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<tr><td class="play" align="center">The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
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    | Act 3, Scene 3
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<H3>SCENE III. A room in the castle.</h3>

<p><blockquote>
<i>Enter KING CLAUDIUS, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN</i>
</blockquote>

<A NAME=speech1><b>KING CLAUDIUS</b></a>
<blockquote>
<A NAME=1>I like him not, nor stands it safe with us</A><br>
<A NAME=2>To let his madness range. Therefore prepare you;</A><br>
<A NAME=3>I your commission will forthwith dispatch,</A><br>
<A NAME=4>And he to England shall along with you:</A><br>
<A NAME=5>The terms of our estate may not endure</A><br>
<A NAME=6>Hazard so dangerous as doth hourly grow</A><br>
<A NAME=7>Out of his lunacies.</A><br>
</blockquote>

<A NAME=speech2><b>GUILDENSTERN</b></a>
<blockquote>
<A NAME=8>We will ourselves provide:</A><br>
<A NAME=9>Most holy and religious fear it is</A><br>
<A NAME=10>To keep those many many bodies safe</A><br>
<A NAME=11>That live and feed upon your majesty.</A><br>
</blockquote>

<A NAME=speech3><b>ROSENCRANTZ</b></a>
<blockquote>
<A NAME=12>The single and peculiar life is bound,</A><br>
<A NAME=13>With all the strength and armour of the mind,</A><br>
<A NAME=14>To keep itself from noyance; but much more</A><br>
<A NAME=15>That spirit upon whose weal depend and rest</A><br>
<A NAME=16>The lives of many. The cease of majesty</A><br>
<A NAME=17>Dies not alone; but, like a gulf, doth draw</A><br>
<A NAME=18>What's near it with it: it is a massy wheel,</A><br>
<A NAME=19>Fix'd on the summit of the highest mount,</A><br>
<A NAME=20>To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things</A><br>
<A NAME=21>Are mortised and adjoin'd; which, when it falls,</A><br>
<A NAME=22>Each small annexment, petty consequence,</A><br>
<A NAME=23>Attends the boisterous ruin. Never alone</A><br>
<A NAME=24>Did the king sigh, but with a general groan.</A><br>
</blockquote>

<A NAME=speech4><b>KING CLAUDIUS</b></a>
<blockquote>
<A NAME=25>Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy voyage;</A><br>
<A NAME=26>For we will fetters put upon this fear,</A><br>
<A NAME=27>Which now goes too free-footed.</A><br>
</blockquote>

<A NAME=speech5><b>ROSENCRANTZ</b></a>

<A NAME=speech6><b>GUILDENSTERN</b></a>
<blockquote>
<A NAME=28>We will haste us.</A><br>
<p><i>Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN</i></p>
<p><i>Enter POLONIUS</i></p>
</blockquote>

<A NAME=speech7><b>LORD POLONIUS</b></a>
<blockquote>
<A NAME=29>My lord, he's going to his mother's closet:</A><br>
<A NAME=30>Behind the arras I'll convey myself,</A><br>
<A NAME=31>To hear the process; and warrant she'll tax him home:</A><br>
<A NAME=32>And, as you said, and wisely was it said,</A><br>
<A NAME=33>'Tis meet that some more audience than a mother,</A><br>
<A NAME=34>Since nature makes them partial, should o'erhear</A><br>
<A NAME=35>The speech, of vantage. Fare you well, my liege:</A><br>
<A NAME=36>I'll call upon you ere you go to bed,</A><br>
<A NAME=37>And tell you what I know.</A><br>
</blockquote>

