Hamlet
Act II, Scene 1
Elsinore. A room in Polonius’ house.
- Enter old Polonius with his man, Reynaldo.
Polonius
1- Give him this money and these notes, Reynaldo.
Reynaldo
2- I will, my lord.
Polonius
3 - 5- You shall do marvell’s wisely, good Reynaldo,
- Before you visit him, to make inquire
- Of his behavior.
Reynaldo
6- My lord, I did intend it.
Polonius
7 - 16- Marry, well said, very well said. Look you, sir,
- Inquire me first what Danskers are in Paris,
- And how, and who, what means, and where they keep,
- What company, at what expense; and finding
- By this encompassment and drift of question
- That they do know my son, come you more nearer
- Than your particular demands will touch it.
- Take you as ’twere some distant knowledge of him,
- As thus, “I know his father and his friends,
- And in part him.” Do you mark this, Reynaldo?
Reynaldo
17- Ay, very well, my lord.
Polonius
18 - 25- “And in part him—but,” you may say, “not well.
- But if’t be he I mean, he’s very wild,
- Addicted so and so,” and there put on him
- What forgeries you please: marry, none so rank
- As may dishonor him, take heed of that,
- But, sir, such wanton, wild, and usual slips
- As are companions noted and most known
- To youth and liberty.
Reynaldo
26- As gaming, my lord.
Polonius
27 - 28- Ay, or drinking, fencing, swearing, quarreling,
- Drabbing—you may go so far.
Reynaldo
29- My lord, that would dishonor him.
Polonius
30 - 37- Faith, as you may season it in the charge:
- You must not put another scandal on him,
- That he is open to incontinency—
- That’s not my meaning. But breathe his faults so quaintly
- That they may seem the taints of liberty,
- The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind,
- A savageness in unreclaimed blood,
- Of general assault.
Reynaldo
38- But, my good lord—
Polonius
39- Wherefore should you do this?
Reynaldo
40 - 41- Ay, my lord,
- I would know that.
Polonius
42 - 53- Marry, sir, here’s my drift,
- And I believe it is a fetch of wit:
- You laying these slight sallies on my son,
- As ’twere a thing a little soil’d wi’ th’ working,
- Mark you,
- Your party in converse, him you would sound,
- Having ever seen in the prenominate crimes
- The youth you breathe of guilty, be assur’d
- He closes with you in this consequence:
- “Good sir,” or so, or “friend,” or “gentleman,”
- According to the phrase or the addition
- Of man and country.
John Austen, circa 1922
Reynaldo
54- Very good, my lord.
Polonius
55 - 58- And then, sir, does ’a this—’a does—what was I
- About to say?
- By the mass, I was about to say something.
- Where did I leave?
Reynaldo
59- At “closes in the consequence.“
Polonius
60 - 73- At “closes in the consequence,” ay, marry.
- He closes thus: “I know the gentleman.
- I saw him yesterday, or th’ other day,
- Or then, or then, with such or such, and as you say,
- There was ’a gaming, there o’ertook in ’s rouse,
- There falling out at tennis”; or, perchance,
- “I saw him enter such a house of sale,”
- Videlicet, a brothel, or so forth. See you now,
- Your bait of falsehood take this carp of truth,
- And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,
- With windlasses and with assays of bias,
- By indirections find directions out;
- So by my former lecture and advice
- Shall you my son. You have me, have you not?
Reynaldo
74- My lord, I have.
Polonius
75- God buy ye, fare ye well.
Reynaldo
76- Good my lord.
Polonius
77- Observe his inclination in yourself.
Reynaldo
78- I shall, my lord.
Polonius
79- And let him ply his music.
Reynaldo
80- Well, my lord.
Polonius
81 - 82- Farewell.
- Exit Reynaldo.
- Enter Ophelia.
- How now, Ophelia, what’s the matter?
Ophelia
83- O my lord, my lord, I have been so affrighted!
Polonius
84- With what, i’ th’ name of God?
Ophelia
85 - 92- My lord, as I was sewing in my closet,
- Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbrac’d,
- No hat upon his head, his stockins fouled,
- Ungart’red, and down-gyved to his ankle,
- Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other,
- And with a look so piteous in purport
- As if he had been loosed out of hell
- To speak of horrors—he comes before me.
Ophelia
John Seymour Lucas
Polonius
93- Mad for thy love?
Ophelia
94 - 95- My lord, I do not know,
- But truly I do fear it.
Polonius
96- What said he?
Ophelia
97 - 110- He took me by the wrist, and held me hard,
- Then goes he to the length of all his arm,
- And with his other hand thus o’er his brow,
- He falls to such perusal of my face
- As ’a would draw it. Long stay’d he so.
- At last, a little shaking of mine arm,
- And thrice his head thus waving up and down,
- He rais’d a sigh so piteous and profound
- As it did seem to shatter all his bulk
- And end his being. That done, he lets me go,
- And with his head over his shoulder turn’d,
- He seem’d to find his way without his eyes,
- For out a’ doors he went without their helps,
- And to the last bended their light on me.
Polonius
111 - 117- Come, go with me. I will go seek the king.
- This is the very ecstasy of love,
- Whose violent property fordoes itself,
- And leads the will to desperate undertakings
- As oft as any passions under heaven
- That does afflict our natures. I am sorry—
- What, have you given him any hard words of late?
Ophelia
118 - 120- No, my good lord, but as you did command
- I did repel his letters, and denied
- His access to me.
Polonius
121 - 131- That hath made him mad.
- I am sorry that with better heed and judgment
- I had not coted him. I fear’d he did but trifle
- And meant to wrack thee, but beshrew my jealousy!
- By heaven, it is as proper to our age
- To cast beyond ourselves in our opinions,
- As it is common for the younger sort
- To lack discretion. Come, go we to the king.
- This must be known, which, being kept close, might move
- More grief to hide, than hate to utter love.
- Come.
- Exeunt.
Scene design for Hamlet