Act 3; Scene 2

A hall in the Castle.

Enter Hamlet and certain Players.

HAMLET.                                                                                                                                                                            Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced Stage directions; Shakeespeare casting himself as Hamlet and orchestrating the action on a stage. I wonder if this is where S. got the idea for The Tempest?
it to you, trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth
it, as many of our 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 in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say,
whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and
beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. O,
it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious,
periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very
rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the
most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable
dumb shows and noise. I would have such a fellow
whipped for o’erdoing Termagant. It out-Herods Ref. to the NT, Herod, tyrant who ordered the slaughter of the innocents
Herod. Pray you, avoid it.

FIRST PLAYER.
I warrant your honour.

HAMLET.
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 Imitation; Appearance of reality, but actually a deception.
nature. For anything so o’erdone is from the purpose
of playing, whose end, both at the first and
now, was and is to hold, as ’twere, the mirror up to
nature, to show virtue her own feature, scorn her
own image, and the very age and body of the time
his form and pressure. Now this overdone or come
tardy off, though it makes the unskillful laugh,
cannot but make the judicious grieve, the censure
of the which one must in your allowance o’erweigh
a whole theater of others. O, there be players that I
have seen play and heard others praise (and that
highly), not to speak it profanely, that, neither
having th’ accent of Christians nor the gait of
Christian, pagan, nor man, have so strutted and
bellowed that I have thought some of nature’s
journeymen had made men, and not made them
well, they imitated humanity so abominably. Christian men in medieval Europe, as opposed to pagan men in Ancient Greece. Is he talking about actors or actual people? Claudius acts like a king but isn’t one, and isn’t a good one (He’s selfish, a murderer, and a bad tactician). Hamlet is one day going to be a king, but does he act like one? He should be able to act decisively without hesitation, but doesn’t. He acts like a petulant child at times, and maybe he’s pretending to be crazy, but maybe he is crazy, and maybe the flaws of his personality are inadvertently showing through, and he does have flaws. After all, he’s only human. Perhaps this is a critique of Medieval Christians who are not better than the pagans of ancient Greece? Ancient Greeks were very smart people who were very concerned with the nature of mankind and sought out the betterment of mankind, but because they weren’t Christians, even the dumbest, cruelest Christian man looks down on pagans. Proving that the Medieval Christian man, despite his belief that he is superior, is only pretending to be so when he is, in fact, not superior. They were certainly not superior to the Greeks or the Romans. They were terrified of little old women, and instead of treating them well, tortured them and burned them at the stake. If given a choice, I personally would choose to live in ancient Greece or ancient Rome rather than Medieval Europe.

FIRST PLAYER.
I hope we have reform’d that indifferently                                                                                                                                        with us, sir.

HAMLET.
O, reform it altogether. And let those that play
your clowns speak no more than is set down for
them, for there be of them that will themselves
laugh, to set on some quantity of barren spectators
to laugh too, though in the meantime some necessary
question of the play be then to be considered. Reference to the grave diggers. The grave diggers are a distraction from the fact that Shakespeare lifted that scene from the Orestia. Their presence makes it seem as if the scene is different than the first scene in the Libation Bears, but it is not.
That’s villainous and shows a most pitiful ambition
in the fool that uses it. Go make you ready. i.e. I find ham actors deplorable and unwatchable. No good writer likes a bad actor destroying their plays.

[Exeunt Players.]

Enter Polonius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

How now, my lord?
Will the King hear this piece of work?

POLONIUS.
And the Queen too, and that presently.

HAMLET.
Bid the players make haste.

[Exit Polonius.]

Will you two help to hasten them?

ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.
We will, my lord.

[Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.]

HAMLET.
What ho, Horatio!

Enter Horatio.

HORATIO.
Here, sweet lord, at your service.

HAMLET.
Horatio, thou art e’en as just a man
As e’er my conversation cop’d withal.

HORATIO.
O my dear lord.

