Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

By Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Hamlet Subtext

SCENE IV. The Queen's closet.
Enter QUEEN GERTRUDE and POLONIUS
LORD 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 betweenMuch heat and him. I'll sconce me even here.Pray you, be round with him.
This is typical Polonius; in a pleading, ingratiating tone, he implores the Queen to scold Hamlet while he hides himself and listens
HAMLET
[Within] Mother, mother, mother!
Spoken in a mocking, high-pitched voice
QUEEN GERTRUDE
I'll warrant you,Fear me not: withdraw, I hear him coming.
(Agreeing to Polonius's request, she gestures at the arras and frantically pushes him over)
POLONIUS hides behind the arras
Enter HAMLET
HAMLET
Now, mother, what's the matter?
Fake concern, comical, caring expression on his face, while his words drip with scorn
QUEEN GERTRUDE
(Brushes away her hair, which was mussed in her distress. Pulls herself up in an attempt to appear haughty and powerful)Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.
HAMLET
(Stares at her and shakes his head)Mother, you have my father much offended.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.(Her eyes dart around. She is clearly scared of him.)
HAMLET
Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Why, how now, Hamlet!
HAMLET
What's the matter now?
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Have you forgot me?
HAMLET
No, by the rood, not so:You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife;And--(glancing towards the sky)would it were not so!--you are my mother.(He grimaces at the word 'mother')
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Nay, then, I'll set those to you that can speak.(Starts to walk towards the door)
HAMLET
Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge;You go not till I set you up a glassWhere you may see the inmost part of you.(He grabs her left arm and forces her to turn around and face him)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder me?Help, help, ho! (Her voice becomes frantic. Her eyes dart around before settling on the arras)
LORD POLONIUS
[Behind] What, ho! help, help, help!
HAMLET
[Drawing] How now! a rat?(He barks) Dead, for a ducat, dead!
Makes a pass through the arras
LORD POLONIUS
[Behind] O, I am slain!
Falls and dies(One hears the sound of his body crumpling to the floor)
QUEEN GERTRUDE
O me, what hast thou done?(She exclaims, clutching her dress)
HAMLET
Nay, I know not:(laughing)Is it the king?
QUEEN GERTRUDE
O, what a rash and bloody deed is this!
HAMLET
A bloody deed! almost as bad, good mother,As kill a king, and marry with his brother.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
As kill a king!(Still scared, but her interest is piqued)
HAMLET
Ay, lady, 'twas my word.
Lifts up the array and discovers POLONIUS
He spits out the words:Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!I took thee for thy better: take thy fortune;Thou find'st to be too busy is some danger.Leave wringing of your hands: peace! sit you down,And let me wring your heart; for so I shall,If it be made of penetrable stuff,If damned custom have not brass'd it soThat it is proof and bulwark against sense.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
What have I done, that thou darest wag thy tongueIn noise so rude against me?
HAMLET (Grabbing her)
Such an actThat blurs the grace and blush of modesty,Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the roseFrom the fair forehead of an innocent loveAnd sets a blister there, makes marriage-vowsAs false as dicers' oaths: O, such a deedAs from the body of contraction plucksThe very soul, and sweet religion makesA rhapsody of words: heaven's face doth glow:Yea, this solidity and compound mass,With tristful visage, as against the doom,Is thought-sick at the act.
QUEEN GERTRUDE (is taken aback)
Ay me, what act,That roars so loud, and thunders in the index?
HAMLET
Look here, upon this picture, and on this,The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.(His eyes look upwards while he describes his father)See, what a grace was seated on this brow;Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself;An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;A station like the herald MercuryNew-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill;A combination and a form indeed,Where every god did seem to set his seal,To give the world assurance of a man:This was your husband. Look you now, what follows:Here is your husband; like a mildew'd ear,Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes?(Pointing at his eys)Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed,And batten on this moor? Ha! have you eyes?(Pointing at his eyes again, more frantically this time)You cannot call it love; for at your ageThe hey-day in the blood is tame, it's humble,And waits upon the judgment: and what judgmentWould step from this to this? Sense, sure, you have,Else could you not have motion; but sure, that senseIs apoplex'd; for madness would not err,Nor sense to ecstasy was ne'er so thrall'dBut it reserved some quantity of choice,To serve in such a difference. What devil was'tThat thus hath cozen'd you at hoodman-blind?Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight,Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all,Or but a sickly part of one true senseCould not so mope.O shame! where is thy blush?(Grabs her cheeks forcefully) Rebellious hell,If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones,To flaming youth let virtue be as wax,And melt in her own fire: proclaim no shameWhen the compulsive ardour gives the charge,Since frost itself as actively doth burnAnd reason panders will.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
O Hamlet, speak no more:Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul;And there I see such black and grained spotsAs will not leave their tinct.
