Hamlet, Act III, Scene 4

Hamlet
Act III, Scene 4

[previous scene] [Hamlet page] [next scene]

You can listen to some
music as you read.
Click on the icon above.
(You can also shut if off,
if you find it annoying.)

Shakespeare
for Scholars: Shakespeare
for Everyone Else:

The Queen's closet.
Enter QUEEN and POLONIUS

LORD POLONIUS

At long last, we get to see this “closet.” It is actually just Queen Gertrude’s bedroom.

He will come straight. Look you lay home to him:
Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear with,
And that your grace hath screen'd and stood between
Much heat and him. I'll sconce me even here.
Pray you, be round with him.

HAMLET
[Within]

Polonius is already there.
Polonius the "advisor" is giving some last minute advice to the Queen. He explains that he will be in hiding.

Mother, mother, mother!

QUEEN GERTRUDE
I'll warrant you,
Fear me not: withdraw, I hear him coming.

They hear Hamlet approaching: “Mother, mother mother!” Hamlet was not exactly subtle, as he is apparently shouting outside the door.

POLONIUS hides behind the arras
Quickly Polonius hides behind an arras.

Enter HAMLET

HAMLET
Now, mother, what's the matter?

QUEEN GERTRUDE

Hamlet enters.
He fails to notice those size eleven shoes sticking out from beneath the curtains.

Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.

HAMLET
Mother, you have my father much offended.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.

HAMLET
Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
Why, how now, Hamlet!

HAMLET
What's the matter now?

QUEEN GERTRUDE
Have you forgot me?

HAMLET
No, by the rood, not so:
You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife;
And -- would it were not so! -- you are my mother.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
Nay, then, I'll set those to you that can speak.

HAMLET
Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge;

When Queen Gertrude accuses Hamlet of offending his “father,” Hamlet disagrees, and says that she is the one who has offended his father.

You go not till I set you up a glass
Where you may see the inmost part of you.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

Hamlet also says that he will set up a glass (a mirror) whereby she can see what she looks like.

What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder me?
Help, help, ho!

LORD POLONIUS

Hamlet apparently seems almost violent, and the Queen becomes very frightened. She screams.

[Behind]

What, ho! Help, help, help!

Behind the arras, Polonius wakes up. He shouts.

HAMLET
[Drawing]

How now! A rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!

Hamlet realizes there is a “visitor” in the room, and he draws his sword.

Makes a pass through the arras

LORD POLONIUS
[Behind]

Hamlet runs over to the arras, and stabs right through the curtains.

O, I am slain!

Falls and dies

Polonius was never known for understating things.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
O me, what hast thou done?

HAMLET
Nay, I know not:

Is it the king?

QUEEN GERTRUDE
O, what a rash and bloody deed is this!

HAMLET
A bloody deed! almost as bad, good mother,
As kill a king, and marry with his brother.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
As kill a king!

HAMLET
Ay, lady, 'twas my word.

Hamlet suspects that it is King Claudius hiding behind that curtain. He believes he has just killed his uncle.

Looks behind the arras
and discovers POLONIUS

Hamlet pulls back the curtain, and sees who it is he has just killed.

Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!
Polonius. Bummer.

I took thee for thy better: take thy fortune;
Thou find'st to be too busy is some danger .
Leave wringing of your hands: Peace! sit you down,
Hamlet says, “I took thee for thy better” (line 39). This is easy to do, when one considers the competition.

And let me wring your heart; for so I shall,
If it be made of penetrable stuff,
If damned custom have not brass'd it so
That it is proof and bulwark against sense.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
What have I done, that thou darest wag thy tongue
In noise so rude against me?

HAMLET
Such an act

Hamlet does not appear too upset, and returns to his conversation with Queen Gertrude.

That blurs the grace and blush of modesty,
Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the rose
From the fair forehead of an innocent love
And sets a blister there, makes marriage-vows
As false as dicers' oaths: O, such a deed
As from the body of contraction plucks
The very soul, and sweet religion makes
A rhapsody of words: heaven's face doth glow:
Yea, this solidity and compound mass,
With tristful visage, as against the doom,
Is thought-sick at the act.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
Ay me, what act,
That roars so loud, and thunders in the index ?

HAMLET

He tells his mother that she has done something which “blurs the grace and blush of modesty” (line 50).

