Page 309 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

QUEEN

O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain.

HAMLET
O throw away the worser part of it
And live the purer with the other half. [160]
Good night. But go not to my uncle’s bed.

Assume a virtue if you have it not.
That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat
Of habits evil, is angel yet in this,
That to the use of actions fair and good [165]

He likewise gives a frock or livery
That aptly is put on. Refrain tonight,
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, [170]
And either [lodge] the devil or throw him out
With wondrous potency. Once more, good night,
And when you are desirous to be blest,

I’ll blessing beg of you. For this same lord
I do repent; but heaven hath pleas’d it so, [175]
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. [180]
This bad begins, and worse remains behind.

One word more, good lady.

QUEEN

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, [185]

And let him, for a pair of reechy kisses,
Or paddling in your neck with his damn’d fingers,