William Shakespeare, Hamlet
W. G. Clark, W. Aldis Wright, Ed.

SCENE II

King.
Welcome, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern!

Moreover that we much did long to see you,

The need we have to use you did provoke

Our hasty sending. Something have you heard

Of Hamlet's transformation; so call it,

Sith nor the exterior nor the inward man

Resembles that it was. What it should be,

More than his father's death, that thus hath put him

So much from the understanding of himself, (10)

I cannot dream of: I entreat you both,

That, being of so young days brought up with him,

And sith so neighbour'd to his youth and haviour,

That you vouchsafe your rest here in our court

Some little time: so by your companies

To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather,

So much as from occasion you may glean,

Whether aught, to us unknown, afflicts him thus,

That, open'd, lies within our remedy.

Queen.
Good gentlemen, he hath much talk'd of you;

And sure I am two men there are not living (21)

To whom he more adheres. If it will please you

To show us so much gentry and good will

As to expend your time with us awhile,

For the supply and profit of our hope,

Your visitation shall receive such thanks

As fits a king's remembrance.

Ros.
Both your majesties

Might, by the sovereign power you have of us,

Put your dread pleasures more into command

Than to entreaty.

Guil.
But we both obey,

And here give up ourselves, in the full bent

To lay our service freely at your feet,

To be commanded.

King.
Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern.

Queen.
Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz:

And I beseech you instantly to visit

My too much changed son. Go, some of you,

And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is.

Guil.
Heavens make our presence and our practices

Pleasant and helpful to him!

Queen.
Ay, amen! Exeunt Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and some Attendants.
Enter POLONIUS.
(40)

Pol.
The ambassadors from Norway, my good lord,

Are joyfully return'd.

King.
Thou still hast been the father of good news.

Pol.
Have I, my lord? I assure my good liege,

I hold my duty, as I hold my soul,

Both to my God and to my gracious king:

And I do think, or else this brain of mine

Hunts not the trail of policy so sure

As it hath used to do, that I have found

The very cause of Hamlet's lunacy. (50)

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

Pol.
Give first admittance to the ambassadors;

My news shall be the fruit to that great feast.

King.
Thyself do grace to them, and bring them in. Exit Polonius.


He tells me, my dear Gertrude, he hath found

The head and source of all your son's distemper.

Queen.
I doubt it is no other but the main;

His father's death, and our o'erhasty marriage.

King.
Well, we shall sift him. Re-enter POLONIUS, with VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS.

Welcome, my good friends!

Say, Voltimand, what from our brother Norway? (60)

Volt.
Most fair return of greetings and desires.

Upon our first, he sent out to suppress

His nephew's levies; which to him appear'd

To be a preparation 'gainst the Polack;

But, better look'd into, he truly found

It was against your highness: whereat grieved,

That so his sickness, age and impotence

Was falsely borne in hand, sends out arrests

On Fortinbras; which he, in brief, obeys;

Receives rebuke from Norway, and in fine (70)

Makes vow before his uncle never more

To give the assay of arms against your majesty.

Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy,

Gives him three thousand crowns in annual fee,

And his commission to employ those soldiers,

So levied as before, against the Polack:

With an entreaty, herein further shown, [Giving a paper.


That it might please you to give quiet pass

Through your dominions for this enterprise,

On such regards of safety and allowance

As therein are set down. (80)

King.
It likes us well;

And at our more consider'd time we'll read,

Answer, and think upon this business.

Meantime we thank you for your well-took labor:

Go to your rest; at night we'll feast together:

Most welcome home! Exeunt Voltimand and Cornelius.

Pol.
This business is well ended.

My liege, and madam, to expostulate

What majesty should be, what duty is,

Why day is day, night night, and time is time,

Were nothing but to waste night, day and time. (90)

Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,

And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,

I will be brief: your noble son is mad:

Mad call I it; for, to define true madness,

What is't but to be nothing else but mad?

But let that go.

Queen.
More matter, with less art.

Pol.
Madam, I swear I use no art at all.

That he is mad, 'tis true: 'tis true 'tis pity;

And pity 'tis 'tis true: a foolish figure;

But farewell it, for I will use no art.

Mad let us grant him, then: and now remains (101)

That we find out the cause of this effect,

Or rather say, the cause of this defect,

For this effect defective comes by cause:

Thus it remains, and the remainder thus.