HAMLET.
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 flatter’d?
No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp,
And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee
Where thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear?
Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice,
And could of men distinguish, her election
Hath seal’d 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. And blessed are those
Whose blood and judgement are so well co-mingled
That they are not a pipe for Fortune’s finger
To sound what stop she please. Give me that man
That is not passion’s slave, and I will wear him Not dancing to someone else’s tune
In my heart’s core, ay, in my heart of heart,
As I do thee. Something too much of this.
There is a play tonight before the King.
One scene of it comes near the circumstance
Which I have told thee, of my father’s death.
I prithee, when thou see’st that act a-foot,
Even with the very comment of thy soul
Observe mine uncle. If his occulted guilt
Do not itself unkennel in one speech,
It is a damned ghost that we have seen; a demon
And my imaginations are as foul If Claudius doesn’t react, he is innocent, and I’m just imagining all this. Or in the snare of the devil.
As Vulcan’s stithy. Give him heedful note; Hellish fire
For I mine eyes will rivet to his face;
And after we will both our judgements join
In censure of his seeming. If the “common” man Horatio is convinced of Claudius’ guilt, then he must truly be guilty, and the people of Denmark would agree. It sets Hamlet up as a savior of Denmark from the evil Claudius.

HORATIO.
Well, my lord.
If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing,
And ’scape detecting, I will pay the theft.

HAMLET.
They are coming to the play. I must be idle.
Get you a place.

Danish march. A flourish. Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and others.

KING.
How fares our cousin Hamlet?

HAMLET.
Excellent, i’ faith; of the chameleon’s dish:                                                                                                                                           I eat the air, promise-crammed: you cannot feed capons so.

KING.
I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet; these words are not mine.

HAMLET.
No, nor mine now.                                                                                                                                                                               [To Polonius.]                                                                                                                                                                                                      My lord, you play’d once i’ th’university, you say? Observation about how old people always want to talk about their glory days, and young people think their glory days are lame.

POLONIUS.
That did I, my lord, and was accounted a good actor.

HAMLET.
What did you enact?

POLONIUS.
I did enact Julius Caesar.                                                                                                                                                                           I was kill’d i’ th’ Capitol. Brutus killed me. Assassinated king

HAMLET.
It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf there.                                                                                                                          Be the players ready?

ROSENCRANTZ.
Ay, my lord; they stay upon your patience.

QUEEN.
Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         HAMLET.
No, good mother, here’s metal more attractive. Hamlet being facetious again, appearance vs reality

POLONIUS.
[To the King.] O ho! do you mark that?

HAMLET.
Lady, shall I lie in your lap?

[Lying down at Ophelia’s feet.]

OPHELIA.
No, my lord.

HAMLET.
I mean, my head upon your lap?

OPHELIA.
Ay, my lord.

HAMLET.
Do you think I meant country matters?

OPHELIA.
I think nothing, my lord.

HAMLET.
That’s a fair thought to lie between maids’ legs. Vulgar reference to Ophelia’s prostitution by her father and Claudius? Bitterness of a betrayed lover?

OPHELIA.
What is, my lord?

HAMLET.
Nothing.

OPHELIA.
You are merry, my lord.

HAMLET.
Who, I?

OPHELIA.
Ay, my lord.

HAMLET.
O God, your only jig-maker. What should a
man do but be merry? For look you how cheerfully
my mother looks, and my father died within ’s two
hours.

OPHELIA.
Nay, ’tis twice two months, my lord.

HAMLET.
So long? Nay, then, let the devil wear black,
for I’ll have a suit of sables. O heavens, die two
months ago, and not forgotten yet? Then there’s
hope a great man’s memory may outlive his life half
a year. But, by ’r Lady, he must build churches, then,
or else shall he suffer not thinking on, with the
hobby-horse, whose epitaph is “For oh, for oh, the
hobby-horse is forgot.”

Trumpets sound. The dumb show enters.

Enter a King and a Queen very lovingly; the Queen embracing him and he her. She kneels, and makes show of protestation unto him. He takes her up, and declines his head upon her neck. Lays him down upon a bank of flowers. She, seeing him asleep, leaves him. Anon comes in a fellow, takes off his crown, kisses it, pours poison in the King’s ears, and exits. The Queen returns, finds the King dead, and makes passionate action. The Poisoner with some three or four Mutes, comes in again, seeming to lament with her. The dead body is carried away. The Poisoner woos the Queen with gifts. She seems loth and unwilling awhile, but in the end accepts his love. You would think this would alert Claudius as to what is about to occur, but no.

[Exeunt.]

OPHELIA.
What means this, my lord?

HAMLET.
Marry, this is miching mallecho; it means mischief.

