st his life. 158.]

[Page 168]

_Pol._ Oh I am slaine. [1]_Killes Polonius._[2]

_Qu._ Oh me, what hast thou done? [Sidenote: _Ger._]

_Ham._ Nay I know not, is it the King?[3]

_Qu._ Oh what a rash, and bloody deed is this? [Sidenote: _Ger._]

_Ham._ A bloody deed, almost as bad good Mother,
[Sidenote: 56] As kill a King,[4] and marrie with his Brother.

_Qu._ As kill a King? [Sidenote: _Ger._]

_Ham._ I Lady, 'twas my word.[5] [Sidenote: it was]
Thou wretched, rash, intruding foole farewell,
I tooke thee for thy Betters,[3] take thy Fortune, [Sidenote: better,]
Thou find'st to be too busie, is some danger,
Leaue wringing of your hands, peace, sit you downe,
And let me wring your heart, for so I shall
If it be made of penetrable stuffe;
If damned Custome haue not braz'd it so,
That it is proofe and bulwarke against Sense. [Sidenote: it be]

_Qu._ What haue I done, that thou dar'st wag thy tong,
[Sidenote: _Ger._]
In noise so rude against me?[6]

_Ham._ Such an Act
That blurres the grace and blush of Modestie,[7]
Calls Vertue Hypocrite, takes off the Rose
From the faire forehead of an innocent loue,
And makes a blister there.[8] Makes marriage vowes
[Sidenote: And sets a]
As false as Dicers Oathes. Oh such a deed,
As from the body of Contraction[9] pluckes
The very soule, and sweete Religion makes
A rapsidie of words. Heauens face doth glow, [Sidenote: dooes]
Yea this solidity and compound masse, [Sidenote: Ore this]
With tristfull visage as against the doome,
[Sidenote: with heated visage,]
Is thought-sicke at the act.[10] [Sidenote: thought sick]

_Qu._ Aye me; what act,[11] that roares so lowd,[12]
and thunders in the Index.[13]

[Footnote 1: _Not in Q._]

[Footnote 2: --_through the arras_.]

[Footnote 3: Hamlet takes him for, hopes it is the king, and thinks here
to conclude: he is not praying now! and there is not a moment to be
lost, for he has betrayed his presence and called for help. As often as
immediate action is demanded of Hamlet, he is immediate with his
response--never hesitates, never blunders. There is no blunder here:
being where he was, the death of Polonius was necessary now to the death
of the king. Hamlet'