Oh, 'tis too true!
How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience!
The harlot's cheek, beautied with plastering art,
Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it
Than is my deed to my most painted word.
O heavy burden!
Claudius
Aside
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
Hamlet
Soliloquy
My honored lord, you know right well you did,
And with them, words of so sweet breath composed
As made the things more rich. Their perfume lost,
Take these again, for to the noble mind
Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.
There, my lord.
Ophelia
-Hamlet
Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst 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
Hamlet
To Ophelia
Ha, ha, are you honest?
Hamlet
Ophelia
Those that are married already, all but one, shall live. The rest shall keep as they are. To a nunnery, go.
Hamlet
-Ophelia
Oh, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!�
The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue, sword,
Th' expectancy and rose of the fair state,
The glass of fashion and the mould of form,
Th' observed of all observers, quite, quite down!
And I, of ladies
Ophelia
Hamlet
Love? His affections do not that way tend.
Nor what he spake, though it lacked form a little,
Was not like madness. There's something in his soul
O'er which his melancholy sits on brood,
And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose
Will be some danger�which
Claudius
Polonius and Ophelia
My lord, do as you please.
But, if you hold it fit, after the play
Let his queen mother all alone entreat him
To show his grief. Let her be round with him,
And I'll be placed, so please you, in the ear
Of all their conference. If she find him not,
To Engl
Polonius
To Claudius
Ophelia present
Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue. But if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I had as lief the town crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand thus, but use all gently, for i
Hamlet
To First Player
Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor. Suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this special observance that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature. For anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing, who
Hamlet
First Player
Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man
As e'er my conversation coped withal.
Hamlet
To Horatio
Nay, do not think I flatter.
For what advancement may I hope from thee
That no revenue hast but thy good spirits,
To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be flattered?
Hamlet
Horatio
Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice
And could of men distinguish, her election
Hath sealed thee for herself, for thou hast been�
As one in suffering all that suffers nothing�
A man that Fortune's buffets and rewards
Hast ta'en with equal thanks.
Hamlet
-Horatio
I do believe you think what now you speak,
But what we do determine oft we break.
Purpose is but the slave to memory,
Of violent birth, but poor validity,
Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree,
But fall, unshaken, when they mellow be.
Most nece
Player King
Player Queen
Nor earth to me give food, nor heaven light.
Sport and repose lock from me day and night.
To desperation turn my trust and hope.
An anchor's cheer in prison be my scope.
Each opposite that blanks the face of joy
Meet what I would have well and it destroy.
Player Queen
Player King
A whole one, I.
For thou dost know, O Damon dear,
This realm dismantled was
Of Jove himself. And now reigns here
A very, very�pajock.
Hamlet
Horatio
I did very well note him.
Horatio
Hamlet
The lady protests too much, methinks.
Gertrude
Hamlet
Have you heard the argument? Is there no offense in 't?
Claudius
Hamlet
Is in his retirement marvelous distempered.
Guildenstern
Hamlet
My lord, you once did love me.
Rosencrantz
Hamlet
And do still, by these pickers and stealers.
Hamlet
Rosencrantz
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, excelle
Hamlet
Guildenstern and Rosencrantz
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 bitter day
Would quake to look on. Soft, now to my mother.�
O heart, lose n
Hamlet
Soliloquy
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 dangerous as doth hourly grow
O
Claudius
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Oh, my offence is rank. It smells to heaven.
It hath the primal eldest curse upon 't,
A brother's murder. Pray can I not.
Though inclination be as sharp as will,
My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent,
And, like a man to double business bound,
I stand
Claudius
Soliloquy
Now might I do it pat. Now he is a-praying.
And now I'll do 't. And so he goes to heaven.
And so am I revenged.�That would be scanned.
A villain kills my father, and, for that,
I, his sole son, do this same villain send
To heaven.
Oh, this is hire and sal
Hamlet
Soliloquy
Look here upon this picture and on this,
The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.
See, what a grace was seated on this brow?
Hyperion's curls, the front of Jove himself,
An eye like Mars to threaten and command,
A station like the herald Mercury
New-l
Hamlet
To Gertrude
O Hamlet, speak no more!
Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul,
And there I see such black and grain�d spots
As will not leave their tinct.
Gertrude
Hamlet
O, speak to me no more!
These words like daggers enter in my ears.
No more, sweet Hamlet.
Gertrude
To Hamlet
A king of shreds and patches-
Save me and hover o'er me with your wings,
You heavenly guards!�What would your gracious figure?
Hamlet
Ghost of King Hamlet
Gertrude present
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.
Ghost of King Hamlet
Hamlet
Alas, how is 't with you,
That you do bend your eye on vacancy
And with th' incorporal air do hold discourse?
Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep,
And, as the sleeping soldiers in th' alarm,
Your bedded hair, like life in excrements,
Starts up and
Gertrude
Hamlet
My words fly up, my thoughts remain below.
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.
Claudius
-Soliloquy
My lord, he's going to his mother's closet.
Behind the arras I'll convey myself
To hear the process. I'll warrant she'll tax him home.
And, as you said (and wisely was it said)
'Tis meet that some more audience than a mother�
Since nature makes them parti
Polonius
To Claudius