OPHELIA.
Belike this show imports the argument of the play.

Enter Prologue.

HAMLET.
We shall know by this fellow: the players cannot keep counsel; they’ll tell all.

OPHELIA.
Will they tell us what this show meant?

HAMLET.
Ay, or any show that you’ll show him. Be not you ashamed to show, he’ll not shame to tell you what it means.

OPHELIA.
You are naught, you are naught: I’ll mark the play. Naughty Naughty.

PROLOGUE.
For us, and for our tragedy,
   Here stooping to your clemency,
   We beg your hearing patiently.

HAMLET.
Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring?

OPHELIA.
’Tis brief, my lord.

HAMLET.
As woman’s love. Bitterness of a betrayed lover? Or a betrayed son?

Enter a King and a Queen.

PLAYER KING.
Full thirty times hath Phoebus’ cart gone round Apollo was considered the Sun god, divine right of kings…only God can judge a king, not his subjects
Neptune’s salt wash and Tellus’ orbed ground, Sea and earth
And thirty dozen moons with borrow’d sheen
About the world have times twelve thirties been,
Since love our hearts, and Hymen did our hands Cassandra mentions Hymen in the play The Trojan Women. Hymen is often portrayed as a companion to brides, guiding them to their husbands. He is a god of marriage and the sacred rite of weddings.
Unite commutual in most sacred bands.

PLAYER QUEEN.
So many journeys may the sun and moon
Make us again count o’er ere love be done.
But, woe is me, you are so sick of late,
So far from cheer and from your former state,
That I distrust you. Yet, though I distrust,
Discomfort you, my lord, it nothing must:
For women’s fear and love holds quantity,
In neither aught, or in extremity.
Now what my love is, proof hath made you know,
And as my love is siz’d, my fear is so.
Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear;
Where little fears grow great, great love grows there.

PLAYER KING.
Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly too:
My operant powers their functions leave to do:
And thou shalt live in this fair world behind,
Honour’d, belov’d, and haply one as kind
For husband shalt thou—

PLAYER QUEEN.
O confound the rest.
Such love must needs be treason in my breast.The ghost tells Hamlet to let Gertrude’s guilt prick at her like a thorn or maybe a snake bite.
In second husband let me be accurst!
None wed the second but who kill’d the first.

HAMLET.
[Aside.] Wormwood, wormwood. The star that falls from heaven and makes water bitter in Revelation and signals the end times? Herb used as a cure-all in Medieval times and as a de-wormer. Also used in absinthe.

PLAYER QUEEN.
The instances that second marriage move
Are base respects of thrift, but none of love.
A second time I kill my husband dead,
When second husband kisses me in bed.

PLAYER KING.
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 necessary ’tis that we forget
To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt. Is Hamlet referring to himself? Is this the part he wrote? I don’t think it ever tells which lines Hamlet wrote. I’m sure it wasn’t as lame as that verse he wrote to Ophelia.
What to ourselves in passion we propose,
The passion ending, doth the purpose lose. In the throes of passion, we often make promises, but once that passion passes, we forget our promises.
The violence of either grief or joy
Their own enactures with themselves destroy.
Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament;
Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident.
This world is not for aye; nor ’tis not strange
That even our loves should with our fortunes change,
For ’tis a question left us yet to prove,
Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love.
The great man down, you mark his favourite flies,
The poor advanc’d makes friends of enemies;
And hitherto doth love on fortune tend:
For who not needs shall never lack a friend,
And who in want a hollow friend doth try, Neither a borrower nor a lender be.
Directly seasons him his enemy.
But orderly to end where I begun,
Our wills and fates do so contrary run
That our devices still are overthrown.
Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own.
So think thou wilt no second husband wed,
But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead.

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!
Both here and hence pursue me lasting strife,
If, once a widow, ever I be wife.

HAMLET.
[To Ophelia.] If she should break it now.

PLAYER KING.
’Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here awhile.
My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile
The tedious day with sleep.
[Sleeps.]

PLAYER QUEEN.
Sleep rock thy brain,
And never come mischance between us twain.

[Exit.]

HAMLET.
Madam, how like you this play?

QUEEN.
The lady protests too much, methinks. She should know.

HAMLET.
O, but she’ll keep her word.

KING.
Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in’t?

HAMLET.
No, no, they do but jest, poison in jest; no offence i’ th’ world.

