HAMLET

by William Shakespeare

C. 1601

Act IV

SCENE I - A room in the castle

    Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN

KING CLAUDIUS

    There's matter in these sighs, these profound heaves:
    You must translate: 'tis fit we understand them.
    Where is your son?

QUEEN GERTRUDE

    Bestow this place on us a little while.

    Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
    Ah, my good lord, what have I seen to-night!

KING CLAUDIUS

    What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet?

QUEEN GERTRUDE

    Mad as the sea and wind, when both contend
    Which is the mightier: in his lawless fit,
    Behind the arras hearing something stir,
    Whips out his rapier, cries, 'A rat, a rat!'
    And, in this brainish apprehension, kills
    The unseen good old man.

KING CLAUDIUS

    O heavy deed!
    It had been so with us, had we been there:
    His liberty is full of threats to all;
    To you yourself, to us, to every one.
    Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answer'd?
    It will be laid to us, whose providence
    Should have kept short, restrain'd and out of haunt,
    This mad young man: but so much was our love,
    We would not understand what was most fit;
    But, like the owner of a foul disease,
    To keep it from divulging, let it feed
    Even on the pith of Life. Where is he gone?

QUEEN GERTRUDE

    To draw apart the body he hath kill'd:
    O'er whom his very madness, like some ore
    Among a mineral of metals base,
    Shows itself pure; he weeps for what is done.

KING CLAUDIUS

    O Gertrude, come away!
    The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch,
    But we will ship him hence: and this vile deed
    We must, with all our majesty and skill,
    Both countenance and excuse. Ho, Guildenstern!

    Re-enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
    Friends both, go join you with some further aid:
    Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain,
    And from his mother's closet hath he dragg'd him:
    Go seek him out; speak fair, and bring the body
    Into the chapel. I pray you, haste in this.

    Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
    Come, Gertrude, we'll call up our wisest friends;
    And let them know, both what we mean to do,
    And what's untimely done. O, come away!
    My soul is full of discord and dismay.

    Exeunt


SCENE II - Another room in the castle

    Enter HAMLET

HAMLET

    Safely stowed.

ROSENCRANTZ: GUILDENSTERN:

    [Within] Hamlet! Lord Hamlet!

HAMLET

    What noise? who calls on Hamlet?
    O, here they come.

    Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN

ROSENCRANTZ

    What have you done, my lord, with the dead body?

HAMLET

    Compounded it with dust, whereto 'tis kin.

ROSENCRANTZ

    Tell us where 'tis, that we may take it thence
    And bear it to the chapel.

HAMLET

    Do not believe it.

ROSENCRANTZ

    Believe what?

HAMLET

    That I can keep your counsel and not mine own.
    Besides, to be demanded of a sponge! what
    replication should be made by the son of a king?

ROSENCRANTZ

    Take you me for a sponge, my lord?

HAMLET

    Ay, sir, that soaks up the king's countenance, his
    rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the
    king best service in the end: he keeps them, like
    an ape, in the corner of his jaw; first mouthed, to
    be last swallowed: when he needs what you have
    gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you
    shall be dry again.

ROSENCRANTZ

    I understand you not, my lord.

HAMLET

    I am glad of it: a knavish speech sleeps in a
    foolish ear.

ROSENCRANTZ

    My lord, you must tell us where the body is, and go
    with us to the king.

HAMLET

    The body is with the king, but the king is not with
    the body. The king is a thing--

GUILDENSTERN

    A thing, my lord!

HAMLET

    Of nothing: bring me to him. Hide fox, and all after.

    Exeunt


SCENE III - Another room in the castle

    Enter KING CLAUDIUS, attended

KING CLAUDIUS

    I have sent to seek him, and to find the body.
    How dangerous is it that this man goes loose!
    Yet must not we put the strong law on him:
    He's loved of the distracted multitude,
    Who like not in their judgment, but their eyes;
    And where tis so, the offender's scourge is weigh'd,
    But never the offence. To bear all smooth and even,
    This sudden sending him away must seem
    Deliberate pause: diseases desperate grown
    By desperate appliance are relieved,
    Or not at all.

    Enter ROSENCRANTZ
    How now! what hath befall'n?

ROSENCRANTZ

    Where the dead body is bestow'd, my lord,
    We cannot get from him.

KING CLAUDIUS

    But where is he?

ROSENCRANTZ

    Without, my lord; guarded, to know your pleasure.

KING CLAUDIUS

    Bring him before us.

ROSENCRANTZ

    Ho, Guildenstern! bring in my lord.

    Enter HAMLET and GUILDENSTERN

KING CLAUDIUS

    Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius?

HAMLET

    At supper.

KING CLAUDIUS

    At supper! where?

