Act 2, Scene 2

[Official room of the castle. Enter King, Queen, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, with others.]

Claudius

Welcome, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Moreover that we much did long to see you,

The need we have to use you did provoke

Our hasty sending. Something have you heard

Of Hamlet's transformation — so I call it

Since not th' exterior nor the inward man

Resembles that it was. What it should be,

More than his father's death, that thus has put him

So much from th' understanding of himself,

I cannot dream of. I entreat you both,

That being of so young days brought up with him,

And since so neighbored to his youth and humor,

That you vouchsafe your rest here in our court

Some little time, 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.

Gertrude

Good gentlemen, he has much talked of you.

And sure I am, two men there are not living

To whom he more adheres. If it will please you

To show us so much gentry and good will

As to expend your time with us awhile

For the supply and profit of our hope,

Your visitation shall receive such thanks

As fits a king's remembrance.

Rosencrantz

Both your majesties

Might, by the sovereign power you have of us,

Put your dread pleasures more into command

Than to entreaty.

Guildenstern

We both obey,

And here give up ourselves in the full bent,

To lay our services freely at your feet

To be commanded.

Claudius

Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern.

Gertrude

Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz.

And I beseech you instantly to visit

My too much changèd son. Go, some of you,

And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is.

Guildenstern

Heavens make our presence and our practices

Pleasant and helpful to him!

[Exit Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and other Courtiers.]

Gertrude

Ay, amen.

[Enter Polonius.]

Polonius

Th' ambassadors from Norway, my good lord,

Are joyfully returned.

Claudius

Thou still have been the father of good news.

Polonius

Have I, my lord? Assure you, my good liege,

I hold my duty as I hold my soul —

Both to my God and to my gracious king.

And I do think (or else this brain of mine

Hunts not the trail of policy so sure

As it has used to do) that I have found

The very cause of Hamlet's lunacy.

Claudius

Oh, speak of that! That do I long to hear.

Polonius

Give first admittance to th' ambassadors.

My news shall be the fruit to that great feast.

Claudius

Thyself do grace to them and bring them in.

[To Gertrude]

He tells me, my sweet queen, that he has found

The head and source of all your son's distemper.

Gertrude

I doubt it is no other but the main:

His father's death and our o'erhasty marriage.

[Enter Polonius, Voltemand, and Cornelius.]

Claudius

Well, we shall sift him.

[To Voltemand and Cornelius]

Welcome, good friends.

Say, Voltemand, what from our brother Norway?

Voltemand

Most fair return of greetings and desires.

Upon our first, hefirst, he sent out to suppress

His nephew's levies, which to him appeared

To be a preparation 'gainst the Polack.

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.

Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy,

Gives him threescore thousand crowns in annual fee

And his commission to employ those soldiers

So levied as before against the Polack –

With an entreaty, herein further shown,

That it might please you to give quiet pass

Through your dominions for this enterprise,

On such regards of safety and allowance

As therein are set down.

Claudius

It likes us well,

And at our more considered time we'll read,

Answer, and think upon this business.

Meantime, we thank you for your well-took labor;

Go to your rest. At night we'll feast together.

Most welcome home!

[Exit Ambassadors.]

Polonius

This business is well ended.

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. Your noble son is mad.

Mad call I it, for to define true madness,

What is't but to be nothing else but mad?

But let that go.

Gertrude

More matter, with less art.

Polonius

Madam, I swear I use no art at all.

That he's mad, 'tis true: 'tis true 'tis pity,

And pity 'tis 'tis true — a foolish figure,

But farewell it, for I will use no art.

Mad let us grant him, then. And now remains

That we find out the cause of this effect,

Or rather, say, the cause of this defect,

For this effect defective comes by cause.

Thus it remains, and the remainder thus.

Perpend.

I have a daughter — have whilst she is mine —

Who, in her duty and obedience, mark,

Has given me this. Now gather and surmise.

[He reads from a letter.]

