My lord, I cannot.

HAM. I pray you.

GUIL. Believe me, I cannot.

HAM. I do beseech you.

GUIL. I know no touch of it, my lord.

HAM. It is as easy as lying. Govern these ventages with your fingers and [thumbs], give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music. Look you, these are the stops.

GUIL. But these cannot I command to any utt'rance of harmony. I have not the skill.

HAM. 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 play'd on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you fret me, [yet] you cannot play upon me.

 

Enter Polonius.

 

God bless you, sir.

POL. My lord, the Queen would speak with you, and presently.

HAM. Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel?

POL. By th' mass and 'tis, like a camel indeed.

HAM. Methinks it is like a weasel.

POL. It is back'd like a weasel.

HAM. Or like a whale.

POL. Very like a whale.

HAM. Then I will come to my mother by and by. [Aside.] They fool me to the top of my bent. – I will come by and by.

[POL.] I will say so.

 

[Exit.]

 

HAM.

»By and by« is easily said. Leave me, friends.

 

[Exeunt all but 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.

 

 

[Scene III]

Enter King, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern.

 

KING.

I like him not, nor stands it safe with us

To let his madness range. Therefore prepare you.

I your commission will forthwith dispatch,

And he to England shall along with you.

The terms of our estate may not endure

Hazard so near 's as doth hourly grow

Out of his brows.

GUIL.

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.

ROS.

The single and peculiar life is bound

With all the strength and armor of the mind

To keep itself from noyance, but much more

That spirit upon whose weal depends and rests

The lives of many. The cess of majesty

Dies not alone, but like a gulf doth draw

What's near it with it. Or it is a massy wheel

Fix'd on the summit of the highest mount,

To whose [huge] spokes ten thousand lesser things

Are mortis'd and adjoin'd, 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.

Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy viage,

For we will fetters put about this fear,

Which now goes too free-footed.