Look here, upon this picture, and on this,
The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.
See, what a grace was seated on this brow;
Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself;
An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;
A station like the herald Mercury
New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill;
A combination and a form indeed,
Where every god did seem to set his seal ,
To give the world assurance of a man:
This was your husband. Look you now, what follows:
Here is your husband; like a mildew'd ear ,
Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes?
Then, Hamlet takes out two wallet size photos. One depicts King Claudius, and the other is of old King Hamlet. He begins to compare the two.

Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed,
And batten on this moor? Ha! have you eyes?
Hamlet also asks how she could bring herself to sleep with King Claudius.

You cannot call it love; for at your age
The hey-day in the blood is tame, it's humble,
And waits upon the judgment: and what judgment
Would step from this to this? Sense, sure, you have,
Else could you not have motion; but sure, that sense
Is apoplex'd; for madness would not err,
Nor sense to ecstasy was ne'er so thrall'd
But it reserved some quantity of choice,
To serve in such a difference. What devil was't
That thus hath cozen 'd you at hoodman-blind ?
Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight ,
Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all,
Or but a sickly part of one true sense
Could not so mope.
O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell,
If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones,
To flaming youth let virtue be as wax ,
And melt in her own fire: proclaim no shame
When the compulsive ardour gives the charge,
Since frost itself as actively doth burn
And reason panders will.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

“You cannot call it love,” says Hamlet, “for at your age the heyday in the blood is tame; it’s humble” (lines 78-79).

O Hamlet, speak no more:
Thou turn 'st mine eyes into my very soul;
And there I see such black and grained spots
As will not leave their tinct .

HAMLET
Nay, but to live
In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed,
Stew'd in corruption, honeying and making love
Over the nasty sty --

QUEEN GERTRUDE

Hamlet’s attempts to shame Queen Gertrude seem to be working.

O, speak to me no more;
These words, like daggers, enter in mine ears;
No more, sweet Hamlet!

HAMLET
A murderer and a villain;
A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe
Of your precedent lord; a vice of kings;
A cutpurse of the empire and the rule,

Queen Gertrude protests: “O speak to me no more! These words like daggers enter into mine ears!” (lines 107-108).

That from a shelf the precious diadem stole,
And put it in his pocket!

QUEEN GERTRUDE
No more!

HAMLET
A king of shreds and patches --

Hamlet says Claudius stole the "diadem," which means that he stole the crown.

Enter Ghost

Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings,
You heavenly guards! What would your gracious figure?

QUEEN GERTRUDE

Then, Hamlet sees something—it is the ghost, back for some more “ghosting.”

Alas, he's mad!

HAMLET
Do you not come your tardy son to chide,
That, lapsed in time and passion, lets go by
The important acting of your dread command? O, say!

GHOST
Do not forget: this visitation

Hamlet sees it, but Queen Gertrude cannot, of course.

Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.
But, look, amazement on thy mother sits:
O, step between her and her fighting soul:
Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works:
Speak to her, Hamlet.

HAMLET
How is it with you, lady?

QUEEN GERTRUDE
Alas, how is't with you,
That you do bend your eye on vacancy
And with the incorporal air do hold discourse ?
Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep;
And, as the sleeping soldiers in the alarm,
Your bedded hair, like life in excrements,
Starts up, and stands on end. O gentle son,
Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper
Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look?

HAMLET
On him, on him! Look you, how pale he glares!
His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones,
Would make them capable. Do not look upon me;
Lest with this piteous action you convert
My stern effects: then what I have to do
Will want true colour; tears perchance for blood.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
To whom do you speak this?

HAMLET
Do you see nothing there?

QUEEN GERTRUDE

The ghost reminds Hamlet that he must not "forget" his mission, and that this little scene is “but to whet thy almost blunted purpose” (lines 125-126).

Nothing at all; yet all that is, I see.

HAMLET
Nor did you nothing hear?

QUEEN GERTRUDE
No, nothing but ourselves.

HAMLET
Why, look you there! look, how it steals away!

By now, Queen Gertrude is pretty sure that Hamlet's elevator doth not go all the way to the top floor. Forsooth.

My father, in his habit as he lived!
Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal!
"In his habit" means that he is even wearing the King's clothes. This is actually quite good. The sight of a ghost is frightening enough. The thought of a naked ghost is vulgar, at least.

