Act 3, Scene 3

0.1Enter Claudius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

1Claudius‡

†I like him not†, nor stands it safe with us

2To let his madness range. Therefore prepare you:

3I your commission will forthwith dispatch†,

4And he to England shall along† with you.

5The terms of our estate† may not endure

6Hazard so near us* as doth hourly grow

7Out of his brows*†.

7aGuildenstern We will ourselves provide†.

8Most holy and religious fear it is

9To keep those many many bodies safe

10That live and feed upon your majesty.

11Rosencrantz

The single and peculiar life† is bound

12With all the strength and armour of the mind

13To keep itself from noyance†; but much more

14That spirit upon whose weal*† depends and rests

15The lives of many. The cess*† of majesty‡

16Dies not alone, but like a gulf† doth draw

17What’s near it with it. It is* a massy† wheel

18Fixed on the summit* of the highest mount,

19To whose huge* spokes ten thousand lesser things

20Are mortised and adjoined, which when it falls,

21Each small annexment†, petty consequence†,

22Attends the boisterous ruin*. Never alone

23Did the king sigh, but with* a general groan.

24Claudius

Arm you† I pray you to this speedy voyage*,

25For we will fetters put about* this fear

26Which now goes too free-footed.

26aRosencrantz We will haste us.

26.1Exeunt **Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

26.2Enter Polonius

27Polonius‡

My lord, he’s going to his mother’s closet.

28Behind the arras I’ll convey myself†

29To hear the process†. I’ll warrant she’ll tax him home†,

30And as you said†, and wisely was it said,

31’Tis meet† that some more audience than a mother,

32Since nature makes them partial, should o’erhear

33The speech of vantage†. Fare* you well my liege,

34I’ll call upon you ere you go to bed

35*And tell you what I know.

35aClaudius Thanks, dear my lord.

35.1Exit Polonius

36Oh my offence is rank, it smells to heaven;‡

37It hath the primal eldest curse† upon’t,

38A brother’s murder. Pray can I not,

39Though inclination be as sharp as will†.

40My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent,‡

41And like a man to double business† bound†,

42I stand in pause where I shall first begin,

43And both neglect. What if this cursèd hand

44Were thicker than itself with brother’s blood,

45Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens

46To wash it white as snow? †Whereto serves mercy

47But to confront the visage of offence?

48And what’s in prayer but this two-fold force,

49To be forestallèd ere we come to fall,

50Or pardoned* being down? Then I’ll look up,

51My fault is past. But oh, what form of prayer

52Can serve my turn? ‘Forgive me my foul murder’?

53That cannot be, since I am still possessed

54Of those effects† for which I did the murder,

55My crown, mine own ambition†, and my queen.

56May one be pardoned and retain th’offence†?

57In the corrupted currents of this world

58Offence’s gilded hand may shove* by† justice,

59And oft ’tis seen the wicked prize† itself

60Buys out the law. But ’tis not so above;

61There is no shuffling†, there the action lies†

62In his true nature, and we ourselves compelled

63†Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults

64To give in evidence. What then? What rests†?

65Try what repentance can. What can it not?

66Yet what can it when one cannot repent?

67Oh wretched state! Oh bosom black as death!

68Oh limèd† soul that struggling to be free

69Art more engaged! Help, angels! – Make assay†:

70Bow stubborn knees, and heart with strings of steel

71Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe.

72All may be well.*

72.1[He kneels]

72.2Enter Hamlet

73Hamlet‡

Now might I do it pat*†, now a is† a-praying*,

74*And now I’ll do’t – and so a goes to heaven,

75And so am I revenged*. That would be scanned.

76*A villain kills my father, and for that,

77I his sole* son do this same villain send

78To heaven.

79Why*, this is hire and salary*, not revenge.

80A took my father grossly†, full of bread†,

81With all his crimes broad blown†, as flush*† as May,

82And how his audit stands who† knows save heaven?

83But in our circumstance and course of thought†

84†’Tis heavy with him. And am I then revenged

85†To take him in the purging of his soul,

86When he is fit and seasoned for his passage?

87No.

88Up sword, and know thou a more horrid hent†,

89When he is drunk asleep*†, or in his rage,

90Or in th’incestuous pleasure of his bed,

91At game a-swearing*†, or about some act

92That has no relish†† of salvation in’t –

93Then †trip him that his heels may kick at heaven,‡

94And that his soul may be as damned and black

95As hell whereto it goes. My mother stays.

96This physic† but prolongs thy sickly day. Exit

97Claudius‡

My words fly up, my thoughts remain below.

98Words without thoughts never to heaven go. Exit