1    Welcome, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern!
2    Moreover that we much did long to see you,
3    The need we have to use you did provoke
4    Our hasty sending. Something have you heard
5    Of Hamlet's transformation; so call it,
6    Sith nor the exterior nor the inward man
7    Resembles that it was. What it should be,
8    More than his father's death, that thus hath put him
9    So much from the understanding of himself,
10   I cannot dream of: I entreat you both,
11   That, being of so young days brought up with him,
12   And sith so neighbour'd to his youth and havior,
13   That you vouchsafe your rest here in our court
14   Some little time: so by your companies
15   To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather,
16   So much as from occasion you may glean,
17   Whether aught, to us unknown, afflicts him thus,
18   That, open'd, lies within our remedy.

19   Good gentlemen, he hath much talk'd of you;
20   And sure I am two men there are not living
21   To whom he more adheres. If it will please you
22   To show us so much gentry and good will
23   As to expend your time with us awhile,
24   For the supply and profit of our hope,
25   Your visitation shall receive such thanks
26   As fits a king's remembrance.

27   Both your majesties
28   Might, by the sovereign power you have of us,
29   Put your dread pleasures more into command
30   Than to entreaty.

31   But we both obey,
32   And here give up ourselves, in the full bent
33   To lay our service freely at your feet,
34   To be commanded.

35   Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern.

36   Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz:
37   And I beseech you instantly to visit
38   My too much changed son. Go, some of you,
39   And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is.

40   Heavens make our presence and our practises
41   Pleasant and helpful to him!

42   Ay, amen!

43   The ambassadors from Norway, my good lord,
44   Are joyfully return'd.

45   Thou still hast been the father of good news.

46   Have I, my lord? I assure my good liege,
47   I hold my duty, as I hold my soul,
48   Both to my God and to my gracious king:
49   And I do think, or else this brain of mine
50   Hunts not the trail of policy so sure
51   As it hath used to do, that I have found
52   The very cause of Hamlet's lunacy.

53   O, speak of that; that do I long to hear.

54   Give first admittance to the ambassadors;
55   My news shall be the fruit to that great feast.

56   Thyself do grace to them, and bring them in.
Exit POLONIUS
57   He tells me, my dear Gertrude, he hath found
58   The head and source of all your son's distemper.

59   I doubt it is no other but the main;
60   His father's death, and our o'erhasty marriage.

61   Well, we shall sift him.
Re-enter POLONIUS, with VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS
62   Welcome, my good friends!
63   Say, Voltimand, what from our brother Norway?

64   Most fair return of greetings and desires.
65   Upon our first, he sent out to suppress
66   His nephew's levies; which to him appear'd
67   To be a preparation 'gainst the Polack;
68   But, better look'd into, he truly found
69   It was against your highness: whereat grieved,
70   That so his sickness, age and impotence
71   Was falsely borne in hand, sends out arrests
72   On Fortinbras; which he, in brief, obeys;
73   Receives rebuke from Norway, and in fine
74   Makes vow before his uncle never more
75   To give the assay of arms against your majesty.
76   Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy,
77   Gives him three thousand crowns in annual fee,
78   And his commission to employ those soldiers,
79   So levied as before, against the Polack:
80   With an entreaty, herein further shown,
Giving a paper
81   That it might please you to give quiet pass
82   Through your dominions for this enterprise,
83   On such regards of safety and allowance
84   As therein are set down.

85   It likes us well;
86   And at our more consider'd time well read,
87   Answer, and think upon this business.
88   Meantime we thank you for your well-took labour:
89   Go to your rest; at night we'll feast together:
90   Most welcome home!

91   This business is well ended.
92   My liege, and madam, to expostulate
93   What majesty should be, what duty is,
94   Why day is day, night night, and time is time,
95   Were nothing but to waste night, day and time.
96   Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
97   And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
98   I will be brief: your noble son is mad:
99   Mad call I it; for, to define true madness,
100  What is't but to be nothing else but mad?
101  But let that go.

