Hamlet: Act III, Scene ii
Hamlet Act III, Scene ii Hamlet
(This text is featured in our interview with John Douglas Thompson)
HAMLET
54 Horatio, thou art e’en as just a man
55 As e’er my conversation coped withal.
HORATIO
56 O, my dear lord,–
HAMLET Nay, do not think I flatter;
57 For what advancement may I hope from thee
58 That no revenue hast but thy good spirits,
59 To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be flatter’d?
60 No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp,
61 And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee
62 Where thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear?
63 Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice
64 And could of men distinguish, her election
65 Hath seal’d thee for herself; for thou hast been
66 As one, in suffering all, that suffers nothing,
67 A man that fortune’s buffets and rewards
68 Hast ta’en with equal thanks: and blest are those
69 Whose blood and judgment are so well commingled,
70 That they are not a pipe for fortune’s finger
71 To sound what stop she please. Give me that man
72 That is not passion’s slave, and I will wear him
73 In my heart’s core, ay, in my heart of heart,
74 As I do thee.–Something too much of this.–
75 There is a play to-night before the king;
76 One scene of it comes near the circumstance
77 Which I have told thee of my father’s death:
78 I prithee, when thou seest that act afoot,
79 Even with the very comment of thy soul
80 Observe mine uncle: if his occulted guilt
81 Do not itself unkennel in one speech,
82 It is a damned ghost that we have seen,
83 And my imaginations are as foul
84 As Vulcan’s stithy. Give him heedful note;
85 For I mine eyes will rivet to his face,
86 And after we will both our judgments join
87 In censure of his seeming.
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