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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