KING.
What do you call the play?

HAMLET.
“The Mousetrap.” Marry, how? Tropically. Cat and mouse
This play is the image of a murder done in Vienna.
Gonzago is the duke’s name, his wife Baptista. You
shall see anon. ’Tis a knavish piece of work, but
what of that? Your Majesty and we that have free Throwing that in Claudius face that he is innocent and definitely not guilty of murdering his brother to steal his wife and kingdom souls, it touches us not. Let the galled jade wince;
our withers are unwrung.

Enter Lucianus.

This is one Lucianus, nephew to the King.

OPHELIA.
You are a good chorus, my lord. Reference to the purpose of the Greek chorus, but they often ended up ineffectual, just like Hamlet is at this point.

HAMLET.
I could interpret between you and your love,                                                                                                                                      if I could see the puppets dallying.

OPHELIA.
You are keen, my lord, you are keen.

HAMLET.
It would cost you a groaning to take off my edge.

OPHELIA.
Still better, and worse.

HAMLET.
So you mis-take your husbands.—Begin,
murderer. Pox, leave thy damnable faces and
begin. Come, the croaking raven doth bellow for revenge. Ravens are scavengers

LUCIANUS.
Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing,
Confederate season, else no creature seeing;
Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected,
With Hecate’s ban thrice blasted, thrice infected,
Thy natural magic and dire property
On wholesome life usurp immediately.

[Pours the poison into the sleeper’s ears.]

HAMLET.
He poisons him i’ th’ garden for his estate. His
name’s Gonzago. The story is extant and written in
very choice Italian. You shall see anon how the
murderer gets the love of Gonzago’s wife.

Claudius rises.Gotcha. By Claudius’ reaction, Hamlet now knows that he is, in fact, guilty of his father’s murder and can act accordingly. The tragedy is that he does react and does so irrationally, by killing Polonius instead of the person he should have killed; he also failed to follow God’s admonition of Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord, “ and he then has damned his own soul by breaking one of the ten commandments.

OPHELIA.
The King rises.

HAMLET.
What, frighted with false fire?

QUEEN.
How fares my lord?

POLONIUS.
Give o’er the play.

KING.
Give me some light. Away.

All.
Lights, lights, lights.

[Exeunt all but Hamlet and Horatio.]

HAMLET.
Why, let the strucken deer go weep, Wounded deer=wounded hart; pun for wounded heart                                                                                              The hart ungalled play;
 For some must watch, while some must sleep,
 So runs the world away.
Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers,                                                                                                                                                if the rest of my fortunes turn Turk with me; go against everything I believe in, like a Christian becoming a Muslim.                                                                                                                                      with two Provincial roses on my razed shoes,                                                                                                                                    get me a fellowship in a cry of players, sir?

HORATIO.
Half a share.

HAMLET.
A whole one, I.
For thou dost know, O Damon dear, Greek mythology, Damon, a true friend, offered to take Pythias’ place when he was about to be executed.
This realm dismantled was
Of Jove himself, and now reigns here
A very, very—pajock. peacock

HORATIO.
You might have rhymed.

HAMLET.
O good Horatio, I’ll take the ghost’s word for a thousand pound. Didst perceive? I now believe the Ghost due to Claudius’ actions.

HORATIO.
Very well, my lord.

HAMLET.
Upon the talk of the poisoning?

HORATIO.
I did very well note him.

HAMLET.
Ah, ha! Come, some music. Come, the recorders.
For if the king like not the comedy,                                                                                                                                                   Why then, belike he likes it not, perdie.
Come, some music.

Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

GUILDENSTERN.
Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you.

HAMLET.
Sir, a whole history.

GUILDENSTERN.
The King, sir—

HAMLET.
Ay, sir, what of him?

GUILDENSTERN.
Is in his retirement, marvellous distempered.

HAMLET.
With drink, sir? Reference to Claudius being a drunkard             

GUILDENSTERN.
No, my lord; rather with choler. Angry not drunk.

HAMLET.
Your wisdom should show itself more richer
to signify this to the doctor, for for me to put him to
his purgation would perhaps plunge him into more
choler.

GUILDENSTERN.
Good my lord, put your discourse into
some frame and start not so wildly from my affair.

HAMLET.
I am tame, sir, pronounce.