Exit Ghost
The ghost disappears, having other appointments, perhaps.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
This the very coinage of your brain:
This bodiless creation ecstasy
Is very cunning in.

HAMLET
Ecstasy!
My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time,
And makes as healthful music: it is not madness
That I have utter'd: bring me to the test,
And I the matter will re-word; which madness
Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace,
Lay not that mattering unction to your soul,
That not your trespass, but my madness speaks:
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place,
Whilst rank corruption, mining all within,
Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven;
Repent what's past; avoid what is to come;
And do not spread the compost on the weeds,
To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue ;
For in the fatness of these pursy times
Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg,
Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain.

HAMLET
O, throw away the worser part of it,
And live the purer with the other half.

Good night: but go not to mine uncle's bed;
Assume a virtue, if you have it not.
That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat,
Of habits devil, is angel yet in this,
That to the use of actions fair and good
He likewise gives a frock or livery,
That aptly is put on. Refrain to-night,
And that shall lend a kind of easiness
Hamlet now asks his mother to “go not to my uncle’s bed.” He wants Queen Gertrude to abstain, just this once.

To the next abstinence: the next more easy;
For use almost can change the stamp of nature,
Then, he theorizes that she might even be able to abstain again tomorrow night.

And either [...] the devil, or throw him out
With wondrous potency. Once more, good night:
And when you are desirous to be bless'd,
I'll blessing beg of you. For this same lord,

Pointing to POLONIUS

I do repent: but heaven hath pleased it so,
To punish me with this and this with me,
That I must be their scourge and minister.
I will bestow him, and will answer well
The death I gave him. So, again, good night.
I must be cruel, only to be kind :
Thus bad begins and worse remains behind.
One word more, good lady.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
What shall I do?

HAMLET
Not this, by no means, that I bid you do:

Hmmm... "Either [...] the devil, or throw him out." Scholars will tell you that this is a corruption in the text, and a word was lost, here. If they need help, I can think of a word or two which might fit in nicely, here...

Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed;
Pinch wanton on your cheek; call you his mouse;
And let him, for a pair of reechy kisses,
Or paddling in your neck with his damn 'd fingers,
Make you to ravel all this matter out,
Now, Hamlet seems to have changed his mind. He tells Gertrude to go ahead and let King Claudius tempt her to bed.

That I essentially am not in madness,
But mad in craft. 'Twere good you let him know;
For who, that's but a queen, fair, sober, wise,
Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib ,
Such dear concernings hide? who would do so?
No, in despite of sense and secrecy,
Unpeg the basket on the house's top.
Let the birds fly, and, like the famous ape,
To try conclusions, in the basket creep,
And break your own neck down.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
Be thou assured, if words be made of breath,
And breath of life, I have no life to breathe
What thou hast said to me.

HAMLET

Hamlet tells Gertrude to explain to Claudius that Hamlet is not really "mad," but is only mad "in craft." In other words, he wants her to tell the King that he has just been faking it.

I must to England; you know that?

QUEEN GERTRUDE
Alack,
I had forgot: 'tis so concluded on.

HAMLET

Hamlet then tells Queen Gertrude that he has been ordered to go to England, but that he does not trust the two “friends” who are to accompany him.

There's letters seal'd: and my two schoolfellows,
Whom I will trust as I will adders fang 'd,
They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way,
And marshal me to knavery. Let it work;
For 'tis the sport to have the engineer
Hoist with his own petard: and 't shall go hard
But I will delve one yard below their mines,
And blow them at the moon: O, 'tis most sweet,
When in one line two crafts directly meet.
This man shall set me packing:
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have some “sealed” letters, it seems, and Hamlet is aware of them.

I'll lug the guts into the neighbour room.
Mother, good night. Indeed this counsellor
Is now most still, most secret and most grave ,
Who was in life a foolish prating knave .
Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you.
Good night, mother.
Hamlet is nice enough to dispose of Polonius’ body. As he leaves, he decides to "lug the guts into the neighbor room" (line 235).

Exeunt severally; HAMLET dragging
in POLONIUS.
The scene, and the act grind to a halt. Hamlet must now go to England, with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Hamlet’s mother, the Queen, knows why Hamlet is so upset, at last. Polonius is dead. The circumstances do seem to be troubled, indeed. After all, the audience has to sit through two more acts of this nonsense.