HAMLET

    Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain
    convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your
    worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all
    creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for
    maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar is but
    variable service, two dishes, but to one table:
    that's the end.

KING CLAUDIUS

    Alas, alas!

HAMLET

    A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a
    king, and cat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.

KING CLAUDIUS

    What dost you mean by this?

HAMLET

    Nothing but to show you how a king may go a
    progress through the guts of a beggar.

KING CLAUDIUS

    Where is Polonius?

HAMLET

    In heaven; send hither to see: if your messenger
    find him not there, seek him i' the other place
    yourself. But indeed, if you find him not within
    this month, you shall nose him as you go up the
    stairs into the lobby.

KING CLAUDIUS

    Go seek him there.

    To some Attendants

HAMLET

    He will stay till ye come.

    Exeunt Attendants

KING CLAUDIUS

    Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safety,--
    Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve
    For that which thou hast done,--must send thee hence
    With fiery quickness: therefore prepare thyself;
    The bark is ready, and the wind at help,
    The associates tend, and every thing is bent
    For England.

HAMLET

    For England!

KING CLAUDIUS

    Ay, Hamlet.

HAMLET

    Good.

KING CLAUDIUS

    So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes.

HAMLET

    I see a cherub that sees them. But, come; for
    England! Farewell, dear mother.

KING CLAUDIUS

    Thy loving father, Hamlet.

HAMLET

    My mother: father and mother is man and wife; man
    and wife is one flesh; and so, my mother. Come, for England!

    Exit

KING CLAUDIUS

    Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed aboard;
    Delay it not; I'll have him hence to-night:
    Away! for every thing is seal'd and done
    That else leans on the affair: pray you, make haste.

    Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
    And, England, if my love thou hold'st at aught--
    As my great power thereof may give thee sense,
    Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red
    After the Danish sword, and thy free awe
    Pays homage to us--thou mayst not coldly set
    Our sovereign process; which imports at full,
    By letters congruing to that effect,
    The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England;
    For like the hectic in my blood he rages,
    And thou must cure me: till I know 'tis done,
    Howe'er my haps, my joys were ne'er begun.

    Exit


SCENE IV - A plain in Denmark

    Enter FORTINBRAS, a Captain, and Soldiers, marching

PRINCE FORTINBRAS

    Go, captain, from me greet the Danish king;
    Tell him that, by his licence, Fortinbras
    Craves the conveyance of a promised march
    Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous.
    If that his majesty would aught with us,
    We shall express our duty in his eye;
    And let him know so.

Captain

    I will do't, my lord.

PRINCE FORTINBRAS

    Go softly on.

    Exeunt FORTINBRAS and Soldiers

    Enter HAMLET, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and others

HAMLET

    Good sir, whose powers are these?

Captain

    They are of Norway, sir.

HAMLET

    How purposed, sir, I pray you?

Captain

    Against some part of Poland.

HAMLET

    Who commands them, sir?

Captain

    The nephews to old Norway, Fortinbras.

HAMLET

    Goes it against the main of Poland, sir,
    Or for some frontier?

Captain

    Truly to speak, and with no addition,
    We go to gain a little patch of ground
    That hath in it no profit but the name.
    To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it;
    Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole
    A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee.

HAMLET

    Why, then the Polack never will defend it.

Captain

    Yes, it is already garrison'd.

HAMLET

    Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats
    Will not debate the question of this straw:
    This is the imposthume of much wealth and peace,
    That inward breaks, and shows no cause without
    Why the man dies. I humbly thank you, sir.

Captain

    God be wi' you, sir.

    Exit

ROSENCRANTZ

    Wilt please you go, my lord?

HAMLET

    I'll be with you straight go a little before.

    Exeunt all except HAMLET
    How all occasions do inform against me,
    And spur my dull revenge! What is a man,
    If his chief good and market of his time
    Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more.
    Sure, he that made us with such large discourse,
    Looking before and after, gave us not
    That capability and god-like reason
    To fust in us unused. Now, whether it be
    Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple
    Of thinking too precisely on the event,
    A thought which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom
    And ever three parts coward, I do not know
    Why yet I live to say 'This thing's to do;'
    Sith I have cause and will and strength and means
    To do't. Examples gross as earth exhort me:
    Witness this army of such mass and charge
    Led by a delicate and tender prince,
    Whose spirit with divine ambition puff'd
    Makes mouths at the invisible event,
    Exposing what is mortal and unsure
    To all that fortune, death and danger dare,
    Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be great
    Is not to stir without great argument,
    But greatly to find quarrel in a straw
    When honour's at the stake. How stand I then,
    That have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd,
    Excitements of my reason and my blood,
    And let all sleep? while, to my shame, I see
    The imminent death of twenty thousand men,
    That, for a fantasy and trick of fame,
    Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot
    Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
    Which is not tomb enough and continent
    To hide the slain? O, from this time forth,
    My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!

