1 Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.
2 It is to act, to do, and to perform: argal, she drowned herself wittingly.
3 I prythee, when thou see'st that act a-foot, Even with the very comment of thy soul Observe mine uncle.
4 For here lies the point: if I drown myself wittingly, it argues an act: and an act hath three branches.
5 Heaven's face doth glow, Yea this solidity and compound mass, With tristful visage, as against the doom, Is thought-sick at the act.
6 I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offences at my beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in.
7 Such an act That blurs the grace and blush of modesty, Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the rose From the fair forehead of an innocent love, And sets a blister there.
8 I heard thee speak me a speech once, but it was never acted, or if it was, not above once, for the play, I remember, pleased not the million, 'twas caviare to the general.'
9 Then if he says he loves you, It fits your wisdom so far to believe it As he in his particular act and place May give his saying deed; which is no further Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal.
10 But howsoever thou pursu'st this act, Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive Against thy mother aught; leave her to heaven, And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge, To prick and sting her.
11 So shall you hear Of carnal, bloody and unnatural acts, Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters, Of deaths put on by cunning and forc'd cause, And, in this upshot, purposes mistook Fall'n on the inventors' heads.
12 Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent: When he is drunk asleep; or in his rage, Or in th'incestuous pleasure of his bed, At gaming, swearing; or about some act That has no relish of salvation in't, Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven, And that his soul may be as damn'd and black As hell, whereto it goes.