The summaries provided
herein are protected by copyright.

Do not reproduce without
permission of the author.

	You can listen to some music as you read. Click on the icon above. (You can also shut if off, if you find it annoying.)

Shakespeare for Scholars:	Shakespeare for Everyone Else:
The Queen's closet. Enter QUEEN and POLONIUS LORD POLONIUS	At long last, we get to see this “closet.” It is actually just Queen Gertrude’s bedroom.
He will come straight. Look you lay home to him: Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear with, And that your grace hath screen'd and stood between Much heat and him. I'll sconce me even here. Pray you, be round with him. HAMLET [Within]	Polonius is already there. Polonius the "advisor" is giving some last minute advice to the Queen. He explains that he will be in hiding.
Mother, mother, mother! QUEEN GERTRUDE I'll warrant you, Fear me not: withdraw, I hear him coming.	They hear Hamlet approaching: “Mother, mother mother!” Hamlet was not exactly subtle, as he is apparently shouting outside the door.
POLONIUS hides behind the arras	Quickly Polonius hides behind an arras.
Enter HAMLET HAMLET Now, mother, what's the matter? QUEEN GERTRUDE	Hamlet enters. He fails to notice those size eleven shoes sticking out from beneath the curtains.
Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended. HAMLET Mother, you have my father much offended. QUEEN GERTRUDE Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue. HAMLET Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue. QUEEN GERTRUDE Why, how now, Hamlet! HAMLET What's the matter now? QUEEN GERTRUDE Have you forgot me? HAMLET No, by the rood, not so: You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife; And -- would it were not so! -- you are my mother. QUEEN GERTRUDE Nay, then, I'll set those to you that can speak. HAMLET Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge;	When Queen Gertrude accuses Hamlet of offending his “father,” Hamlet disagrees, and says that she is the one who has offended his father.
You go not till I set you up a glass Where you may see the inmost part of you. QUEEN GERTRUDE	Hamlet also says that he will set up a glass (a mirror) whereby she can see what she looks like.
What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder me? Help, help, ho! LORD POLONIUS	Hamlet apparently seems almost violent, and the Queen becomes very frightened. She screams.
[Behind] What, ho! Help, help, help!	Behind the arras, Polonius wakes up. He shouts.
HAMLET [Drawing] How now! A rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!	Hamlet realizes there is a “visitor” in the room, and he draws his sword.
Makes a pass through the arras LORD POLONIUS [Behind]	Hamlet runs over to the arras, and stabs right through the curtains.
O, I am slain! Falls and dies	Polonius was never known for understating things.
QUEEN GERTRUDE O me, what hast thou done? HAMLET Nay, I know not:
Is it the king? QUEEN GERTRUDE O, what a rash and bloody deed is this! HAMLET A bloody deed! almost as bad, good mother, As kill a king, and marry with his brother. QUEEN GERTRUDE As kill a king! HAMLET Ay, lady, 'twas my word.	Hamlet suspects that it is King Claudius hiding behind that curtain. He believes he has just killed his uncle.
Looks behind the arras and discovers POLONIUS	Hamlet pulls back the curtain, and sees who it is he has just killed.
Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!	Polonius. Bummer.
I took thee for thy better: take thy fortune; Thou find'st to be too busy is some danger . Leave wringing of your hands: Peace! sit you down,	Hamlet says, “I took thee for thy better” (line 39). This is easy to do, when one considers the competition.
And let me wring your heart; for so I shall, If it be made of penetrable stuff, If damned custom have not brass'd it so That it is proof and bulwark against sense. QUEEN GERTRUDE What have I done, that thou darest wag thy tongue In noise so rude against me? HAMLET Such an act	Hamlet does not appear too upset, and returns to his conversation with Queen Gertrude.
That blurs the grace and blush of modesty, Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the rose From the fair forehead of an innocent love And sets a blister there, makes marriage-vows As false as dicers' oaths: O, such a deed As from the body of contraction plucks The very soul, and sweet religion makes A rhapsody of words: heaven's face doth glow: Yea, this solidity and compound mass, With tristful visage, as against the doom, Is thought-sick at the act. QUEEN GERTRUDE Ay me, what act, That roars so loud, and thunders in the index ? HAMLET	He tells his mother that she has done something which “blurs the grace and blush of modesty” (line 50).