102  More matter, with less art.

103  Madam, I swear I use no art at all.
104  That he is mad, 'tis true: 'tis true 'tis pity;
105  And pity 'tis 'tis true: a foolish figure;
106  But farewell it, for I will use no art.
107  Mad let us grant him, then: and now remains
108  That we find out the cause of this effect,
109  Or rather say, the cause of this defect,
110  For this effect defective comes by cause:
111  Thus it remains, and the remainder thus. Perpend.
112  I have a daughter--have while she is mine--
113  Who, in her duty and obedience, mark,
114  Hath given me this: now gather, and surmise.
Reads
115  'To the celestial and my soul's idol, the most
116  beautified Ophelia,'--
117  That's an ill phrase, a vile phrase; 'beautified' is
118  a vile phrase: but you shall hear. Thus:
Reads
119  'In her excellent white bosom, these, &c.'

120  Came this from Hamlet to her?

121  Good madam, stay awhile; I will be faithful.
Reads
122  'Doubt thou the stars are fire;
123  Doubt that the sun doth move;
124  Doubt truth to be a liar;
125  But never doubt I love.
126  'O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers;
127  I have not art to reckon my groans: but that
128  I love thee best, O most best, believe it. Adieu.
129  'Thine evermore most dear lady, whilst
130  this machine is to him, HAMLET.'
131  This, in obedience, hath my daughter shown me,
132  And more above, hath his solicitings,
133  As they fell out by time, by means and place,
134  All given to mine ear.

135  But how hath she
136  Received his love?

137  What do you think of me?

138  As of a man faithful and honourable.

139  I would fain prove so. But what might you think,
140  When I had seen this hot love on the wing--
141  As I perceived it, I must tell you that,
142  Before my daughter told me--what might you,
143  Or my dear majesty your queen here, think,
144  If I had play'd the desk or table-book,
145  Or given my heart a winking, mute and dumb,
146  Or look'd upon this love with idle sight;
147  What might you think? No, I went round to work,
148  And my young mistress thus I did bespeak:
149  'Lord Hamlet is a prince, out of thy star;
150  This must not be:' and then I precepts gave her,
151  That she should lock herself from his resort,
152  Admit no messengers, receive no tokens.
153  Which done, she took the fruits of my advice;
154  And he, repulsed--a short tale to make--
155  Fell into a sadness, then into a fast,
156  Thence to a watch, thence into a weakness,
157  Thence to a lightness, and, by this declension,
158  Into the madness wherein now he raves,
159  And all we mourn for.

160  Do you think 'tis this?

161  It may be, very likely.

162  Hath there been such a time--I'd fain know that--
163  That I have positively said 'Tis so,'
164  When it proved otherwise?

165  Not that I know.

Pointing to his head and shoulder
166  Take this from this, if this be otherwise:
167  If circumstances lead me, I will find
168  Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed
169  Within the centre.

170  How may we try it further?

171  You know, sometimes he walks four hours together
172  Here in the lobby.

173  So he does indeed.

174  At such a time I'll loose my daughter to him:
175  Be you and I behind an arras then;
176  Mark the encounter: if he love her not
177  And be not from his reason fall'n thereon,
178  Let me be no assistant for a state,
179  But keep a farm and carters.

180  We will try it.

181  But, look, where sadly the poor wretch comes reading.

182  Away, I do beseech you, both away:
183  I'll board him presently.
Enter HAMLET, reading
184  O, give me leave:
185  How does my good Lord Hamlet?

186  Well, God-a-mercy.

187  Do you know me, my lord?

188  Excellent well; you are a fishmonger.

189  Not I, my lord.

190  Then I would you were so honest a man.

191  Honest, my lord!

192  Ay, sir; to be honest, as this world goes, is to be
193  one man picked out of ten thousand.

194  That's very true, my lord.

195  For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a
196  god kissing carrion,--Have you a daughter?

197  I have, my lord.

198  Let her not walk i' the sun: conception is a
199  blessing: but not as your daughter may conceive.
200  Friend, look to 't.

Aside
201   How say you by that? Still harping on my
202  daughter: yet he knew me not at first; he said I
203  was a fishmonger: he is far gone, far gone: and
204  truly in my youth I suffered much extremity for
205  love; very near this. I'll speak to him again.
206  What do you read, my lord?

