ACT 3
[Enter KING CLAUDIUS, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN]
KING CLAUDIUS
I like him not, nor stands it safe with us
I don’t like his behaviour; it’s not safe
To let his madness range. Therefore prepare you;
To let his madness stray. And so, get ready:
I your commission will forthwith dispatch,
I’m sending you on business right away,
And he to England shall along with you:
And he will come along with you to England.
The terms of our estate may not endure
It is my duty not to let this drag out
Hazard so dangerous as doth hourly grow
Because this hazard’s growing by the hour
Out of his lunacies.
Caused by his lunacy.
GUILDENSTERN
We will ourselves provide:
We’ll make sure that it’s done:
Most holy and religious fear it is
It is concerning and a sacred duty
To keep those many many bodies safe
To keep all people of this nation safe,
That live and feed upon your majesty.
For they depend upon your majesty.
ROSENCRANTZ
The single and peculiar life is bound,
Each single, private life is so compelled,
With all the strength and armour of the mind,
With all the strength of mind that it can muster,
To keep itself from noyance; but much more
To keep itself from harm; it’s amplified
That spirit upon whose weal depend and rest
When one’s wellbeing is responsible
The lives of many. The cease of majesty
To many other folk. When leaders die,
Dies not alone; but, like a gulf, doth draw
They do not die alone, but drag so many
What's near it with it: it is a massy wheel,
Down with them. It is like a massive wheel
Fixed on the summit of the highest mount,
That sits upon the apex of a mount,
To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things
And there attached upon its massive spokes,
Are mortised and adjoined; which, when it falls,
Ten thousand lesser things; so when it falls,
Each small annexment, petty consequence,
Each insignificant accompaniment
Attends the boisterous ruin. Never alone
Falls with it to the ground. The king is never
Did the king sigh, but with a general groan.
Alone when sighing; everybody groans.
KING CLAUDIUS
Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy voyage;
Get ready now for your hasty departure;
For we will fetters put upon this fear,
And we’ll put shackles on this thing that scares us
Which now goes too free-footed.
Which currently runs far too freely loose.
ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN
We will haste us.
We’ll go quickly.
[Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN]
[Enter POLONIUS]
LORD POLONIUS
My lord, he's going to his mother's closet:
My lord, he’s going to his mother’s chamber.
Behind the arras I'll convey myself,
I’ll hide myself behind the tapestry
To hear the process; and warrant she'll tax him home:
To hear them talk; I’m sure she’ll tell him off.
And, as you said, and wisely was it said,
And as you said—indeed, they were wise words—
'Tis meet that some more audience than a mother,
It’s right that someone other than his mother,
Since nature makes them partial, should o'erhear
Biased through blood, should also listen in
The speech, of vantage. Fare you well, my liege:
To what is said. And, so, farewell, my lord;
I'll call upon you ere you go to bed,
I’ll come to you before you go to bed
And tell you what I know.
And tell you what I’ve learned.
KING CLAUDIUS
Thanks, dear my lord.
Thanks, my dear lord.
[Exit POLONIUS]
O, my offence is rank it smells to heaven;
This crime of mine now stinks to highest heaven!
It hath the primal eldest curse upon't,
It’s cursed like Cain who executed Abel,
A brother's murder. Pray can I not,
So murdering his brother. I can’t pray,
Though inclination be as sharp as will:
Although I want to just as much as sinning;
My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent;
The guilt I feel usurps my wish to pray;
And, like a man to double business bound,
And, like a man with two conflicting tasks,
I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
I’m frozen, thinking which one to begin,
And both neglect. What if this cursed hand
And so neglect them both. This evil hand,
Were thicker than itself with brother's blood,
If it were smeared with my own brother’s blood,
Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens
Would there be then sufficient rain in heaven
To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy
To wash it white as snow? What’s mercy for,
But to confront the visage of offence?
If not to pardon crimes that one commits?
And what's in prayer but this two-fold force,
And what are prayers for except for this:
To be forestalled ere we come to fall,
To stop our crime before committing sin,
Or pardoned being down? Then I'll look up;
Or for forgiveness once we’ve done the sinning?
My fault is past. But, O, what form of prayer
My crime is done. But, oh, what type of prayer
Can serve my turn? 'Forgive me my foul murder'?
Forgives what I have done? “Redeem my murder”?
That cannot be; since I am still possessed
Of course it can’t, for I’m still benefitting
Of those effects for which I did the murder,
From all reasons why I did the crime:
My crown, mine own ambition and my queen.
My crown, my own ambition and my queen.
May one be pardoned and retain the offence?
Can I be pardoned and retain the bounty?
In the corrupted currents of this world
Within this wicked and corrupted world,
Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice,
The criminals live outside of the law
And oft 'tis seen the wicked prize itself
And often use the money that they steal
Buys out the law: but 'tis not so above;
To pay off judges. But not so in heaven:
There is no shuffling, there the action lies
There’s no evasion there, the things we’ve done
In his true nature; and we ourselves compelled,
Are fully known, and we are obligated
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,
To face up to the faults that we’ve committed
To give in evidence. What then? What rests?
And tell the truth. And then, what? What remains?
Try what repentance can: what can it not?
What can repentance do? What can’t it do?
Yet what can it when one can not repent?
But then, what can one do who can’t repent?
O wretched state! O bosom black as death!
Oh, what a mess! My heart is black as death!
O limed soul, that, struggling to be free,
My soul’s ensnared, but as I try escaping,
Art more engaged! Help, angels! Make assay!
I only make things worse! Oh, angels, help me!
Bow, stubborn knees; and, heart with strings of steel,
I’ll kneel to pray and may my heart of steel
Be soft as sinews of the newborn babe!
Turn soft and gentle like a new-born baby.
All may be well.
It might work out.
[Retires and kneels]
[Enter HAMLET]
HAMLET
Now might I do it pat, now he is praying;
So I could kill him now, but he is praying.
And now I'll do't. And so he goes to heaven;
I’ll do it now! And then he’ll go to heaven,
And so am I revenged. That would be scanned:
And I’ll have my revenge. Let me review that:
A villain kills my father; and for that,
A villain kills my father; in response,
I, his sole son, do this same villain send
Do I, his only son, then kill the villain
To heaven.
Sending him to heaven.
O, this is hire and salary, not revenge.
But that just does the job; it’s not revenge!
He took my father grossly, full of bread;
He killed my father, eating, unprepared,
With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May;
Without repenting for his sins in life;
And how his audit stands who knows save heaven?
So how God views him, only heaven knows.
But in our circumstance and course of thought,
But in my view and limited perspective,
'Tis heavy with him: and am I then revenged,
He’s burdened by his sins; is it revenge
To take him in the purging of his soul,
To kill him while he’s praying for forgiveness,
When he is fit and seasoned for his passage?
And thus, is ready to ascend to heaven?
No!
No!
Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent:
Stop, sword! Let’s wait until a worse occasion,
When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage,
Perhaps when he is drunk or full of rage,
Or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed;
Or having sex in his incestuous bed,
At gaming, swearing, or about some act
Or gambling, swearing, doing things immoral,
That has no relish of salvation in't;
Preventing him achieving his salvation;
Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven,
I’ll get him then, he’ll kick and scream at heaven,
And that his soul may be as damned and black
And that will curse him into vile damnation,
As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays:
Thus sending him to hell. My mother’s waiting;
This physic but prolongs thy sickly days.
With this, his pain is more exacerbating.
[Exit]
KING CLAUDIUS
[Rising]
My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:
I say my prayers, but thoughts still contravene them;
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.
And God won’t hear my words unless I mean them.
[Exit]