"To the celestial and my soul's idol, the most

‘beautified’ Ophelia" — That's an ill phrase, a vile phrase;

beautified is a vile phrase. But you shall hear —

"thus in her excellent white bosom, these ..."

Gertrude

Came this from Hamlet to her?

Polonius

Good madam, stay awhile; I will be faithful.

[He reads.]

"Doubt thou the stars are fire,

Doubt that the sun does move,

Doubt truth to be a liar,

But never doubt I love.

Oh, dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers.

I have not art to reckon my groans. But that I

love thee best, oh, most best, believe it. Adieu.

Thine evermore, most dear lady,

Whilst this machine is to him, Hamlet."

This in obedience has my daughter showed me –

And, more above, has his solicitings

(As they fell out, by time, by means, and place)

All given to mine ear.

Claudius

But how has she

Received his love?

Polonius

What do you think of me?

Claudius

As of a man faithful and honorable.

Polonius

I would fain prove so. But what might you think,

When I had seen this hot love on the wing —

As I perceived it, I must tell you that,

Before my daughter told me — what might you,

Or my dear majesty your queen here, think

If I had played the desk or table-book,

Or given my heart a winking, mute and dumb,

Or looked upon this love with idle sight,

What might you think? No, I went round to work,

And my young mistress thus I did bespeak:

"Lord Hamlet is a prince out of thy star.

This must not be." And then I precepts gave her:

That she should lock herself from his resort,

Admit no messengers, receive no tokens.

Which done, she took the fruits of my advice,

And he, repulsed – a short tale to make –

You know sometimes he walks four hours together

Here in the lobby.

Gertrude

So he has indeed.

Polonius

At such a time I'll loose my daughter to him.

Be you and I behind an arras then,

Mark the encounter. If he love her not,

And be not from his reason fallen thereon,

Let me be no assistant for a state

But keep a farm and carters.

Claudius

We will try it.

Polonius

What is the matter, my lord?

Hamlet

Between who?

Polonius

I mean the matter that you read, my lord.

Hamlet

Slanders, sir. For the satirical rogue says here that

old men have gray beards, that their faces are wrinkled,

their eyes purging thick amber or plumtree gum, and

that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with

weak hams — all which, sir, though I most powerfully

and potently believe, yet I hold it not honesty to have it

thus set down. For you yourself, sir, should be old as I am

if, like a crab, you could go backward.

Polonius

[Aside] Though this be madness, yet there is method in't.

[To Hamlet] Will you walk out of the air, my lord?

Hamlet

Into my grave?

Polonius

Indeed, that is out of the air. [Aside] How pregnant

sometimes his replies are! A happiness that often madness

hits on, which reason and sanity could not so prosperously

be delivered of. I will leave him, and suddenly contrive

the means of meeting between him and my daughter.

[To Hamlet] My honorable lord, I will most humbly take my

leave of you.

Hamlet

You cannot, sir, take from me anything that I will more

willingly part withal — except my life, except my life,

my life.

Polonius

Fare you well, my lord.

Hamlet

These tedious old fools!

[Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.]

Polonius

You go to seek the Lord Hamlet? There he is.

Rosencrantz

God save you, sir.

[Exit Polonius.]

the hands of Fortune that she sends you to prison

hither?

Guildenstern

Prison, my lord?

Hamlet

Denmark's a prison.

Rosencrantz

Then is the world one.

Hamlet

A goodly one, in which there are many large confines,

wards, and dungeons, Denmark being one o'th' worst.

Rosencrantz

We think not so, my lord.

Hamlet

Why, then 'tis none to you, for there is nothing

either good or bad but thinking makes it so.

To me it is a prison.

Rosencrantz

Why, then your ambition makes it one. 'Tis too narrow

for your mind.

Hamlet

Oh, God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count

myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have

bad dreams.

Guildenstern

Which dreams indeed are ambition, for the very

substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow

of a dream.

Hamlet

A dream itself is but a shadow.

Rosencrantz

Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality

that it is but a shadow's shadow.