Perpend.

I have a daughter—have while she is mine—

Who, in her duty and obedience, mark,

Hath given me this: now gather, and surmise. [Reads.

Queen.
Came this from Hamlet to her?

Pol.
Good madam, stay awhile; I will be faithful. [Reads.

King.
But how hath she

Received his love?

Pol.
What do you think of me?

King.
As of a man faithful and honorable. (131)

Pol.
I would fain prove so. But what might you think,

When I had seen this hot love on the wing—

As I perceived it, I must tell you that,

Before my daughter told me—what might you,

Or my dear majesty your queen here, think,

If I had play'd the desk or table-book,

Or given my heart a winking, mute and dumb,

Or look'd upon this love with idle sight;

What might you think? No, I went round to work,

And my young mistress thus I did bespeak: (141)

'Lord Hamlet is a prince, out of thy star;

This must not be:' and then I prescripts gave her,

That she should lock herself from his resort,

Admit no messengers, receive no tokens.

Which done, she took the fruits of my advice;

And he, repulsed—a short tale to make—

Fell into a sadness, then into a fast,

Thence to a watch, thence into a weakness,

Thence to a lightness, and, by this declension, (150)

Into the madness wherein now he raves,

And all we mourn for.

King.
Do you think 'tis this?

Queen.
It may be, very likely.

Pol.
Hath there been such a time—I'd fain know that—

That I have positive said ''Tis so,'

When it proved otherwise?

King.
Not that I know.

Pol.
[Pointing to his head and shoulders]
Take this from this, if this be otherwise:

If circumstances lead me, I will find

Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed

Within the centre.

King.
How may we try it further? (160)

Pol.
You know, sometimes he walks four hours together

Here in the lobby.

Queen.
So he does indeed.

Pol.
At such a time I'll loose my daughter to him:

Be you and I behind an arras then;

Mark the encounter: if he love her not

And be not from his reason fall'n thereon,

Let me be no assistant for a state,

But keep a farm and carters.

King.
We will try it.

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

Pol.
Away, I do beseech you, both away:

I'll board him presently. Exeunt King, Queen, and Attendants.
Enter HAMLET, reading.

170O, give me leave:

How does my good Lord Hamlet?

Ham.
Well, God-a-mercy.

Pol.
Do you know me, my lord?

Ham.
Excellent well; you are a fish-monger.

Pol.
Not I, my lord.

Ham.
Then I would you were so honest a man.

Pol.
Honest, my lord!

Ham.
Ay, sir; to be honest, as this world
goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand. (180)

Pol.
That's very true, my lord.

Ham.
For if the sun breed maggots in a
dead dog, being a god kissing carrion,—Have
you a daughter?

Pol.
I have, my lord.

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

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

Ham.
Words, words, words.

Pol.
What is the matter, my lord?

Ham.
Between who?

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

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

Pol.
[Aside]
Though this be madness, yet
there is method in't. Will you walk out of
the air, my lord? (210)

Ham.
Into my grave.

Pol.
Indeed, that is out o' the air. [Aside]
How pregnant sometimes his replies are! a
happiness that often madness hits on, which
reason and sanity could not so prosperously be
delivered of. I will leave him, and suddenly
contrive the means of meeting between him
and my daughter.— My honorable lord, I
will most humbly take my leave of you.

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

Pol.
Fare you well, my lord.

Ham.
These tedious old fools! Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.

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

Ros.
[To Polonius]

God save you, sir! Exit Polonius.

Guil.
My honored lord!

Ros.
My most dear lord!

Ham.
My excellent good friends! How
dost thou, Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz! (230)

Good lads, how do ye both?

Ros.
As the indifferent children of the earth.

Guil.
Happy, in that we are not over-happy;

On fortune's cap we are not the very button.

Ham.
Nor the soles of her shoe?

Ros.
Neither, my lord.

Ham.
Then you live about her waist, or
in the middle of her favors?

Guil.
'Faith, her privates we.

Ham.
In the secret parts of fortune? O, (240)
most true; she is a strumpet. What's the news?

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

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

Guil.
Prison, my lord!

Ham.
Denmark's a prison. (250)

Ros.
Then is the world one.

