Queen. No, nothing but ourselves.
Ham. Why, look you there! look, how it steals away![1520]
My father, in his habit as he lived![1521] 135
Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal![1522]
[Exit Ghost.
Queen. This is the very coinage of your brain:
This bodiless creation ecstasy[1523]
Is very cunning in.[1523]
Ham. Ecstasy![1524]
My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time, 140
And makes as healthful music: it is not madness
That I have utter'd: bring me to the test,[1525]
And I the matter will re-word, which madness[1526]
Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace,[1527]
Lay not that flattering unction to your soul,[1528] 145
That not your trespass but my madness speaks:
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place,
Whiles rank corruption, mining all within,[1529]
Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven;
Repent what's past, avoid what is to come,[1530] 150
And do not spread the compost on the weeds,[1531]
To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue,[1532][1533][1534]
For in the fatness of these pursy times[1533][1535]
Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg,[1533]
Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good.[1533][1536] 155
Queen. O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain.[1537]
Ham. O, throw away the worser part of it,[1538]
And live the purer with the other half.[1539]
Good night: but go not to my uncle's bed;[1540]
Assume a virtue, if you have it not. 160
That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat,[1541][1542]
Of habits devil, is angel yet in this,[1541][1542]
That to the use of actions fair and good[1541]
He likewise gives a frock or livery,[1541]
That aptly is put on. Refrain to-night,[1541][1543] 165
And that shall lend a kind of easiness
To the next abstinence; the next more easy;[1544]
For use almost can change the stamp of nature,[1544][1545]
And either ... the devil, or throw him out[1544][1546]
With wondrous potency. Once more, good night:[1544] 170
And when you are desirous to be blest,
I'll blessing beg of you. For this same lord,
[Pointing to Polonius.[1547]
I do repent: but heaven hath pleased it so,[1548]
To punish me with this, and this with me,[1549]
That I must be their scourge and minister. 175
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:[1550]
Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.[1550][1551]
One word more, good lady.[1552]
Queen. What shall I do? 180