Page 259 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

Denmark’s a prison.

ROSENCRANTZ
Then is the world one.

HAMLET
A goodly one, in which there are many [245] confines, wards, and dungeons,
Denmark being one o’th’ worst.

ROSENCRANTZ
We think not so, my lord.

HAMLET
Why, then ’tis none to you; for there is nothing either good or bad but

thinking makes it so. [250] To me it is a prison.

ROSENCRANTZ
Why, then your ambition makes it one: ’tis too narrow for your mind.

HAMLET
O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite
space − were it not [255] that I have bad dreams.

GUILDENSTERN
Which dreams indeed are ambition; for the very substance of the ambitious is

merely the shadow of a dream.

HAMLET

A dream itself is but a shadow. [260]

ROSENCRANTZ
Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality that it is but a
shadow’s shadow.

HAMLET
Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and outstretched heroes the
beggars’ shadows. Shall we to th’ court? For by my fay, I cannot reason. [265]