ACT III. SCENE I. A Room in the Castle. Enter King, Queen, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSEN- King. And can you, by no drift of conference Ros. He does confess, he feels himself distracted; But from what cause he will by no means speak. Guil. 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. Did he receive you well? Ros. Most like a gentleman. Guil. But with much forcing of his disposition. Ros. Niggard of question; but, of our demands, Most free in his reply. Queen. To any pastime? Did you assay him Ros. 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 'Tis most true: Pol. 8 o'er-raught on the way:] O'er-raught is over-reached, that is, over-took, King. O, 'tis too true! how smart 3 [Aside. Pol. I hear him coming; let's withdraw, my lord. [Exeunt King and POLONIUS. Enter HAMLET. Ham. 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 heart-ach, and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to,-'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. 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: 5 For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, more ugly to the thing that helps it,] That is, compared with the thing that helps it. 4 shuffled off this mortal coil,] i. turmoil, bustle. There's the respect,] i. e. the consideration. the whips and scorns of time,] It may be remarked, that Hamlet, in his enumeration of miseries, forgets, whether properly or not, that he is a prince, and mentions many evils to which inferior stations only are exposed. JOHNSON. And, with them, words of so sweet breath compos'd Rich gifts wax poor, when givers prove unkind. Ham. Ha, ha! are you honest? Ham. Are you fair? Oph. What means your lordship? Ham. That if you be honest, and fair, you should admit no discourse to your beauty. Oph. Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty? Ham. 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 some time a paradox, but now the time gives it proof. I did love you once. 9 Oph. Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so. Ham. You should not have believed me: for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock, but we shall relish of it: I loved you not. Oph. I was the more deceived. Ham. Get thee to a nunnery; Why would'st 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,1 imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in: What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven! We are arrant into his likeness:] The modern editors read—its likeness; but the text is right. Shakspeare and his contemporaries frequently use the personal for the neutral pronoun. 1 with more offences at my beck, than I have thoughts to put them in,] To put a thing into thought, is to think on it. |