Look here, upon this picture, and on this, The counterfeit presentment of two brothers. See, what a grace was seated on this brow; Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself; An eye like Mars, to threaten and command; A station like the herald Mercury New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill; A combination and a form indeed, Where every god did seem to set his seal , To give the world assurance of a man: This was your husband. Look you now, what follows: Here is your husband; like a mildew'd ear , Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes?	Then, Hamlet takes out two wallet size photos. One depicts King Claudius, and the other is of old King Hamlet. He begins to compare the two.
Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed, And batten on this moor? Ha! have you eyes?	Hamlet also asks how she could bring herself to sleep with King Claudius.
You cannot call it love; for at your age The hey-day in the blood is tame, it's humble, And waits upon the judgment: and what judgment Would step from this to this? Sense, sure, you have, Else could you not have motion; but sure, that sense Is apoplex'd; for madness would not err, Nor sense to ecstasy was ne'er so thrall'd But it reserved some quantity of choice, To serve in such a difference. What devil was't That thus hath cozen 'd you at hoodman-blind ? Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight , Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all, Or but a sickly part of one true sense Could not so mope. O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell, If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones, To flaming youth let virtue be as wax , And melt in her own fire: proclaim no shame When the compulsive ardour gives the charge, Since frost itself as actively doth burn And reason panders will. QUEEN GERTRUDE	“You cannot call it love,” says Hamlet, “for at your age the heyday in the blood is tame; it’s humble” (lines 78-79).
O Hamlet, speak no more: Thou turn 'st mine eyes into my very soul; And there I see such black and grained spots As will not leave their tinct . HAMLET Nay, but to live In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed, Stew'd in corruption, honeying and making love Over the nasty sty -- QUEEN GERTRUDE	Hamlet’s attempts to shame Queen Gertrude seem to be working.
O, speak to me no more; These words, like daggers, enter in mine ears; No more, sweet Hamlet! HAMLET A murderer and a villain; A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe Of your precedent lord; a vice of kings; A cutpurse of the empire and the rule,	Queen Gertrude protests: “O speak to me no more! These words like daggers enter into mine ears!” (lines 107-108).
That from a shelf the precious diadem stole, And put it in his pocket! QUEEN GERTRUDE No more! HAMLET A king of shreds and patches --	Hamlet says Claudius stole the "diadem," which means that he stole the crown.
Enter Ghost Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings, You heavenly guards! What would your gracious figure? QUEEN GERTRUDE	Then, Hamlet sees something—it is the ghost, back for some more “ghosting.”
Alas, he's mad! HAMLET Do you not come your tardy son to chide, That, lapsed in time and passion, lets go by The important acting of your dread command? O, say! GHOST Do not forget: this visitation	Hamlet sees it, but Queen Gertrude cannot, of course.
Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose. But, look, amazement on thy mother sits: O, step between her and her fighting soul: Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works: Speak to her, Hamlet. HAMLET How is it with you, lady? QUEEN GERTRUDE Alas, how is't with you, That you do bend your eye on vacancy And with the incorporal air do hold discourse ? Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep; And, as the sleeping soldiers in the alarm, Your bedded hair, like life in excrements, Starts up, and stands on end. O gentle son, Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look? HAMLET On him, on him! Look you, how pale he glares! His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones, Would make them capable. Do not look upon me; Lest with this piteous action you convert My stern effects: then what I have to do Will want true colour; tears perchance for blood. QUEEN GERTRUDE To whom do you speak this? HAMLET Do you see nothing there? QUEEN GERTRUDE	The ghost reminds Hamlet that he must not "forget" his mission, and that this little scene is “but to whet thy almost blunted purpose” (lines 125-126).
Nothing at all; yet all that is, I see. HAMLET Nor did you nothing hear? QUEEN GERTRUDE No, nothing but ourselves. HAMLET Why, look you there! look, how it steals away!	By now, Queen Gertrude is pretty sure that Hamlet's elevator doth not go all the way to the top floor. Forsooth.
My father, in his habit as he lived! Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal!	"In his habit" means that he is even wearing the King's clothes. This is actually quite good. The sight of a ghost is frightening enough. The thought of a naked ghost is vulgar, at least.
Exit Ghost	The ghost disappears, having other appointments, perhaps.
