[_Exit_ Ghost, L.H. HAMLET _sinks into chair_ C.
_The_ QUEEN _falls on her knees by his side._]

_Queen._ This is the very coinage of your brain:
This bodiless creation ecstasy
Is very cunning in.[139]

_Ham._ Ecstasy!
My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time,
And makes as healthful music: It is not madness
That I have uttered: bring me to the test,
And I the matter will re-word; which madness
Would gambol from.[140] Mother, for love of grace,

_Rising._]

Lay not that flattering unction to your soul,
That not your trespass, but my madness speaks:
It will but skin and film[141] the ulcerous place,
Whiles rank corruption, mining all within,
Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven;
Repent what's past; avoid what is to come.

_Queen._ O, Hamlet! thou hast cleft my heart in twain.

_Ham._ O, throw away the worser part of it,
And live the purer with the other half.
Good night: but go not to my uncle's bed;

[_Raising the_ QUEEN.]

Assume a virtue, if you have it not.
Once more, good night!
And when you are desirous to be bless'd,
I'll blessing beg of you.[142] For this same lord,

[_Pointing to_ POLONIUS.]

I do repent:
I will bestow him, and will answer well
The death I gave him. So, again, good night.

[_Exit_ QUEEN, R.H.]

I must be cruel, only to be kind:
Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.

[_Exit_ HAMLET _behind the arras_, L.H.U.E.

END OF ACT THIRD.

Notes

Act III

[Footnote III.1: _Forward_] Disposed, inclinable.]

[Footnote III.2: _Assay him to_] Try his disposition towards.]

[Footnote III.3: _O'er-raught on the way:_] Reached or overtook.]

[Footnote III.4 _Have closely sent_] _i.e._, privately sent.]

[Footnote III.5 _May here affront Ophelia:_] To affront is to
come face to face--to confront.]

[Footnote III.6 _Lawful espials_,] Spies justifiably inquisitive.
From the French, _espier_.]

[Footnote III.7 _Too much prov'd_,] Found by too frequent
experience.]

[Footnote III.8 _To be, or not to be, that is the question:_]
Hamlet is deliberating whether he should continue to live, or put
an end to his existence.]

[Footnote III.9: _Or to take arms against a sea of troubles_,] _A
sea of troubles_ among the Greeks grew into a proverbial usage;
so that the expression figuratively means, the troubles of human