207  Words, words, words.

208  What is the matter, my lord?

209  Between who?

210  I mean, the matter that you read, my lord.

211  Slanders, sir: for the satirical rogue says here
212  that old men have grey beards, that their faces are
213  wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and
214  plum-tree gum and that they have a plentiful lack of
215  wit, together with most weak hams: all which, sir,
216  though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet
217  I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down, for
218  yourself, sir, should be old as I am, if like a crab
219  you could go backward.

Aside
220   Though this be madness, yet there is method
221  in 't. Will you walk out of the air, my lord?

222  Into my grave.

223  Indeed, that is out o' the air.
Aside
224  How pregnant sometimes his replies are! a happiness
225  that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity
226  could not so prosperously be delivered of. I will
227  leave him, and suddenly contrive the means of
228  meeting between him and my daughter.--My honourable
229  lord, I will most humbly take my leave of you.

230  You cannot, sir, take from me any thing that I will
231  more willingly part withal: except my life, except
232  my life, except my life.

233  Fare you well, my lord.

234  These tedious old fools!

235  You go to seek the Lord Hamlet; there he is.

To POLONIUS
236   God save you, sir!

237  My honoured lord!

238  My most dear lord!

239  My excellent good friends! How dost thou,
240  Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do ye both?

241  As the indifferent children of the earth.

242  Happy, in that we are not over-happy;
243  On fortune's cap we are not the very button.

244  Nor the soles of her shoe?

245  Neither, my lord.

246  Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of
247  her favours?

248  'Faith, her privates we.

249  In the secret parts of fortune? O, most true; she
250  is a strumpet. What's the news?

251  None, my lord, but that the world's grown honest.

252  Then is doomsday near: but your news is not true.
253  Let me question more in particular: what have you,
254  my good friends, deserved at the hands of fortune,
255  that she sends you to prison hither?

256  Prison, my lord!

257  Denmark's a prison.

258  Then is the world one.

259  A goodly one; in which there are many confines,
260  wards and dungeons, Denmark being one o' the worst.

261  We think not so, my lord.

262  Why, then, 'tis none to you; for there is nothing
263  either good or bad, but thinking makes it so: to me
264  it is a prison.

265  Why then, your ambition makes it one; 'tis too
266  narrow for your mind.

267  O God, I could be bounded in a nut shell and count
268  myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I
269  have bad dreams.

270  Which dreams indeed are ambition, for the very
271  substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.

272  A dream itself is but a shadow.

273  Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a
274  quality that it is but a shadow's shadow.

275  Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and
276  outstretched heroes the beggars' shadows. Shall we
277  to the court? for, by my fay, I cannot reason.

278  We'll wait upon you.

279  No such matter: I will not sort you with the rest
280  of my servants, for, to speak to you like an honest
281  man, I am most dreadfully attended. But, in the
282  beaten way of friendship, what make you at Elsinore?

283  To visit you, my lord; no other occasion.

284  Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks; but I
285  thank you: and sure, dear friends, my thanks are
286  too dear a halfpenny. Were you not sent for? Is it
287  your own inclining? Is it a free visitation? Come,
288  deal justly with me: come, come; nay, speak.

289  What should we say, my lord?

290  Why, any thing, but to the purpose. You were sent
291  for; and there is a kind of confession in your looks
292  which your modesties have not craft enough to colour:
293  I know the good king and queen have sent for you.

294  To what end, my lord?

295  That you must teach me. But let me conjure you, by
296  the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy of
297  our youth, by the obligation of our ever-preserved
298  love, and by what more dear a better proposer could
299  charge you withal, be even and direct with me,
300  whether you were sent for, or no?

Aside to GUILDENSTERN
301   What say you?

Aside
302   Nay, then, I have an eye of you.--If you
303  love me, hold not off.

