Page:Hamlet (1917) Yale.djvu/109

Prince of Denmark, III. iv

Queen. This is the very coinage of your brain:

This bodiless creation ecstasy

Is very cunning in.

Ham. Ecstasy!

My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time,

And makes as healthful music. It is not madness

That I have utter'd: bring me to the test,

And I the matter will re-word, which madness

Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace,

Lay not that flattering unction to your soul,

That not your trespass but my madness speaks;

It will but skin and film the ulcerous place,

Whiles rank corruption, mining all within,

Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven;

Repent what's past; avoid what is to come;

And do not spread the compost on the weeds

To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue;

For in the fatness of these pursy times

Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg,

Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good.

Queen. O Hamlet! thou hast cleft my heart in twain.

Ham. O! throw away the worser part of it,

And live the purer with the other half.

Good night; but go not to mine uncle's bed;

Assume a virtue, if you have it not.

[That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat,

Of habits devil, is angel yet in this,

That to the use of actions fair and good

He likewise gives a frock or livery,

 143 re-word: repeat word for word

144 gambol from: skip away from

grace: God

145 unction: salve

148 mining: undermining

153 fatness: grossness

pursy: corpulent

155 curb and woo: bow and beg

163 use: habitual practice