Hamlet

Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and

outstretched heroes the beggars' shadows. – Shall we to

th' court? For, by my fay, I cannot reason.

Both

We'll wait upon you.

Hamlet

No such matter. I will not sort you with the rest of my

servants, for (to speak to you like an honest man) I am

most dreadfully attended. – But in the beaten way of

friendship, what make you at Elsinore?

Rosencrantz

To visit you my lord, no other occasion.

Hamlet

Beggar that I am, I am ever poor in thanks, but I

thank you. And sure, dear friends, my thanks are too dear

a halfpenny. Were you not sent for? Is it your own inclining?

Is it a free visitation? Come, deal justly with me.

Come, come, nay, speak.

Guildenstern

What should we say, my lord?

Hamlet

Why, anything but to the purpose. You were sent

for and there is a kind of confession in your looks, which

your modesties have not craft enough to color. I know

the good king and queen have sent for you.

Rosencrantz

To what end, my lord?

Hamlet

That you must teach me. But let me conjure you,

by the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy of our

youth, by the obligation of our ever-preserved love, and

by what more dear a better proposer can charge you

withal. Be even and direct with me, whether you were sent

for or no.

Rosencrantz

[Aside to Guildenstern] What say you?

Hamlet

[Aside] Nay, then, I have an eye of you.

[To Rosencrantz. and Guildenstern.]

If you love me, hold not off.

Guildenstern

My lord, we were sent for.

Hamlet

I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation prevent

your discovery, and your secrecy to the King and

Queen molt no feather. I have of late, but wherefore

I know not, lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of

exercise, 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,

this majestical roof fretted with golden fire —

why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and

pestilent congregation of vapors. What a piece of work

is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite

in faculty, 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.

Rosencrantz

I think their inhibition comes by the means of

the late innovation.

Hamlet

Do they hold the same estimation they did when I

was in the city? Are they so followed?

Rosencrantz

No, indeed, are they not.

Hamlet

How comes it? Do they grow rusty?

Rosencrantz

Nay, their endeavor keeps in the wonted

pace. But there is, sir, an eyrie of children, little 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.

Hamlet

What, are they children? Who maintains 'em?

How are they escoted? Will they pursue the quality no

longer than they can sing? Will they not say afterwards,

if they should grow themselves to common players (as

it is most like if their means are not better) their writers

do them wrong to make them exclaim against their own

succession?

Rosencrantz

Faith, there has been much to-do on both

sides, and the nation holds it no sin to tar them to

controversy. There was, for a while, no money bid

for argument unless the poet and the player went to

cuffs on the question.

Hamlet

Is't possible?

Guildenstern

Oh, there has been much throwing about of brains.

Hamlet

Do the boys carry it away?

Rosencrantz

Ay, that they do, my lord, Hercules and his load

too.

Hamlet

It is not strange, for mine 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. There is

something in this more than natural, if philosophy

could find it out.

[Music announcing the arrival of the Players.]

Guildenstern

There are the players.

Hamlet

[To Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.]

Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands,

come. Th' appurtenance of welcome is fashion and

ceremony. Let me comply with you in the garb, lest

my extent to the players (which, I tell you, must show

fairly outward) should more appear like entertainment

than yours. You are welcome. – But my uncle-father and

aunt-mother are deceived.

Guildenstern

In what, my dear lord?

Hamlet

I am but mad north-northwest. When the wind is

southerly, I know a hawk from a hand saw.

[Enter Polonius.]

Polonius

Well be with you, gentlemen.

Hamlet

[To Guildenstern and Rosencrantz]

Hark you, Guildenstern, and you too –

at each ear a hearer. That great baby you see there is

not yet out of his swathing clouts.

Rosencrantz

Happily he's the second time come to them,

for they say an old man is twice a child.

Hamlet

I will prophesy he comes to tell me of the players;

mark it.

[As Polonius rushes up to give Hamlet the news of the actors' arrival, Hamlet pretends to be in the middle of a conversation with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern]

You say right, sir, a Monday morning,

'twas so indeed.