304  My lord, we were sent for.

305  I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation
306  prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the king
307  and queen moult no feather. I have of late--but
308  wherefore I know not--lost all my mirth, forgone all
309  custom of exercises; and indeed it goes so heavily
310  with my disposition that this goodly frame, the
311  earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this most
312  excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave
313  o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted
314  with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to
315  me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours.
316  What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason!
317  how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how
318  express and admirable! in action how like an angel!
319  in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the
320  world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me,
321  what is this quintessence of dust? man delights not
322  me: no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling
323  you seem to say so.

324  My lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts.

325  Why did you laugh then, when I said 'man delights not me'?

326  To think, my lord, if you delight not in man, what
327  lenten entertainment the players shall receive from
328  you: we coted them on the way; and hither are they
329  coming, to offer you service.

330  He that plays the king shall be welcome; his majesty
331  shall have tribute of me; the adventurous knight
332  shall use his foil and target; the lover shall not
333  sigh gratis; the humourous man shall end his part
334  in peace; the clown shall make those laugh whose
335  lungs are tickled o' the sere; and the lady shall
336  say her mind freely, or the blank verse shall halt
337  for't. What players are they?

338  Even those you were wont to take delight in, the
339  tragedians of the city.

340  How chances it they travel? their residence, both
341  in reputation and profit, was better both ways.

342  I think their inhibition comes by the means of the
343  late innovation.

344  Do they hold the same estimation they did when I was
345  in the city? are they so followed?

346  No, indeed, are they not.

347  How comes it? do they grow rusty?

348  Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace: but
349  there is, sir, an aery of children, little eyases,
350  that cry out on the top of question, and are most
351  tyrannically clapped for't: these are now the
352  fashion, and so berattle the common stages--so they
353  call them--that many wearing rapiers are afraid of
354  goose-quills and dare scarce come thither.

355  What, are they children? who maintains 'em? how are
356  they escoted? Will they pursue the quality no
357  longer than they can sing? will they not say
358  afterwards, if they should grow themselves to common
359  players--as it is most like, if their means are no
360  better--their writers do them wrong, to make them
361  exclaim against their own succession?

362  'Faith, there has been much to do on both sides; and
363  the nation holds it no sin to tarre them to
364  controversy: there was, for a while, no money bid
365  for argument, unless the poet and the player went to
366  cuffs in the question.

367  Is't possible?

368  O, there has been much throwing about of brains.

369  Do the boys carry it away?

370  Ay, that they do, my lord; Hercules and his load too.

371  It is not very strange; for mine uncle is king of
372  Denmark, and those that would make mows at him while
373  my father lived, give twenty, forty, fifty, an
374  hundred ducats a-piece for his picture in little.
375  'Sblood, there is something in this more than
376  natural, if philosophy could find it out.

377  There are the players.

378  Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands,
379  come then: the appurtenance of welcome is fashion
380  and ceremony: let me comply with you in this garb,
381  lest my extent to the players, which, I tell you,
382  must show fairly outward, should more appear like
383  entertainment than yours. You are welcome: but my
384  uncle-father and aunt-mother are deceived.

385  In what, my dear lord?

386  I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is
387  southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw.

388  Well be with you, gentlemen!

389  Hark you, Guildenstern; and you too: at each ear a
390  hearer: that great baby you see there is not yet
391  out of his swaddling-clouts.

392  Happily he's the second time come to them; for they
393  say an old man is twice a child.

394  I will prophesy he comes to tell me of the players;
395  mark it. You say right, sir: o' Monday morning;
396  'twas so indeed.

397  My lord, I have news to tell you.

398  My lord, I have news to tell you.
399  When Roscius was an actor in Rome,--

400  The actors are come hither, my lord.

401  Buz, buz!

402  Upon mine honour,--

403  Then came each actor on his ass,--

404  The best actors in the world, either for tragedy,
405  comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical,
406  historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-
407  comical-historical-pastoral, scene individable, or
408  poem unlimited: Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor
409  Plautus too light. For the law of writ and the
410  liberty, these are the only men.

411  O Jephthah, judge of Israel, what a treasure hadst thou!

412  What a treasure had he, my lord?

413  Why,
414  'One fair daughter and no more,
415  The which he loved passing well.'

Aside
416   Still on my daughter.

