SCENE IV. The Queen's closet.
Enter QUEEN GERTRUDE and POLONIUS

LORD POLONIUS
He will come straight. Look you lay home to him:
Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear with,
And that your grace hath screen'd and stood between
Much heat and him. I'll sconce me even here.
Pray you, be round with him.
[Polonius knows Hamlet is on his way to see his mother and is talking in a quick stern fashion, trying to make it clear to the Queen that she needs to get to the bottom of Hamlet’s behavior. ]

HAMLET
[Within] Mother, mother, mother!

QUEEN GERTRUDE

I'll warrant you,
Fear me not: withdraw, I hear him coming.
POLONIUS hides behind the arras
[Polonius and the Queen can hear Hamlet’s calls faintly in the background. The Queen is talking quickly to Polonius in a serious manner, while at the same time motioning him to hide.]
Enter HAMLET
HAMLET
Now, mother, what's the matter?

QUEEN GERTRUDE
Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.

HAMLET
Mother, you have my father much offended.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.

HAMLET
Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
Why, how now, Hamlet!

HAMLET
What's the matter now?

QUEEN GERTRUDE

Have you forgot me?

HAMLET
No, by the rood, not so:
You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife;
And--would it were not so!--you are my mother.
[This part of the conversation goes back and forth between the Queen and Hamlet. Hamlet responds to every one of the queen’s statements with a quick ‘smart’ remark, all with double meanings. For example, when the queen talks about how Hamlet has offended his father, she refers to Claudius and when Hamlet responds, he says the same thing but refers to his biological father. All of his remarks are aimed to sort of offend the queen and put her down for what she did to her first husband. The Queen is obliviously trying to find the reason for Hamlet’s odd behavior, while Hamlet is just giving her attitude back trying to make her realize her horrible deeds. ]

QUEEN GERTRUDE
Nay, then, I'll set those to you that can speak.

HAMLET
Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge;
You go not till I set you up a glass
Where you may see the inmost part of you.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder me?
Help, help, ho!

LORD POLONIUS
[Behind] What, ho! help, help, help!
[Hamlet motions to his mother to sit down. He is still talking with a sarcastic tone. The Queen is just this helpless woman who is ignorant to everything. She takes Hamlets lines too literally and thinks that he is going to poison her. She backs away and screams to Polonius, Help! ]

HAMLET
[Drawing] How now! a rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!
Makes a pass through the arras
[Hamlet is taken aback that there is someone else in the room and the first person that comes to mind is the king, so he quickly goes over to the tapestry, takes his sword and stabs it. ]
LORD POLONIUS
[Behind] O, I am slain!
Falls and dies
[Polonius says this softly w/ a pained voice as he falls to the ground]
QUEEN GERTRUDE
O me, what hast thou done?

HAMLET
Nay, I know not:
Is it the king?

QUEEN GERTRUDE
O, what a rash and bloody deed is this!

HAMLET
A bloody deed! almost as bad, good mother,
As kill a king, and marry with his brother.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
As kill a king!

HAMLET
Ay, lady, 'twas my word.
[The Queen can’t believe what Hamlet has done. Hamlet continues with his sarcasm still, mixing with anger now and twists his mother’s words once again to refer to what she did to the first king. The Queen is completely taken aback and looks at Hamlet with questionable eyes as to why he would accuse her of such a thing. ]

Lifts up the array and discovers POLONIUS
Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!
I took thee for thy better: take thy fortune;
Thou find'st to be too busy is some danger.
Leave wringing of your hands: peace! sit you down,
And let me wring your heart; for so I shall,
If it be made of penetrable stuff,
If damned custom have not brass'd it so
That it is proof and bulwark against sense.
[When Hamlet lifts the tapestry and finds Polonius, he has no sympathy towards him, but continues in his angry tone and looks and talks down to him, saying that it was his own fault that he died because he should have never put himself in that situation.]

