TEXT:
SCENE IV. The Queen's closet.
Enter QUEEN GERTRUDE and POLONIUS
POLONIUS
He will come straight. Look you lay home to him:
Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear with,
And that your grace hath screen'd and stood between
Much heat and him. I'll sconce me even here.
Pray you, be round with him.
HAMLET
[Within] Mother, mother, mother!
GERTRUDE
I'll warrant you,
Fear me not: withdraw, I hear him coming.
POLONIUS hides behind the arras
Enter HAMLET
HAMLET
Now, mother, what's the matter?
GERTRUDE
Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.
HAMLET
Mother, you have my father much offended.
GERTRUDE
Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.
HAMLET
Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.
GERTRUDE
Why, how now, Hamlet!
HAMLET
What's the matter now?
GERTRUDE
Have you forgot me?
HAMLET
No, by the rood, not so:
You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife;
And - would it were not so! - you are my mother.
GERTRUDE
Nay, then, I'll set those to you that can speak.
HAMLET
Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge;
You go not till I set you up a glass
Where you may see the inmost part of you.
GERTRUDE
What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder me?
Help, help, ho!
NOTES:
The Rood
Rood was originally the Old English word for the cross on which Jesus was crucified. The Holy Rood - the ‘true’ cross - was venerated for its function in Christ’s death, and indeed the word is still remembered in the name of Holyrood Palace, the English monarch’s official residence in Scotland. Given the ban on taking the Lord’s name in vain or swearing by it on stage, Shakespeare uses ‘by the rood’ as an exclamation here.