417  Am I not i' the right, old Jephthah?

418  If you call me Jephthah, my lord, I have a daughter
419  that I love passing well.

420  Nay, that follows not.

421  What follows, then, my lord?

422  Why,
423  'As by lot, God wot,'
424  and then, you know,
425  'It came to pass, as most like it was,'--
426  the first row of the pious chanson will show you
427  more; for look, where my abridgement comes.
Enter four or five Players
428  You are welcome, masters; welcome, all. I am glad
429  to see thee well. Welcome, good friends. O, my old
430  friend! thy face is valenced since I saw thee last:
431  comest thou to beard me in Denmark? What, my young
432  lady and mistress! By'r lady, your ladyship is
433  nearer to heaven than when I saw you last, by the
434  altitude of a chopine. Pray God, your voice, like
435  apiece of uncurrent gold, be not cracked within the
436  ring. Masters, you are all welcome. We'll e'en
437  to't like French falconers, fly at any thing we see:
438  we'll have a speech straight: come, give us a taste
439  of your quality; come, a passionate speech.

440  What speech, my lord?

441  I heard thee speak me a speech once, but it was
442  never acted; or, if it was, not above once; for the
443  play, I remember, pleased not the million; 'twas
444  caviare to the general: but it was--as I received
445  it, and others, whose judgments in such matters
446  cried in the top of mine--an excellent play, well
447  digested in the scenes, set down with as much
448  modesty as cunning. I remember, one said there
449  were no sallets in the lines to make the matter
450  savoury, nor no matter in the phrase that might
451  indict the author of affectation; but called it an
452  honest method, as wholesome as sweet, and by very
453  much more handsome than fine. One speech in it I
454  chiefly loved: 'twas Aeneas' tale to Dido; and
455  thereabout of it especially, where he speaks of
456  Priam's slaughter: if it live in your memory, begin
457  at this line: let me see, let me see--
458  'The rugged Pyrrhus, like the Hyrcanian beast,'--
459  it is not so:--it begins with Pyrrhus:--
460  'The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms,
461  Black as his purpose, did the night resemble
462  When he lay couched in the ominous horse,
463  Hath now this dread and black complexion smear'd
464  With heraldry more dismal; head to foot
465  Now is he total gules; horridly trick'd
466  With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons,
467  Baked and impasted with the parching streets,
468  That lend a tyrannous and damned light
469  To their lord's murder: roasted in wrath and fire,
470  And thus o'er-sized with coagulate gore,
471  With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus
472  Old grandsire Priam seeks.'
473  So, proceed you.

474  'Fore God, my lord, well spoken, with good accent and
475  good discretion.

476  'Anon he finds him
477  Striking too short at Greeks; his antique sword,
478  Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls,
479  Repugnant to command: unequal match'd,
480  Pyrrhus at Priam drives; in rage strikes wide;
481  But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword
482  The unnerved father falls. Then senseless Ilium,
483  Seeming to feel this blow, with flaming top
484  Stoops to his base, and with a hideous crash
485  Takes prisoner Pyrrhus' ear: for, lo! his sword,
486  Which was declining on the milky head
487  Of reverend Priam, seem'd i' the air to stick:
488  So, as a painted tyrant, Pyrrhus stood,
489  And like a neutral to his will and matter,
490  Did nothing.
491  But, as we often see, against some storm,
492  A silence in the heavens, the rack stand still,
493  The bold winds speechless and the orb below
494  As hush as death, anon the dreadful thunder
495  Doth rend the region, so, after Pyrrhus' pause,
496  Aroused vengeance sets him new a-work;
497  And never did the Cyclops' hammers fall
498  On Mars's armour forged for proof eterne
499  With less remorse than Pyrrhus' bleeding sword
500  Now falls on Priam.
501  Out, out, thou strumpet, Fortune! All you gods,
502  In general synod 'take away her power;
503  Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel,
504  And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven,
505  As low as to the fiends!'

