Soliloquies in "Hamlet": Soliloquy #5

This next soliloquy comes directly after Claudius's soliloquy, spoken by Hamlet.

"Now might I do it pat. Now he is a-praying.

And now I’ll do ’t. And so he goes to heaven.

And so am I revenged.—That would be scanned.

A villain kills my father, and, for that,

I, his sole son, do this same villain send

To heaven.

Oh, this is hire and salary, not revenge.

He took my father grossly, full of bread,

With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May.

And how his audit stands who knows save heaven?

But in our circumstance and course of thought

'Tis heavy with him. And am I then revenged

To take him in the purging of his soul

When he is fit and seasoned for his passage?

No.

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 game a-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 damned and black

As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays

This physic but prolongs thy sickly days." (III.iii.77-101)

As Hamlet is on his way to his mother's chambers he comes across Claudius praying. He thinks about killing Claudius right then and there, but he shall not risk him going to heaven. It ends with Hamlet leaving and proceeding to his mother's chambers.