Act Iii Scene Iv

Front 1

QUEEN GERTRUDE I'll warrant you,
Fear me not: withdraw, I hear him coming.

Back 1

HAMLET Now, mother, what's the matter?

Front 2

QUEEN GERTRUDE Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.

Back 2

HAMLET Mother, you have my father much offended.

Front 3

QUEEN GERTRUDE Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.

Back 3

HAMLET Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.

Front 4

QUEEN GERTRUDE

Why, how now, Hamlet!

Back 4

HAMLET What's the matter now?

Front 5

QUEEN GERTRUDE

Have you forgot me?

Back 5

HAMLET

No, by the rood, not so:
You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife;
And--would it were not so!--you are my mother.

Front 6

QUEEN GERTRUDE Nay, then, I'll set those to you that can speak.

Back 6

HAMLET Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge;
You go not till I set you up a glass
Where you may see the inmost part of you.

Front 7

LORD POLONIUS [Behind] What, ho! help, help, help!

Back 7

HAMLET [Drawing] How now! a rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!

Front 8

QUEEN GERTRUDE O me, what hast thou done?

Back 8

HAMLET Nay, I know not:
Is it the king?

Front 9

QUEEN GERTRUDE O, what a rash and bloody deed is this!

Back 9

HAMLET A bloody deed! almost as bad, good mother,
As kill a king, and marry with his brother.

Front 10

QUEEN GERTRUDE As kill a king!

Back 10

HAMLET Ay, lady, 'twas my word.Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!
I took thee for thy better: take thy fortune;
Thou find'st to be too busy is some danger.
Leave wringing of your hands: peace! sit you down,
And let me wring your heart; for so I shall,
If it be made of penetrable stuff,
If damned custom have not brass'd it so
That it is proof and bulwark against sense.

Front 11

QUEEN GERTRUDE What have I done, that thou darest wag thy tongue
In noise so rude against me?

Back 11

HAMLET

Such an act
That blurs the grace and blush of modesty,
Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the rose
From the fair forehead of an innocent love
And sets a blister there, makes marriage-vows
As false as dicers' oaths: O, such a deed
As from the body of contraction plucks
The very soul, and sweet religion makes
A rhapsody of words: heaven's face doth glow:
Yea, this solidity and compound mass,
With tristful visage, as against the doom,
Is thought-sick at the act.

Front 12

QUEEN GERTRUDE Ay me, what act,
That roars so loud, and thunders in the index?

Back 12

HAMLET Look here, upon this picture, and on this,

Front 13

QUEEN GERTRUDE O Hamlet, speak no more:
Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul;
And there I see such black and grained spots
As will not leave their tinct.

Back 13

HAMLET Nay, but to live
In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed,
Stew'd in corruption, honeying and making love
Over the nasty sty,--

Front 14

QUEEN GERTRUDE No more!

Back 14

HAMLET

A king of shreds and patches,--

Enter Ghost

Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings,
You heavenly guards! What would your gracious figure?

Front 15

QUEEN GERTRUDE Alas, he's mad!

Back 15

HAMLET Do you not come your tardy son to chide,
That, lapsed in time and passion, lets go by
The important acting of your dread command? O, say!

Front 16

Ghost Do not forget: this visitation
Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.
But, look, amazement on thy mother sits:
O, step between her and her fighting soul:
Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works:
Speak to her, Hamlet.

Back 16

HAMLET How is it with you, lady?

Front 17

QUEEN GERTRUDE

Whereon do you look?

Back 17

HAMLET

On him, on him! Look you, how pale he glares!
His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones,
Would make them capable. Do not look upon me;
Lest with this piteous action you convert
My stern effects: then what I have to do
Will want true colour; tears perchance for blood.

Front 18

QUEEN GERTRUDE To whom do you speak this?

Back 18

HAMLET Do you see nothing there?

Front 19

QUEEN GERTRUDE Nothing at all; yet all that is I see.

Back 19

HAMLET Nor did you nothing hear?

Front 20

QUEEN GERTRUDE No, nothing but ourselves.

Back 20

HAMLET

Why, look you there! look, how it steals away!
My father, in his habit as he lived!
Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal!

Front 21

QUEEN GERTRUDE Be thou assured, if words be made of breath,
And breath of life, I have no life to breathe
What thou hast said to me.

Back 21

HAMLET I must to England; you know that?

Front 22

QUEEN GERTRUDE Alack,
I had forgot: 'tis so concluded on.

Back 22

HAMLET There's letters seal'd: and my two schoolfellows,
Whom I will trust as I will adders fang'd,
They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way,
And marshal me to knavery. Let it work;
For 'tis the sport to have the engineer
Hoist with his own petard: and 't shall go hard
But I will delve one yard below their mines,
And blow them at the moon: O, 'tis most sweet,
When in one line two crafts directly meet.
This man shall set me packing:
I'll lug the guts into the neighbour room.
Mother, good night. Indeed this counsellor
Is now most still, most secret and most grave,
Who was in life a foolish prating knave.
Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you.
Good night, mother.