Mother? Everything will be alright.
GERTRUDE
You just broke off and spoke to thin air, your eyes are not
angry now, but wild--the question is: are you alright? What
have you seen?
HAMLET
Him! Look how pale he glares! (To Ghost.) Don't look upon
me, you'll alter my resolution from revenge to sympathy.
GERTRUDE
Who are you speaking to?
You can't see him?
GERTRUDE
See who?
HAMLET
Or hear him?
GERTRUDE
Who?
HAMLET
The king--my father! Look, he walks out the door!
(Exit Ghost.)
GERTRUDE
It's your imagination, gentle prince. You're caught in an
ecstacy.
HAMLET
Ecstacy? My pulse and mind are steady. I'm not talking out
of madness. For the love of grace, mother, don't let
yourself think I'm acting and speaking out of that; it will
only allow you to ignore the corruption that's grown up
around us all, and ignoring our situation will only allow it
to grow worse. Confess, repent what's past, so we can avoid
what is surely to come. The true madness is that in a time
like this, it's not obscene for virtue to beg the pardon of
vice--that's how far away we've come from what's right.
GERTRUDE
Oh Hamlet, you've cut my heart in two.
HAMLET
Then throw away the worse part and live pure with the other
half.
(Beat.)
HAMLET (CONT'D)
I'm going to leave you now. I beg you, do not sleep with my
uncle. Assume virtue even if you can't place it right now.
There is both bad and good within the thing that is of habit:
acting badly can eat away at one's sense of evil, but doing
good can become a second nature too. Refrain tonight and
that will lend to the ease of the next. Actions can alter
the stamp of nature, and either curb the devil, or throw him
out altogether. Make it so mother, and then when you ask for
a blessing, I'll be there in turn begging a blessing of you.
(Looking at Polonius.) As for him, I'm sorry. Apparently it
pleases heaven that I'd be their scourge and minister. I'll
dispose of his body and will answer well for the death I gave
him. I must be cruel only to be kind. This is a bad
beginning, and worse is yet to come.
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