QUEEN GERTRUDE
What have I done, that thou darest wag thy tongue
In noise so rude against me?
[The Queen is taken aback at Hamlet’s attitude toward her. ]

HAMLET
Such an act
That blurs the grace and blush of modesty,
Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the rose
From the fair forehead of an innocent love
And sets a blister there, makes marriage-vows
As false as dicers' oaths: O, such a deed
As from the body of contraction plucks
The very soul, and sweet religion makes
A rhapsody of words: heaven's face doth glow:
Yea, this solidity and compound mass,
With tristful visage, as against the doom,
Is thought-sick at the act.
[Hamlet is getting closer and closer to outright telling the Queen straightforward that he despises her for what she did, because she has a hard time in understanding what he is saying. Once again, Hamlet talks about how she ruined an ‘innocent love.’ He is getting angrier by the second. ]

QUEEN GERTRUDE
Ay me, what act,
That roars so loud, and thunders in the index?
The Queen is still ignorant and in an annoyed voice, ‘ay me’, asks him yet again what he’s talking about.]

HAMLET
Look here, upon this picture, and on this,
The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.
See, what a grace was seated on this brow;
Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself;
An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;
A station like the herald Mercury
New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill;
A combination and a form indeed,
Where every god did seem to set his seal,
To give the world assurance of a man:
This was your husband.
[Hamlet speaks proudly of his father in an attempt to show how big of a mistake the Queen made by marrying the man who killed his father, the man who was like the gods. ]
Look you now, what follows:
Here is your husband; like a mildew'd ear,
Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes?
Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed,
And batten on this moor? Ha! have you eyes?
You cannot call it love; for at your age
The hey-day in the blood is tame, it's humble,
And waits upon the judgment: and what judgment
Would step from this to this?
[His sweet manner when talking about his biological father, quickly fades as he turns to the picture of Claudius and criticizes his mother for marrying such a disgusting man. He is trying to establish the fact that she threw away a marriage that was in Hamlet’s mind, perfect.]
Sense, sure, you have,
Else could you not have motion; but sure, that sense
Is apoplex'd; for madness would not err,
Nor sense to ecstasy was ne'er so thrall'd
But it reserved some quantity of choice,
To serve in such a difference. What devil was't
That thus hath cozen'd you at hoodman-blind?
Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight,
Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all,
Or but a sickly part of one true sense
Could not so mope.
O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell,
If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones,
To flaming youth let virtue be as wax,
And melt in her own fire: proclaim no shame
When the compulsive ardour gives the charge,
Since frost itself as actively doth burn
And reason panders will.
[Hamlet continues on his rant in an angry manner to his mother about how ridiculous her actions were, and tries to come up with reasons as to why she did it. ]

QUEEN GERTRUDE
O Hamlet, speak no more:
Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul;
And there I see such black and grained spots
As will not leave their tinct.
[The Queen is overcome and finally realizes the reasons behind Hamlet’s rash behavior. She quickly becomes soft and can’t stand to think of what she has done.]

HAMLET
Nay, but to live
In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed,
Stew'd in corruption, honeying and making love
Over the nasty sty,--
[In the Queen’s previous speech, she says ‘speak no more’ but Hamlet keeps going. He doesn’t want to let her of the hook so easily and therefore prods it into her and makes sure she fully realizes what she has done and therefore continues in a disgusted voice. ]

QUEEN GERTRUDE
O, speak to me no more;
These words, like daggers, enter in mine ears;
No more, sweet Hamlet!
[The more Hamlet speaks about the past, the more disgusted she becomes with herself and turns herself away from him.]

HAMLET
A murderer and a villain;
A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe
Of your precedent lord; a vice of kings;
A cutpurse of the empire and the rule,
That from a shelf the precious diadem stole,
And put it in his pocket!
[This is Hamlet’s chance to put forth all of his feelings that he has kept bottled up inside since his father’s death and his mother’s second marriage. He obviously takes advantage of it. He rants on about how inferior Claudius is to his real father. He is still very angry. ]

QUEEN GERTRUDE
No more!
[The Queen is getting angry and motions Hamlet to stop.]