Polonius

My lord, I have news to tell you ...

Hamlet

[Interrupting] My lord, I have news to tell you. When Roscius was

pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-

pastoral, scene individable, or poem unlimited. Seneca

cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light. For the

law of writ and the liberty these are the only men.

Hamlet

"As by lot, God wot,"

and then you know,

“It came to pass, as most like it was."

The first row of the pious chanson will show you more;

[Several actors approach]

for look where my abridgments come.

[Enter four or five Players.]
HamletYou are welcome, masters, welcome all. I am glad to see thee well.
Welcome, good friends. [To a young actor] Oh, my old friend!
Thy face is valanced since I saw thee last. Com'st
thou to beard me in Denmark? [To a young boy actor] What,
my young lady and mistress! By'r lady, your ladyship is nearer
heaven than when I saw you last, by the altitude of a chopine. 
Pray God your voice, like a piece of uncurrent gold, be not
cracked within the ring.  [To all]  Masters, you are all 
welcome. We'll e'en to't like French falconers — fly at
anything we see. We'll have a speech straight. Come, give
us a taste of your quality. Come, a passionate speech.
PlayerWhat speech, my good lord?
HamletI heard thee speak me a speech once, but it was
never acted, or if it was, not above once. For the
play, I remember, pleased not the million; 'twas
caviar to the general. But it was, as I received it 
(and others whose judgment in such matters cried
in the top of mine) an excellent play, well digested
in the scenes, set down with as much modesty as
cunning. I remember one said there was no sallets
in the lines to make the matter savory, nor no matter
in the phrase that might indict the author of affectation,
but called it an honest method. One speech in it I
chiefly loved: 'twas Aeneas' tale to Dido, 
 and thereabout of it especially where he
speaks of Priam's slaughter. If it live in your memory, 
begin at this line — ‘let me see, let me see.’
The rugged Pyrrhus, like th' Hyrcanian beast — 
‘It is not so; it begins with Pyrrhus — 
The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms,
Black as his purpose, did the night resemble
When he lay couched in the ominous horse,
Has now this dread and black complexion smeared
With heraldry more dismal. Head to foot,
Now is he total gules, horridly tricked
With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons,
Baked and empasted with the parching streets
That lend a tyrannous and damnèd light
To their vile murders. Roasted in wrath and fire,
And thus o'ersizèd with coagulate gore,
With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Phyrrhus
Old grandsire Priam seeks.’
So, proceed you.
Polonius'Fore God, my Lord, well spoken, with good accent 
and good discretion.
PlayerAnon he finds him, 
Striking too short at Greeks. His antic sword,
Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls,
Repugnant to command. Unequal match.
Pyrrhus at Priam drives, in rage strikes wide,
But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword
Th' unnerved father falls. Then, senseless Ilium, 
Seeming to feel his blow, with flaming top
Stoops to his base, and with a hideous crash
Takes prisoner Pyrrhus' ear. 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
Does rend the region. So, after Pyrrhus' pause, 
A rousèd vengeance sets him new a-work;
And never did the Cyclops' hammers fall
On Mars his armor, forged for proof eterne,
With less remorse than Pyrrhus' bleeding sword
Now falls on Priam.
Out, out, thou strumpet Fortune! All you gods 
In general synod take away her power,
Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel,
And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven
As low as to the fiends!
PoloniusThis is too long. 
HamletIt shall to th' barber's with your beard.
[To the actor]
                                     Prithee, say on, 
He's for a jig, or a tale of bawdry, or he sleeps. Say on. 
‘Come to Hecuba.’
PlayerBut who, oh, who, had seen the mobled queen — 
HamletThe mobled queen!
PoloniusThat's good. Mobled queen is good.
Player‘Run barefoot up and down, threat'ning the flame 
With bisson 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 th' alarum of fear caught up.
Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steeped, 
'Gainst Fortune's state would treason have pronounced!
But if the gods themselves did see her then,
When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport
In mincing with his sword her husband's limbs.
The instant burst of clamor that she made —
Unless things mortal move them not at all —
Would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven
And passion in the gods.’
PoloniusLook where he has not turned his color, and has 
tears in's eyes. Pray you, no more.
Hamlet'Tis well. I'll have thee speak out the rest soon. 
[To Polonius] 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.
PoloniusMy lord, I will use them according to their desert.
HamletGod's bodykins, man, better! Use every man after 
his desert and who should escape whipping? Use them
after your own honor and dignity. The less they deserve,
the more merit is in your bounty. Take them in.
PoloniusCome, sirs.    
[Exit Polonius.]
HamletFollow him, friends. We'll hear a play tomorrow. 
[Aside to the First Player]  
Dost thou hear me, old friend? 
Can you play The Murder of Gonzago?
PlayerAy, my lord.
HamletWe'll ha't tomorrow night. You could, for a need, 
study a speech of some dozen or sixteen lines which I
would set down and insert in't, could you not?
Player Ay, my lord.
HamletVery well. Follow that lord and, look you, mock him not. 
[To Rosencrantz and Guildenstern]  
My good friends, I'll leave you till night. 
You are welcome to Elsinore.
Rosencrantz   Good my lord.
Hamlet   Ay, so, God buy you.
[Exit all but Hamlet.]

