Part IV, Chapter 21: "The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark," Act 2

But sir, such wanton, wild, and usual slips
As are companions noted and most known
To youth and liberty.

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

Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced,
No hat upon his head, his stockings fouled,
Ungart'red, 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.

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
As it did seem to shatter all his bulk,
And end his being

I entreat you both,
That being of so young days brought up with him,
And sith so neighboured to his youth and havior,
That you vouchsafe your rest here in our court

...so by your companies
To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather
So much as from occasion you may glean,
Whether aught to us unknown afflicts him thus,
That opened lies within our remedy.

Assure you, my good liege,
I hold my duty as I hold my soul,
Both to my God and to my gracious king

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'assay of arms against your majesty

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.

This in obedience hath my daughter shown me,
And more above hath his solicitings,
As they fell out by time, by means, and place,
All given to mine ear.

Hath there been such a time, I'd fain know that,
That I have positively said '"Tis so,"
When it proved otherwise?

At such a time, I'll loose my daughter to him.
Be you and I behind an arras then,
Mark the encounter

For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a good kissing carrion—have you a daughter?

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.

Slanders, sir; for the satirical rogue says here, that old men have grey beards, that their faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and
plum-tree gum, and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams.

These tedious old fools.

I have of late, but wherefore I know not, lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises: 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 firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why it appeareth nothing to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours.

...this most excellent canopy the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why it appeareth nothing to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours.

What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, 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.

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...

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...

Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace; but there is sir an aery of children, like 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.

Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace; but there is sir an aery of children, like 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.

Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace; but there is sir an aery of children, like 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.

It is not very strange, for my uncle is king of Denmark, and those that would make mows at him while my father lived, give twenty, forty, fifty, a hundred ducats apiece for his picture in little.

Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore: your hands, come then, th'appurtenance of welcome is fashion and ceremony; let me comply with you in this garb, lest my extent to the players, which I tell you must show fairly outwards, should more appear like entertainment than yours.

In the lines, to make the matter savoury, nor no matter in the phrase that might indict the author of affection, but called it an honest method, as wholesome as sweet, and by very much more handsome than fine...

Roasted in wrath and fire,
And thus o'er-sized with coagulate gore,
With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus
Old grandsire Priam seeks

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 roused vengeance sets him new awork

Run barefoot up and down, threat'ning the flames
With bissom 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 the alarm of fear caught up—

Run barefoot up and down, threat'ning the flames
With bissom 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 the alarm of fear caught up—

Good my lord, will you see the players well bestowed, do you hear, let them be well used, for they are the abstract and brief chronicles of the time; after your death you were better have a bad epitaph than their ill report while you live.

...he would drown the stage with tears,
And cleave the general ear with horrid speech

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 ha' fatted all the region kites
With this slave's offal: bloody, bawdy villain,
Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!

The spirit that I have seen
May be a 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.