wholesome brother. And the
queen was sore ashamed that he should so turn her eyes inward upon her
soul, which she now saw so black and deformed. And he asked her how she
could continue to live with this man, and be a wife to him, who had
murdered her first husband, and got the crown by as false means as a
thief--and just as he spoke, the ghost of his father, such as he was in
his lifetime, and such as he had lately seen it, entered the room, and
Hamlet, in great terror, asked what it would have; and the ghost said
that it came to remind him of the revenge he had promised, which Hamlet
seemed to have forgot; and the ghost bade him speak to his mother, for
the grief and terror she was in would else kill her. It then vanished,
and was seen by none but Hamlet, neither could he by pointing to where
it stood, or by any description, make his mother perceive it; who was
terribly frightened all this while to hear him conversing, as it seemed
to her, with nothing; and she imputed it to the disorder of his mind.
But Hamlet begged her not to flatter her wicked soul in such a manner
as to think that it was his madness, and not her own offences, which
had brought his father's spirit again on the earth. And he bade her
feel his pulse, how temperately it beat, not like a madman's. And he
begged of her with tears, to confess herself to heaven for what was
past, and for the future to avoid the company of the king, and be no
more as a wife to him: and when she should show herself a mother to
him, by respecting his father's memory, he would ask a blessing of her
as a son. And she promising to observe his directions, the conference
ended.

And now Hamlet was at leisure to consider who it was that in his
unfortunate rashness he had killed: and when he came to see that it was
Polonius, the father of the lady Ophelia, whom he so dearly loved, he
drew apart the dead body, and, his spirits being now a little quieter,
he wept for what he had done.

The unfortunate death of Polonius gave the king a presence for sending
Hamlet out of the kingdom. He would willingly have put him to death,
fearing him as dangerous; but he dreaded the people, who loved Hamlet,
and the queen who, with all her faults, doted upon the prince, her son.
So this subtle king, under presence of providing for Hamlet's safety,
that he might not be called to account for Polonius' death, caused him
to be conveyed on board a ship bound for England, under the care of two
courtier