The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
Shakespeare homepage | Hamlet | Act 3, Scene 4
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SCENE IV. The Queen's closet.
Enter QUEEN GERTRUDE and POLONIUS
LORD POLONIUS
He will come straight. Look you lay home to him:
Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear with, (**Polonius shakes his finger at Gertrude.*)
And that your grace (**He softens his tone as he bows.**) hath screen'd and stood between
Much heat and him. I'll sconce me even here.
Pray you, be round with him.
** He is unmistakenly annoyed with Hamlet. He has finally begun to catch on--Hamlet is NOT crazy. That boy knows what he is doing.**
HAMLET
[Within] Mother, mother, mother!
QUEEN GERTRUDE
I'll warrant you,
Fear me not: withdraw, (**Gertrude points at a place for Polonius to hide.**) I hear him coming.
POLONIUS hides behind the arras
Enter HAMLET
HAMLET
Now, mother, what's the matter?
**Hamlet says this with a smirk--he is being a smartass (sorry for the language!)**
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.
**Gertrude has a very stern look on her face.**
HAMLET
Mother, you have my father much offended.
**Hamlet says this with an attitude!**
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.
**She becomes more flustered.**
HAMLET
Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Why, how now, Hamlet!
**Gertrude starts sobbing.**
HAMLET
What's the matter now?
**Hamlet says this line with sarcasm and a roll of his eyes.**
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Have you forgot me?
**She puts her hand on his shoulder.**
HAMLET
No, by the rood, not so:
You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife; (**Gertrude shifts uncomfortably at this statement.**)
And--would it were not so!--you are my mother.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Nay, then, I'll set those to you that can speak.
*She can't speak because of all the tears.**
HAMLET
Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge;
You go not till I set you up a glass
Where you may see the inmost part of you.
**Hamlet gets closer to his mother as she backs into a corner. He has an evil look on his face.**
QUEEN GERTRUDE
What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder me?
Help, help, ho!
**At this point, Hamlet is now leaning over his mother as if about to attack her. She is screaming and trying to push him away.**
LORD POLONIUS
[Behind] What, ho! help, help, help!
**Polonius blows his cover.**
HAMLET
[Drawing] How now! a rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!
Makes a pass through the arras
LORD POLONIUS
[Behind] O, I am slain!
Falls and dies
QUEEN GERTRUDE
O me, what hast thou done?
**Gertrude is completely shocked. She holds her hand to her chest.**
HAMLET
Nay, I know not:
Is it the king?
**Hamlet says this as he lowers his sword down and wipes his face with his arm. He is sweaty and disheveled. **
QUEEN GERTRUDE
O, what a rash and bloody deed is this!
*She kneels on the floor, crying.*
HAMLET
A bloody deed! (*Hamlet screams this and throws his sword (so it makes a loud noise.))* almost as bad, good mother,
As kill a king, and marry with his brother.
*He once again is coming closer to her.*
QUEEN GERTRUDE
As kill a king!
*Hamlet is leaning over his mother with his arm on her shoulder. She literally whispers this line.*
HAMLET
Ay, lady, 'twas my word.
*Hamlet deeply gazes into her eyes in order for her to soak in what has just been said.*
Lifts up the array and discovers POLONIUS
Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell! (*Hamlet is crouching down over the body and directly speaking to the dead Polonius.*)
I took thee for thy better: take thy fortune; (*Hamlet throws a coin on the dead man's chest.*)
Thou find'st to be too busy is some danger.
Leave wringing of your hands: peace! sit you down, (*Hamlet stands up and aggressively points at Gertrude.*)
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?
*She doesn't listen to Hamlet. Instead of sitting still, she finally has enough courage to stand up and address him. For some reason, Gertrude is still unable to understand the root of Hamlet's anger.*
HAMLET
Such an act
That blurs the grace and blush of modesty, (*Hamlet begins pacing the room.*)
Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the rose
From the fair forehead of an innocent love
And sets a blister there, makes marriage-vows (*He is once again near Gertrude. He comes up behind her and is whispering these lines in her ear.*)
As false as dicers' oaths: O, such a deed
As from the body of contraction plucks (*He grips her tighter.*)
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.
**Hamlet looks absolutely evil. He is still angry by his mother's sinful deed, but even more angry at her ignorance.**
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Ay me, what act,
That roars so loud, and thunders in the index?
*Gertrude struggles to say this line. She is afraid that she knows what deed Hamlet is talking about, and his tight grasp is scaring her.*
HAMLET
Look here, upon this picture, and on this, (*Hamlet lets go and starts walking towards the painting.*)
The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.