As she begins to realize what she has done, she weeps
HAMLET (His voice gradually crescendoes)
Nay, but to liveIn the rank sweat of an enseamed bed,Stew'd in corruption, honeying and making loveOver the nasty sty,--
QUEEN GERTRUDE (Putting her hands up)
O, speak to me no more;These words, like daggers, enter in mine ears;No more, sweet Hamlet!
HAMLET (With volume still increasing)
A murderer and a villain;A slave that is not twentieth part the titheOf your precedent lord; a vice of kings;A cutpurse of the empire and the rule,That from a shelf the precious diadem stole,And put it in his pocket!
QUEEN GERTRUDE (Hands still raised, cups her ears)
No more!
HAMLET (Screaming now)
A king of shreds and patches,--
Enter Ghost
(Hamlet's voice drops to a whisper)Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings,You heavenly guards! What would your gracious figure?
QUEEN GERTRUDE (Slowly uncups ears, whispers to herself)
Alas, he's mad!
HAMLET
Do you not come your tardy son to chide,That, lapsed in time and passion, lets go byThe important acting of your dread command? O, say!
Ghost
Do not forget: this visitationIs but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.But, look, amazement on thy mother sits:O, step between her and her fighting soul:Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works:Speak to her, Hamlet.
Is reminding Hamlet of the original purpose of his mission
HAMLET (turns to her, calm and collected now)
How is it with you, lady?
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Alas, how is't with you,That you do bend your eye on vacancyAnd with the incorporal air do hold discourse?Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep;And, as the sleeping soldiers in the alarm,Your bedded hair, like life in excrements,Starts up, and stands on end. O gentle son,Upon the heat and flame of thy distemperSprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look?(Scared, voice shaking)
Gertrude describes his disheveled appearance and crazy actions and how much they scare her
HAMLET(Gesturing at the ghost)
On him, on him! Look you, how pale he glares!His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones,Would make them capable. Do not look upon me;Lest with this piteous action you convertMy stern effects: then what I have to doWill want true colour; tears perchance for blood.
QUEEN GERTRUDE (Eyes darting from Hamlet to where he is pointing)
To whom do you speak this?
HAMLET
Do you see nothing there?
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Nothing at all; yet all that is I see.
HAMLET (Grabbing her)
Nor did you nothing hear?
QUEEN GERTRUDE
No, nothing but ourselves.
HAMLET (Wildly gesticulating)
Why, look you there! look, how it steals away!My father, in his habit as he lived!Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal!
Exit Ghost
QUEEN GERTRUDE
This the very coinage of your brain:This bodiless creation ecstasyIs very cunning in.
HAMLET
Ecstasy!My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time,And makes as healthful music: it is not madnessThat I have utter'd: bring me to the test,And I the matter will re-word; which madnessWould gambol from. Mother, for love of grace,Lay not that mattering unction to your soul,That not your trespass, but my madness speaks:It will but skin and film the ulcerous place,Whilst rank corruption, mining all within,Infects unseen.(Draws his dagger and points it at her) Confess yourself to heaven;Repent what's past; avoid what is to come;And do not spread the compost on the weeds,To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue;For in the fatness of these pursy timesVirtue itself of vice must pardon beg,Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good.
QUEEN GERTRUDE (Falls to her knees, rests her head against the wall)
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.Good night: but go not to mine uncle's bed;Assume a virtue, if you have it not.That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat,Of habits devil, is angel yet in this,That to the use of actions fair and goodHe likewise gives a frock or livery,That aptly is put on. Refrain to-night,And that shall lend a kind of easinessTo the next abstinence: the next more easy;For use almost can change the stamp of nature,And either [ ] the devil, or throw him outWith wondrous potency. Once more, good night:And when you are desirous to be bless'd,I'll blessing beg of you. For this same lord,
He is offering her a chance at redemption, yet states that he already gave Polonius his chance
Pointing to POLONIUS
I do repent: but heaven hath pleased it so,To punish me with this and this with me,That I must be their scourge and minister.I will bestow him, and will answer wellThe death I gave him. So, again, good night.I must be cruel, only to be kind:Thus bad begins and worse remains behind.One word more, good lady.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
What shall I do?
HAMLET (Pensive, hand on his chin)
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;And let him, for a pair of reechy kisses,Or paddling in your neck with his damn'd fingers,Make you to ravel all this matter out,That I essentially am not in madness,But mad in craft. 'Twere good you let him know;For who, that's but a queen, fair, sober, wise,Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib,Such dear concernings hide? who would do so?No, in despite of sense and secrecy,Unpeg the basket on the house's top.Let the birds fly, and, like the famous ape,To try conclusions, in the basket creep,And break your own neck down.
QUEEN GERTRUDE (Slides all the way down the wall, until she is lying down)
Be thou assured, if words be made of breath,And breath of life, I have no life to breatheWhat thou hast said to me.