GUILDENSTERN.
The Queen your mother, in most great
affliction of spirit, hath sent me to you.

HAMLET.
You are welcome.

GUILDENSTERN.
Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not
of the right breed. If it shall please you to make me
a wholesome answer, I will do your mother’s
commandment. If not, your pardon and my return
shall be the end of my business.

HAMLET.
Sir, I cannot.

GUILDENSTERN.
What, my lord?

HAMLET.
Make you a wholesome answer. My soul is tainted because Denmark is corrupted, and that corruption has contaminated everything it touches.
diseased. But, sir, such answer as I can make, you
shall command—or, rather, as you say, my mother.
Therefore no more but to the matter. My mother,
you say—

ROSENCRANTZ.
Then thus she says: your behaviour hath struck her into amazement and admiration.

HAMLET.
O wonderful son, that can so stonish a mother!                                                                                                                                  But is there no sequel at the heels of this mother’s admiration?

ROSENCRANTZ.
She desires to speak with you in her closet ere you go to bed.

HAMLET.
We shall obey, were she ten times our mother. Have you any further trade with us?

ROSENCRANTZ.
My lord, you once did love me.

HAMLET.
And so I do still, by these pickers and stealers.

ROSENCRANTZ.
Good my lord, what is your cause of
distemper? You do surely bar the door upon your
own liberty if you deny your griefs to your friend. again trying to get Hamlet to confide in him so that he can run and score points with Claudius

HAMLET.
Sir, I lack advancement.

ROSENCRANTZ.
How can that be, when you have the voice of the King himself for your succession in Denmark?

HAMLET.
Ay, sir, but while the grass grows—the proverb is something musty.

Re-enter the Players with recorders.

O, the recorders. Let me see one.—To withdraw with you, why do you go about to recover the wind of me, as if you would drive me into a toil?

GUILDENSTERN.
O my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is too unmannerly.

HAMLET.
I do not well understand that. Will you play upon this pipe?

GUILDENSTERN.
My lord, I cannot.

HAMLET.
I pray you.

GUILDENSTERN.
Believe me, I cannot.

HAMLET.
I do beseech you.

GUILDENSTERN.
I know no touch of it, my lord.

HAMLET.
It is as easy as lying. Govern these ventages Hamlet knows something about music; a mirror of Laertes the musician
with your fingers and thumb, give it breath with
your mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent
music. Look you, these are the stops.

GUILDENSTERN.
But these cannot I command to any utterance of harmony. I have not the skill.

HAMLET.
Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you are trying to play me, but I don’t dance to anyone’s tune and certainly not yours. Necessary quality for a king.
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, excellent voice, in this
little organ, yet cannot you make it speak. ’Sblood,
do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe?
Call me what instrument you will, though you can
fret me, you cannot play upon me.

Enter Polonius.

God bless you, sir.

POLONIUS.
My lord, the Queen would speak with you, and presently.

HAMLET.
Do you see yonder cloud that’s almost in shape of a camel?

POLONIUS.
By the mass, and ’tis like a camel indeed.

HAMLET.
Methinks it is like a weasel.

POLONIUS.
It is backed like a weasel.

HAMLET.
Or like a whale.

POLONIUS.
Very like a whale. Hamlet treats Polonius like Petruchio in the Taming of the Shrew, forcing Katherine to bend to his will. .

HAMLET.
Then will I come to my mother by and by.—They fool me to the top of my bent.—I will come by and by.

POLONIUS.
I will say so.

[Exit.]

HAMLET.
By and by is easily said. Leave me, friends.

[Exeunt all but Hamlet.]

’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 day
Would quake to look on. Soft now, to my mother.
O heart, lose not thy nature; let not ever
The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom: Nero killed his mother.Orestes kills his mother. Hamlet (Electra) will kill Claudius (Clytemnestra). Telling himself not to be like Nero
Let me be cruel, not unnatural.
I will speak daggers to her, but use none; Daggers=pricking her like the sharp points of a snake’s fang.
My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites.
How in my words somever she be shent,
To give them seals never, my soul, consent.

[Exit.]

The play within a play accomplishes the fact that Claudius most certainly did kill his brother. It is odd that although Hamlet talks about how he despises overacting in actors, he subsequently overreacts by killing Polonius. He should have waited until he knew who it was behind the arras before acting with lethal force.