GERTRUDE What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murder me?
Help, help, ho!
Behind the arras
POLONIUS What, ho? Help, help, help!
HAMLET How now? A rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead28!
Draws
[Hamlet] kills Polonius
POLONIUS O, I am slain!
GERTRUDE O me, what hast thou done?
HAMLET Nay, I know not: is it the king?
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.
GERTRUDE As kill a king?
HAMLET Ay, lady, 'twas my word.--
Discovers Polonius
Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell.
I took thee for thy better: take thy fortune;
Thou find'st to be too busy39 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 brazed43 it so That it is proof and bulwark against sense44.
GERTRUDE What have I done, that thou dar'st wag thy tongue In noise so rude46 against me?
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