Page 297 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

POLONIUS

By th’ mass and ’tis − like a camel indeed.

HAMLET
Methinks it is like a weasel. [370]

POLONIUS
It is backed like a weasel.

HAMLET
Or like a whale.

POLONIUS
Very like a whale.

HAMLET
Then I will come to my mother by and by. − [Aside] They fool me to the top

of my bent. − I will come by and by.

POLONIUS
I will say so.
Exit.

HAMLET
‘By and by’ is easily said. − Leave me, friends.
[Exeunt all but Hamlet.]

’Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out [380]
Contagion to this world. Now could I drink hot blood,
And do such bitter business as the day

Would quake to look on. Soft, now to my mother.
O heart, lose not thy nature. Let not ever
The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom; [385]
Let me be cruel, not unnatural.

I will speak daggers to her, but use none.
My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites:
How in my words somever she be shent,