QUEEN GERTRUDE This the very coinage of your brain: This bodiless creation ecstasy Is very cunning in. HAMLET Ecstasy! My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time, And makes as healthful music: it is not madness That I have utter'd: bring me to the test, And I the matter will re-word; which madness Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace, Lay not that mattering unction to your soul, That not your trespass, but my madness speaks: It will but skin and film the ulcerous place, Whilst rank corruption, mining all within, Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven; Repent what's past; avoid what is to come; And do not spread the compost on the weeds, To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue ; For in the fatness of these pursy times Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg, Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good. QUEEN GERTRUDE O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain. HAMLET O, throw away the worser part of it, And live the purer with the other half.
Good night: but go not to mine uncle's bed; Assume a virtue, if you have it not. That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat, Of habits devil, is angel yet in this, That to the use of actions fair and good He likewise gives a frock or livery, That aptly is put on. Refrain to-night, And that shall lend a kind of easiness	Hamlet now asks his mother to “go not to my uncle’s bed.” He wants Queen Gertrude to abstain, just this once.
To the next abstinence: the next more easy; For use almost can change the stamp of nature,	Then, he theorizes that she might even be able to abstain again tomorrow night.
And either [...] the devil, or throw him out With wondrous potency. Once more, good night: And when you are desirous to be bless'd, I'll blessing beg of you. For this same lord, Pointing to POLONIUS I do repent: but heaven hath pleased it so, To punish me with this and this with me, That I must be their scourge and minister. I will bestow him, and will answer well The death I gave him. So, again, good night. I must be cruel, only to be kind : Thus bad begins and worse remains behind. One word more, good lady. QUEEN GERTRUDE What shall I do? HAMLET Not this, by no means, that I bid you do:	Hmmm... "Either [...] the devil, or throw him out." Scholars will tell you that this is a corruption in the text, and a word was lost, here. If they need help, I can think of a word or two which might fit in nicely, here...
Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed; Pinch wanton on your cheek; call you his mouse; And let him, for a pair of reechy kisses, Or paddling in your neck with his damn 'd fingers, Make you to ravel all this matter out,	Now, Hamlet seems to have changed his mind. He tells Gertrude to go ahead and let King Claudius tempt her to bed.
That I essentially am not in madness, But mad in craft. 'Twere good you let him know; For who, that's but a queen, fair, sober, wise, Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib , Such dear concernings hide? who would do so? No, in despite of sense and secrecy, Unpeg the basket on the house's top. Let the birds fly, and, like the famous ape, To try conclusions, in the basket creep, And break your own neck down. QUEEN GERTRUDE Be thou assured, if words be made of breath, And breath of life, I have no life to breathe What thou hast said to me. HAMLET	Hamlet tells Gertrude to explain to Claudius that Hamlet is not really "mad," but is only mad "in craft." In other words, he wants her to tell the King that he has just been faking it.
I must to England; you know that? QUEEN GERTRUDE Alack, I had forgot: 'tis so concluded on. HAMLET	Hamlet then tells Queen Gertrude that he has been ordered to go to England, but that he does not trust the two “friends” who are to accompany him.
There's letters seal'd: and my two schoolfellows, Whom I will trust as I will adders fang 'd, They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way, And marshal me to knavery. Let it work; For 'tis the sport to have the engineer Hoist with his own petard: and 't shall go hard But I will delve one yard below their mines, And blow them at the moon: O, 'tis most sweet, When in one line two crafts directly meet. This man shall set me packing:	Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have some “sealed” letters, it seems, and Hamlet is aware of them.
I'll lug the guts into the neighbour room. Mother, good night. Indeed this counsellor Is now most still, most secret and most grave , Who was in life a foolish prating knave . Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you. Good night, mother.	Hamlet is nice enough to dispose of Polonius’ body. As he leaves, he decides to "lug the guts into the neighbor room" (line 235).
Exeunt severally; HAMLET dragging in POLONIUS.	The scene, and the act grind to a halt. Hamlet must now go to England, with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Hamlet’s mother, the Queen, knows why Hamlet is so upset, at last. Polonius is dead. The circumstances do seem to be troubled, indeed. After all, the audience has to sit through two more acts of this nonsense.