HAMLET
A king of shreds and patches,--
Enter Ghost
Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings,
You heavenly guards! What would your gracious figure?
[Hamlet keeps going on in his angry manner about the differences between his noble father and Claudius, when all of a sudden his manner changes and he begins talking softly to the ghost of his father. ]

QUEEN GERTRUDE
Alas, he's mad!
[The Queen, astounded, thinks that Hamlet really is crazy because she thinks he’s talking to nobody. She has a confused face on. ]

HAMLET
Do you not come your tardy son to chide,
That, lapsed in time and passion, lets go by
The important acting of your dread command? O, say!
[Hamlet is ignoring his mother and solely focusing on the ghost now. ]
Ghost
Do not forget: this visitation
Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.
But, look, amazement on thy mother sits:
O, step between her and her fighting soul:
Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works:
Speak to her, Hamlet.
[The Ghost is talking to Hamlet in a calm manner giving him orders on how to handle his mother’s shock to Hamlet talking to air. ]

HAMLET
How is it with you, lady?
[Hamlet obeys the ghost and turns to his mother, and talks in a calm fashion. ]

QUEEN GERTRUDE
Alas, how is't with you,
That you do bend your eye on vacancy
And with the incorporal air do hold discourse?
Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep;
And, as the sleeping soldiers in the alarm,
Your bedded hair, like life in excrements,
Starts up, and stands on end. O gentle son,
Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper
Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look?
[The Queen addresses Hamlet calmly but speaks in a hurried tone and by the end sounds a little distressed because of what she has just seen. She points to his hair and to his general appearance. When she says ‘whereon do you look’ it seems as though she’s pleading with him to tell her the truth and snap out of this crazy state. ]

HAMLET
On him, on him! Look you, how pale he glares!
His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones,
Would make them capable. Do not look upon me;
Lest with this piteous action you convert
My stern effects: then what I have to do
Will want true colour; tears perchance for blood.
[Hamlet is frantically pointing to the ghost mad that she for some reason can’t see him. He is talking in a strained voice, turning his head between the ghost and then unto the queen. ]

QUEEN GERTRUDE
To whom do you speak this?
[The Queen remains calm.]

HAMLET
Do you see nothing there?
[Hamlet points again. ]

QUEEN GERTRUDE
Nothing at all; yet all that is I see.
[The Queen shakes her head no. ]

HAMLET
Nor did you nothing hear?

QUEEN GERTRUDE
No, nothing but ourselves.

HAMLET
Why, look you there! look, how it steals away!
My father, in his habit as he lived!
Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal!
Exit Ghost
[As the ghost leaves , Hamlet points to it as he leaves the room and talks in a frantic tone. ]
QUEEN GERTRUDE
This the very coinage of your brain:
This bodiless creation ecstasy
Is very cunning in.
[The Queen kind of shrugs and says still in a gentle manner ‘this is only an apparition of your mind Hamlet.’]

HAMLET
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 mattering unction to your soul,
That not your trespass, but my madness speaks:
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place,
Whilst 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.
[Hamlet loses it because his mother still does not understand him. He is very angry and is pacing around, while talking to her. ]

QUEEN GERTRUDE
O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain.
[Touches her heart and looks at him with sad eyes. ]

HAMLET
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,
That aptly is put on. Refrain to-night,
And that shall lend a kind of easiness
To the next abstinence: the next more easy;
For use almost can change the stamp of nature,
And either [ ] the devil, or throw him out
With wondrous potency. Once more, good night:
And when you are desirous to be bless'd,
I'll blessing beg of you. For this same lord,
Pointing to POLONIUS
I do repent: but heaven hath pleased it so,
To punish me with this and this with me,
That I must be their scourge and minister.
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:
Thus bad begins and worse remains behind.
One word more, good lady.
[Hamlet calms down and realizes that trying to get his mother to understand is a lost cause. He points to Polonius, realizing his mistake and begins to walk out. ]

QUEEN GERTRUDE
What shall I do?

HAMLET
Not this, by no means, that I bid you do:
Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed;
Pinch wanton on your cheek; call you his mouse;
And let him, for a pair of reechy kisses,
Or paddling in your neck with his damn'd fingers,
Make you to ravel all this matter out,
That I essentially am not in madness,
But mad in craft. 'Twere good you let him know;
For who, that's but a queen, fair, sober, wise,
Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib,
Such dear concernings hide? who would do so?
No, in despite of sense and secrecy,
Unpeg the basket on the house's top.
Let the birds fly, and, like the famous ape,
To try conclusions, in the basket creep,
And break your own neck down.
[Hamlet is calm again while giving Queen orders to let the king be with her.]

QUEEN GERTRUDE
Be thou assured, if words be made of breath,
And breath of life, I have no life to breathe
What thou hast said to me.
[The Queen is quiet and stares at Hamlet intently. ]