Qu. What haue I done, that thou dar'st wag thy tong, [Sidenote: Ger.] In noise so rude against me?[6]
Ham. Such an Act
That blurres the grace and blush of Modestie,[7]
Calls Vertue Hypocrite, takes off the Rose
From the faire forehead of an innocent loue,
And makes a blister there.[8] Makes marriage vowes
[Sidenote: And sets a]
As false as Dicers Oathes. Oh such a deed,
As from the body of Contraction[9] pluckes
The very soule, and sweete Religion makes
A rapsidie of words. Heauens face doth glow, [Sidenote: dooes]
Yea this solidity and compound masse, [Sidenote: Ore this]
With tristfull visage as against the doome,
[Sidenote: with heated visage,]
Is thought-sicke at the act.[10] [Sidenote: thought sick]
Qu. Aye me; what act,[11] that roares so lowd,[12] and thunders in the Index.[13]
[Footnote 1: Not in Q.]
[Footnote 2: —through the arras.]
[Footnote 3: Hamlet takes him for, hopes it is the king, and thinks here to conclude: he is not praying now! and there is not a moment to be lost, for he has betrayed his presence and called for help. As often as immediate action is demanded of Hamlet, he is immediate with his response—never hesitates, never blunders. There is no blunder here: being where he was, the death of Polonius was necessary now to the death of the king. Hamlet's resolve is instant, and the act simultaneous with the resolve. The weak man is sure to be found wanting when immediate action is necessary; Hamlet never is. Doubtless those who blame him as dilatory, here blame him as precipitate, for they judge according to appearance and consequence.
All his delay after this is plainly compelled, although I grant he was not sorry to have to await such more presentable evidence as at last he procured, so long as he did not lose the final possibility of vengeance.]
[Footnote 4: This is the sole reference in the interview to the murder. I take it for tentative, and that Hamlet is satisfied by his mother's utterance, carriage, and expression, that she is innocent of any knowledge of that crime. Neither does he allude to the adultery: there is enough in what she cannot deny, and that only which can be remedied needs be taken up; while to break with the king would open the door of repentance for all that had preceded.]
[Footnote 5: He says nothing of the Ghost to his mother.]
[Footnote 6: She still holds up and holds out.]