506  This is too long.

507  It shall to the barber's, with your beard. Prithee,
508  say on: he's for a jig or a tale of bawdry, or he
509  sleeps: say on: come to Hecuba.

510  'But who, O, who had seen the mobled queen--'

511  'The mobled queen?'

512  That's good; 'mobled queen' is good.

513  'Run barefoot up and down, threatening the flames
514  With bisson rheum; a clout upon that head
515  Where late the diadem stood, and for a robe,
516  About her lank and all o'er-teemed loins,
517  A blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up;
518  Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steep'd,
519  'Gainst Fortune's state would treason have
520  pronounced:
521  But if the gods themselves did see her then
522  When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport
523  In mincing with his sword her husband's limbs,
524  The instant burst of clamour that she made,
525  Unless things mortal move them not at all,
526  Would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven,
527  And passion in the gods.'

528  Look, whether he has not turned his colour and has
529  tears in's eyes. Pray you, no more.

530  'Tis well: I'll have thee speak out the rest soon.
531  Good my lord, will you see the players well
532  bestowed? Do you hear, let them be well used; for
533  they are the abstract and brief chronicles of the
534  time: after your death you were better have a bad
535  epitaph than their ill report while you live.

536  My lord, I will use them according to their desert.

537  God's bodykins, man, much better: use every man
538  after his desert, and who should 'scape whipping?
539  Use them after your own honour and dignity: the less
540  they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty.
541  Take them in.

542  Come, sirs.

543  Follow him, friends: we'll hear a play to-morrow.
Exit POLONIUS with all the Players but the First
544  Dost thou hear me, old friend; can you play the
545  Murder of Gonzago?

546  Ay, my lord.

547  We'll ha't to-morrow night. You could, for a need,
548  study a speech of some dozen or sixteen lines, which
549  I would set down and insert in't, could you not?

550  Ay, my lord.

551  Very well. Follow that lord; and look you mock him
552  not.
Exit First Player
553  My good friends, I'll leave you till night: you are
554  welcome to Elsinore.

555  Good my lord!

556  Ay, so, God be wi' ye;
Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
557  Now I am alone.
558  O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!
559  Is it not monstrous that this player here,
560  But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
561  Could force his soul so to his own conceit
562  That from her working all his visage wann'd,
563  Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect,
564  A broken voice, and his whole function suiting
565  With forms to his conceit? and all for nothing!
566  For Hecuba!
567  What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,
568  That he should weep for her? What would he do,
569  Had he the motive and the cue for passion
570  That I have? He would drown the stage with tears
571  And cleave the general ear with horrid speech,
572  Make mad the guilty and appal the free,
573  Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed
574  The very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet I,
575  A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak,
576  Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause,
577  And can say nothing; no, not for a king,
578  Upon whose property and most dear life
579  A damn'd defeat was made. Am I a coward?
580  Who calls me villain? breaks my pate across?
581  Plucks off my beard, and blows it in my face?
582  Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i' the throat,
583  As deep as to the lungs? who does me this?
584  Ha!
585  'Swounds, I should take it: for it cannot be
586  But I am pigeon-liver'd and lack gall
587  To make oppression bitter, or ere this
588  I should have fatted all the region kites
589  With this slave's offal: bloody, bawdy villain!
590  Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!
591  O, vengeance!
592  Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave,
593  That I, the son of a dear father murder'd,
594  Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,
595  Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words,
596  And fall a-cursing, like a very drab,
597  A scullion!
598  Fie upon't! foh! About, my brain! I have heard
599  That guilty creatures sitting at a play
600  Have by the very cunning of the scene
601  Been struck so to the soul that presently
602  They have proclaim'd their malefactions;
603  For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
604  With most miraculous organ. I'll have these players
605  Play something like the murder of my father
606  Before mine uncle: I'll observe his looks;
607  I'll tent him to the quick: if he but blench,
608  I know my course. The spirit that I have seen
609  May be the devil: and the devil hath power
610  To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps
611  Out of my weakness and my melancholy,
612  As he is very potent with such spirits,
613  Abuses me to damn me: I'll have grounds
614  More relative than this: the play 's the thing
615  Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.