HamletNow I am alone.     
Oh, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!
Is it not monstrous that this player here,
But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
Could force his soul so to his whole conceit
That, from her working, all the visage warmed,
Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect,
A broken voice, and his whole function suiting
With forms to his conceit? And all for nothing,
For Hecuba!     
What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,    
That he should weep for her? What would he do
Had he the motive and the cue for passion
That I have? He would drown the stage with tears,     
And cleave the general ear with horrid speech,
Make mad the guilty, and appall the free,
Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed
The very faculty of eyes and ears. Yet I,    
A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak    
Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause,
And can say nothing — no, not for a king
Upon whose property and most dear life
A damned defeat was made. Am I a coward? 
Who calls me villain, breaks my pate across,    
Plucks off my beard and blows it in my face,
Tweaks me by th' nose, gives me the lie i'th' throat
As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this?
Ha, why, 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 have fatted all the region kites
With this slave's offal. Bloody, bawdy villain!     
Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!    
Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave,
That I, the son of a dead father murdered,
Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,
Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words,
And fall a-cursing like a very drab,
a scullion? Fie upon't, foh!     
About, my brain! I have heard     
That guilty creatures sitting at a play 
Have, by the very cunning of the scene,
Been struck so to the soul that presently
They have proclaimed their malefactions.
For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
With most miraculous organ. I'll have these players
Play something like the murder of my father     
Before mine uncle. I'll observe his looks;
I'll tent him to the quick. If he but blench,    
I know my course. 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.    
[Exit.]

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Act 2, Scene 2

Claudius

Gertrude

Rosencrantz

Guildenstern

Claudius

Gertrude

Guildenstern

Gertrude

Polonius

Claudius

Polonius

Claudius

Polonius

Claudius

Gertrude

Claudius

Voltemand

Claudius

Polonius

Gertrude

Polonius

Gertrude

Polonius

Claudius

Polonius

Claudius

Polonius

Claudius

Gertrude

Polonius

Claudius

Polonius

Claudius

Polonius

Gertrude

Polonius

Claudius

Gertrude

Polonius

Polonius

Hamlet

Polonius

Hamlet

Polonius

Hamlet

Polonius

Hamlet

Polonius

Hamlet

Polonius

Hamlet

Polonius

Hamlet

Polonius

Hamlet

Polonius

Hamlet

Polonius

Hamlet

Polonius

Hamlet

Polonius

Hamlet

Polonius

Rosencrantz

Guildenstern

Rosencrantz

Hamlet

Rosencrantz

Guildenstern

Hamlet

Rosencrantz

Hamlet

Guildenstern

Hamlet

Rosencrantz

Hamlet