King. How long hath she been thus ?

Oph. I hope all will be well. We must be patient but I cannot choose but weep, to think they shall lay him i' the 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. Follow her close; give her good watch, I pray you, [Exit HORATIO.

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 judgment;
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 his 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 person to arraign
In ear and ear. O, my dear Gertrude, this,
Like to a murdering-piece, in many places
Gives me superfluous death. [A noise within.
Queen. Alack, what noise is this?

Danes. We will, we will.

[They retire without the door. Laer. I thank you: keep the door. O, thou vile king,

Give me my father.

Queen. Calmly, good Laertes.

Laer. That drop of blood that's calm, proclaims

me bastard;

Cries "cuckold" to my father; brands the harlot Even here, between the chaste unsmirchéd brow Of my true mother.

King. 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.

Laer. Where is my father?
King. Dead.

Queen. But not by him.

King. Let him demand his fill.

---

OPHELIA sings.

And will he not come again?
And will he not come again?
No, no, he is dead,

Go to thy death-bed,
He never will come again.

His beard was 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
be wi' you!
[Exit OPHELIA.

Laer. Do you see this, O God? King. 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,