See, what a grace was seated on this brow;
Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself; (*He is tracing the picture of his father with his hands with a sense of longing.*)
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: (*Hamlet suddenly comes out of this reverie about his father.*)
This was your husband. (*He grabs her face to make her look at the picture and says this line very sternly.*) Look you now, what follows:
Here is your husband (*He emphasizes the word "here.*) ; like a mildew'd ear,
Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes?
Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed, (*He raises his voice.*)
And batten on this moor? Ha! have you eyes?
You cannot call it love; (*Hamlet lets go of her face and pauses briefly. He then lowers his voice.*) for at your age
The hey-day in the blood is tame, it's humble,
And waits upon the judgment: and what judgment (**Hamlet once again raises his voice.**)
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! (**He pauses briefly.**) where is thy blush? (**He is now squinting as he looks upon Gertrude's face. He looks at her as though he is studying a painting.**) 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.
**Hamlet has been as dramatic as possible (no surprise there). Gertrude is now fully aware of the crime she has committed. She is not only surprised that Hamlet caught on to Claudius's evil scheme, she is also disgusted in herself for being aware of it all along. **
QUEEN GERTRUDE
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.
**Gertrude would like to end her conversation with Hamlet because she feels a sense of undying guilt.**
HAMLET
Nay, but to live
In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed, (*Hamlet is slowly approaching her (she is sitting on the floor nearby)).*
Stew'd in corruption, honeying and making love
Over the nasty sty,--
QUEEN GERTRUDE
O, speak to me no more; (**She covers her ears and closes her eyes.**)
These words, like daggers, enter in mine ears;
No more, sweet Hamlet!
**Gertrude's tone has literally turned desperate.**
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,
That from a shelf the precious diadem stole,
And put it in his pocket!
*Hamlet is enraged. All his stored up anger is being released at his shocked mother.**
QUEEN GERTRUDE
No more!
*This is a desperate cry.*
HAMLET
A king of shreds and patches,--
Enter Ghost
**Hamlet looks up as if he has seen an angel. He then begins addressing the ghost who seems to be a figure of his imagination.**
Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings,
You heavenly guards! What would your gracious figure?
QUEEN GERTRUDE
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
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.
*The ghost appears to remind Hamlet what he has forgotten--to protect his mother and ensure that she is not harmed in any way. When he got caught up in the moment, he perhaps forgot this important rule.**
HAMLET
How is it with you, lady?
*Hamlet's tone shifts drastically. He is now addressing her in a kind tone; however, it almost seems patronizing.**
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Alas, how is't with you,
That you do bend your eye on vacancy
And with the incorporal air do hold discourse? (**Once again, she believes that Hamlet is mad.**)
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?
**Gertrude almost feels a sense of a relief. She is rationalizing Hamlet's seemingly strange behavior and once again blaming it on madness. She begins to think that perhaps he has after all NOT caught on to Claudius's evil plot.**
HAMLET
On him, on him! Look you, how pale he glares! (**Hamlet points to "the ghost.")
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?
*Hamlet says this with a bit of confusion. He is starting to doubt the ghost's existence and reliability.**
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Nothing at all; yet all that is I see.
HAMLET
Nor did you nothing hear?
*Hamlet says this in the same, defeated tone.*
QUEEN GERTRUDE
No, nothing but ourselves.
*Gertrude approaches Hamlet and puts her hand on her confused son's shoulder.*
HAMLET
Why, look you there! look, how it steals away!
My father, in his habit as he lived!
Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal!
Exit Ghost
*Hamlet says this line in a tone of panic. He wants his mother to believe him because if she doesn't, then he himself will think the ghost was a hoax.**
QUEEN GERTRUDE
This the very coinage of your brain:
This bodiless creation ecstasy
Is very cunning in.
**She says this in a very mommy-like tone. She is starting to sympathize with her delusional son.**
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.
**While Hamlet is telling Gertrude to just admit to her sins, she is literally breaking down in front of him. She is disappointed that Hamlet is in fact not mad, and that he is serious in his accusations. **
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. (**Hamlet has eased his tone. He is now advising his mother so she can repent her sins.**)
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
To the next abstinence: the next more easy;
For use almost can change the stamp of nature,
And either [ ] the devil, or throw him out
With wondrous potency. Once more, good night: (**Hamlet says this again in a sort of reassurance. He can see that his mother is panicking and that she is absolutely clueless as to how to fix the situation.**)
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?
*She says this attentively.**
HAMLET
Not this, by no means, that I bid you do:
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,
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.
**Hamlet and Gertrude are now on the same page. She has finally seen how wrong her action is and she truly feels resentful. For that very reason, she will listen to the advice of her loyal son, though she is still shocked and overwhelmed by the information she has received tonight.**
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
I must to England; you know that?
**Hamlet feels a sort of remorse for being forced to leave his mother. He now wants to help her.**
(2,746).