<A NAME=speech8><b>KING CLAUDIUS</b></a>
<blockquote>
<A NAME=38>Thanks, dear my lord.</A><br>
<p><i>Exit POLONIUS</i></p>
<A NAME=39>O, my offence is rank it smells to heaven;</A><br>
<A NAME=40>It hath the primal eldest curse upon't,</A><br>
<A NAME=41>A brother's murder. Pray can I not,</A><br>
<A NAME=42>Though inclination be as sharp as will:</A><br>
<A NAME=43>My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent;</A><br>
<A NAME=44>And, like a man to double business bound,</A><br>
<A NAME=45>I stand in pause where I shall first begin,</A><br>
<A NAME=46>And both neglect. What if this cursed hand</A><br>
<A NAME=47>Were thicker than itself with brother's blood,</A><br>
<A NAME=48>Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens</A><br>
<A NAME=49>To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy</A><br>
<A NAME=50>But to confront the visage of offence?</A><br>
<A NAME=51>And what's in prayer but this two-fold force,</A><br>
<A NAME=52>To be forestalled ere we come to fall,</A><br>
<A NAME=53>Or pardon'd being down? Then I'll look up;</A><br>
<A NAME=54>My fault is past. But, O, what form of prayer</A><br>
<A NAME=55>Can serve my turn? 'Forgive me my foul murder'?</A><br>
<A NAME=56>That cannot be; since I am still possess'd</A><br>
<A NAME=57>Of those effects for which I did the murder,</A><br>
<A NAME=58>My crown, mine own ambition and my queen.</A><br>
<A NAME=59>May one be pardon'd and retain the offence?</A><br>
<A NAME=60>In the corrupted currents of this world</A><br>
<A NAME=61>Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice,</A><br>
<A NAME=62>And oft 'tis seen the wicked prize itself</A><br>
<A NAME=63>Buys out the law: but 'tis not so above;</A><br>
<A NAME=64>There is no shuffling, there the action lies</A><br>
<A NAME=65>In his true nature; and we ourselves compell'd,</A><br>
<A NAME=66>Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,</A><br>
<A NAME=67>To give in evidence. What then? what rests?</A><br>
<A NAME=68>Try what repentance can: what can it not?</A><br>
<A NAME=69>Yet what can it when one can not repent?</A><br>
<A NAME=70>O wretched state! O bosom black as death!</A><br>
<A NAME=71>O limed soul, that, struggling to be free,</A><br>
<A NAME=72>Art more engaged! Help, angels! Make assay!</A><br>
<A NAME=73>Bow, stubborn knees; and, heart with strings of steel,</A><br>
<A NAME=74>Be soft as sinews of the newborn babe!</A><br>
<A NAME=75>All may be well.</A><br>
<p><i>Retires and kneels</i></p>
<p><i>Enter HAMLET</i></p>
</blockquote>

<A NAME=speech9><b>HAMLET</b></a>
<blockquote>
<A NAME=76>Now might I do it pat, now he is praying;</A><br>
<A NAME=77>And now I'll do't. And so he goes to heaven;</A><br>
<A NAME=78>And so am I revenged. That would be scann'd:</A><br>
<A NAME=79>A villain kills my father; and for that,</A><br>
<A NAME=80>I, his sole son, do this same villain send</A><br>
<A NAME=81>To heaven.</A><br>
<A NAME=82>O, this is hire and salary, not revenge.</A><br>
<A NAME=83>He took my father grossly, full of bread;</A><br>
<A NAME=84>With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May;</A><br>
<A NAME=85>And how his audit stands who knows save heaven?</A><br>
<A NAME=86>But in our circumstance and course of thought,</A><br>
<A NAME=87>'Tis heavy with him: and am I then revenged,</A><br>
<A NAME=88>To take him in the purging of his soul,</A><br>
<A NAME=89>When he is fit and season'd for his passage?</A><br>
<A NAME=90>No!</A><br>
<A NAME=91>Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent:</A><br>
<A NAME=92>When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage,</A><br>
<A NAME=93>Or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed;</A><br>
<A NAME=94>At gaming, swearing, or about some act</A><br>
<A NAME=95>That has no relish of salvation in't;</A><br>
<A NAME=96>Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven,</A><br>
<A NAME=97>And that his soul may be as damn'd and black</A><br>
<A NAME=98>As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays:</A><br>
<A NAME=99>This physic but prolongs thy sickly days.</A><br>
<p><i>Exit</i></p>
</blockquote>

<A NAME=speech10><b>KING CLAUDIUS</b></a>
<blockquote>
<A NAME=100>[Rising]  My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:</A><br>
<A NAME=101>Words without thoughts never to heaven go.</A><br>
<p><i>Exit</i></p>
</blockquote>
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