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

Ros.
We think not so, my lord.

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

Ros.
Why then, your ambition makes it
one; 'tis too narrow for your mind. (260)

Ham.
O God, I could be bounded in a
nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space,
were it not that I have bad dreams.

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

Ham.
A dream itself is but a shadow.

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

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

Ros. and Guil.
We'll wait upon you.

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

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

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

Guil.
What should we say, my lord?

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

Ros.
To what end, my lord?

Ham.
That you must teach me. But let me
conjure you, by the rights of our fellowship,
by the consonancy of our youth, by the obligation
of our ever-preserved love, and by what
more dear a better proposer could charge you
withal, be even and direct with me, whether
you were sent for, or no? (30)

Ros.
[Aside to Guil.]
What say you?

Ham.
[Aside]
Nay, then, I have an eye of
you.—If you love me, hold not off.

Guil.
My lord, we were sent for.

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

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

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

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

Ham.
He that plays the king shall be welcome;
his majesty shall have tribute of me;
the adventurous knight shall use his foil and
target; the lover shall not sigh gratis; the humorous
man shall end his part in peace; the
clown shall make those laugh whose lungs are
tickle o' the sere; and the lady shall say her
mind freely, or the blank verse shall halt for't. (340)
What players are they?

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

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

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

Ham.
Do they hold the same estimation
they did when I was in the city? are they so (350)
followed?

Ros.
No, indeed, are they not.

Ham.
How comes it? do they grow rusty?

Ros.
Nay, their endeavour keeps in the
wonted pace: but there is, sir, an aery of children,
little eyases, that cry out on the top of
question, and are most tyrannically clapped
for't: these are now the fashion, and so be-rattle
the common stages—so they call them—
that many wearing rapiers are afraid of goose- (360)
quills and dare scarce come thither.

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

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

Ham.
Is't possible?

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

Ham.
Do the boys carry it away?

Ros.
Ay, that they do, my lord; Hercules (379)
and his load too.

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

Guil.
There are the players.

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

Guil.
In what, my dear lord?

Ham.
I am but mad north-north-west:
when the wind is southerly I know a hawk
from a handsaw. Re-enter POLONIUS.

Pol.
Well be with you, gentlemen!

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

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

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

Pol.
My lord, I have news to tell you.

Ham.
My lord, I have news to tell you. (410)
When Roscius was an actor in Rome,—

Pol.
The actors are come hither, my lord.

Ham.
Buz, buz!

Pol.
Upon mine honor,—

Ham.
Then came each actor on his ass,—

Pol.
The best actors in the world, either
for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastorol-comical,
historical-pastoral, tragical-historical,
tragical-comical-historical-pastoral,
scene individable, or poem unlimited: Seneca
cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light. For
the law of writ and the liberty, these are the (421)
only men.

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

Pol.
What a treasure had he, my lord?

Ham.
Why,

‘One fair daughter, and no more,
The which he loved passing well.’

Pol.
[Aside]
Still on my daughter.

Ham.
Am I not i' the right, old Jephthah?

Pol.
If you call me Jephthah, my lord, I (431)
have a daughter that I love passing well.

Ham.
Nay, that follows not.

Pol.
What follows, then, my lord?

Ham.
Why,
‘‘As by lot, God wot,’’
and then, you know,
‘‘It came to pass, as most like it was,’’—
the first row of the pious chanson will show
you more; for look, where my abridgement comes. Enter four or five Players.

You are welcome, masters; welcome all. I am
glad to see thee well. Welcome, good friends.
O, my old friend! thy face is valanced since
I saw thee last: comest thou to beard me in
Denmark? What, my young lady and mistress!
By 'r lady, your ladyship is nearer to
heaven than when I saw you last, by the altitude
of a chopine. Pray God, your voice, like
a piece of uncurrent gold, be not cracked
within the ring. Masters, you are all welcome.
We'll e'en to't like French falconers, fly at any
thing we see: we'll have a speech straight:
come, give us a taste of your quality; come, a
passionate speech.

First Play.
What speech, my lord?

Ham.
I heard thee speak me a speech once,
but it was never acted; or, if it was, not above
once; for the play, I remember, pleased not
the million; 'twas caviare to the general: but
it was—as I received it, and others, whose
judgements in such matters cried in the top of
mine—an excellent play, well digested in the
scenes, set down with as much modesty as cunning.
I remember, one said there were no sallets
in the lines to make the matter savory, nor
no matter in the phrase that might indict the
author of affectation; but called it an honest
method, as wholesome as sweet, and by very
much more handsome than fine. One speech in
it I chiefly loved: 'twas Æneas' tale to Dido;
and thereabout of it especially, where he
speaks of Priam's slaughter: if it live in your
memory, begin at this line: let me see, let me (471)
see—

‘The rugged Pyrrhus, like the Hyrcanian beast,’

—
it is not so:—it begins with Pyrrhus:—

‘The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms,
Black as his purpose, did the night resemble
When he lay couched in the ominous horse,
Hath now this dread and black complexion smear'd
With heraldry more dismal; head to foot
Now is he total gules; horridly trick'd
480With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons,
Baked and impasted with the parching streets,
That lend a tyrannous and damned light
To their lord's murder: roasted in wrath and fire,
And thus o'er-sized with coagulate gore,
With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus
Old grandsire Priam seeks.’

So, proceed you.

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

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

(520)

Pol.
This is too long.

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

First Play.
‘But who, O, who had seen the mobled queen’

—

Ham.
‘‘The mobled queen?’’

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

First Play.
‘Run barefoot up and down, threatening the flames
With bisson rheum; a clout upon that head
Where late the diadem stood, and for a robe,
About her lank and all o'er-teemed loins,
A blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up;
Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steep'd,
'Gainst Fortune's state would treason have pronounced:
But if the gods themselves did see her then
When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport
In mincing with his sword her husband's limbs,
The instant burst of clamour that she made,
Unless things mortal move them not at all,
540Would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven,
And passion in the gods.’

Pol.
Look, whether he has not turned his
color and has tears in's eyes. Pray you, no more.

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

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

Ham.
God's bodykins, man, much better:
use every man after his desert, and who should
'scape whipping? Use them after your own
honor and dignity: the less they deserve, the
more merit is in your bounty. Take them in. (559)

Pol.
Come, sirs.

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

First Play.
Ay, my lord.

Ham.
We'll ha't to-morrow night. You
could, for a need, study a speech of some
dozen or sixteen lines, which I would set down
and insert in't, could you not? (569)

First Play.
Ay, my lord.

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

Ros.
Good my lord!

Ham.
Ay, so, God be wi' ye; Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.]

Now I am alone.

O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!

Is it not monstrous that this player here,

But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,

Could force so his soul to his own conceit

That from her working all his visage wann'd, (581)

Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect,

A broken voice, and his whole function suiting

With forms to his conceit? and all for nothing!

For Hecuba!

What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,

That he should weep for her? What would he do,

Had he the motive and the cue for passion

That I have? He would drown the stage with tears

And cleave the general ear with horrid speech, (590)

Make mad the guilty and appal the free,

Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed

The very faculties of eyes and ears.

Yet I,

A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak,

Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause,

And can say nothing; no, not for a king,

Upon whose property and most dear life

A damn'd defeat was made. Am I a coward?

Who calls me villain? breaks my pate across?

Plucks off my beard, and blows it in my face? (601)

Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i' the throat,

As deep as to the lungs? who does me this?

Ha!

'Swounds, I should take it: for it cannot be

But I am pigeon-liver'd and lack gall

To make oppression bitter, or ere this

I should have fatted all the region kites

With this slave's offal: bloody, bawdy villain!

Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain! (610)

O, vengeance!

Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave,

That I, the son of a dear father murder'd,

Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,

Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words,

And fall a-cursing, like a very drab,

A scullion!

Fie upon 't! foh! About, my brain! I have heard

That guilty creatures sitting at a play

Have by the very cunning of the scene (620)

Been struck so to the soul that presently

They have proclaim'd their malefactions;

For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak

With most miraculous organ. I'll have these players

Play something like the murder of my father

Before mine uncle: I'll observe his looks;

I'll tent him to the quick: if he but blench,

I know my course. The spirit that I have seen

May be the devil: and the devil hath power

To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps (630)

Out of my weakness and my melancholy,

As he is very potent with such spirits,

Abuses me to damn me: I'll have grounds

More relative than this: the play's the thing

Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king. [Exit.