    Exit


SCENE V - Elsinore. A room in the castle

    Enter QUEEN GERTRUDE, HORATIO, and a Gentleman

QUEEN GERTRUDE

    I will not speak with her.

Gentleman

    She is importunate, indeed distract:
    Her mood will needs be pitied.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

    What would she have?

Gentleman

    She speaks much of her father; says she hears
    There's tricks i' the world; and hems, and beats her heart;
    Spurns enviously at straws; speaks things in doubt,
    That carry but half sense: her speech is nothing,
    Yet the unshaped use of it doth move
    The hearers to collection; they aim at it,
    And botch the words up fit to their own thoughts;
    Which, as her winks, and nods, and gestures
    yield them,
    Indeed would make one think there might be thought,
    Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily.

HORATIO

    'Twere good she were spoken with; for she may strew
    Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

    Let her come in.

    Exit HORATIO
    To my sick soul, as sin's true nature is,
    Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss:
    So full of artless jealousy is guilt,
    It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.

    Re-enter HORATIO, with OPHELIA

OPHELIA

    Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark?

QUEEN GERTRUDE

    How now, Ophelia!

OPHELIA

    [Sings]
    How should I your true love know
    From another one?
    By his cockle hat and staff,
    And his sandal shoon.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

    Alas, sweet lady, what imports this song?

OPHELIA

    Say you? nay, pray you, mark.

    Sings
    He is dead and gone, lady,
    He is dead and gone;
    At his head a grass-green turf,
    At his heels a stone.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

    Nay, but, Ophelia,--

OPHELIA

    Pray you, mark.

    Sings
    White his shroud as the mountain snow,--

    Enter KING CLAUDIUS

QUEEN GERTRUDE

    Alas, look here, my lord.

OPHELIA

    [Sings]
    Larded with sweet flowers
    Which bewept to the grave did go
    With true-love showers.

KING CLAUDIUS

    How do you, pretty lady?

OPHELIA

    Well, God 'ild you! They say the owl was a baker's
    daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but know not
    what we may be. God be at your table!

KING CLAUDIUS

    Conceit upon her father.

OPHELIA

    Pray you, let's have no words of this; but when they
    ask you what it means, say you this:

    Sings
    To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day,
    All in the morning betime,
    And I a maid at your window,
    To be your Valentine.
    Then up he rose, and donn'd his clothes,
    And dupp'd the chamber-door;
    Let in the maid, that out a maid
    Never departed more.

KING CLAUDIUS

    Pretty Ophelia!

OPHELIA

    Indeed, la, without an oath, I'll make an end on't:

    Sings
    By Gis and by Saint Charity,
    Alack, and fie for shame!
    Young men will do't, if they come to't;
    By cock, they are to blame.
    Quoth she, before you tumbled me,
    You promised me to wed.
    So would I ha' done, by yonder sun,
    An thou hadst not come to my bed.

KING CLAUDIUS

    How long hath she been thus?

OPHELIA

    I hope all will be well. We must be patient: but I
    cannot choose but weep, to think they should lay him
    i' the cold ground. My brother shall know of it:
    and so I thank you for your good counsel. Come, my
    coach! Good night, ladies; good night, sweet ladies;
    good night, good night.

    Exit

KING CLAUDIUS

    Follow her close; give her good watch,
    I pray you.

    Exit HORATIO
    O, this is the poison of deep grief; it springs
    All from her father's death. O Gertrude, Gertrude,
    When sorrows come, they come not single spies
    But in battalions. First, her father slain:
    Next, your son gone; and he most violent author
    Of his own just remove: the people muddied,
    Thick and unwholesome in their thoughts and whispers,
    For good Polonius' death; and we have done but greenly,
    In hugger-mugger to inter him: poor Ophelia
    Divided from herself and her fair judgment,
    Without the which we are pictures, or mere beasts:
    Last, and as much containing as all these,
    Her brother is in secret come from France;
    Feeds on his wonder, keeps himself in clouds,
    And wants not buzzers to infect his ear
    With pestilent speeches of his father's death;
    Wherein necessity, of matter beggar'd,
    Will nothing stick our person to arraign
    In ear and ear. O my dear Gertrude, this,
    Like to a murdering-piece, in many places
    Gives me superfluous death.

    A noise within

QUEEN GERTRUDE

    Alack, what noise is this?

KING CLAUDIUS

    Where are my Switzers? Let them guard the door.

    Enter another Gentleman
    What is the matter?

Gentleman

    Save yourself, my lord:
    The ocean, overpeering of his list,
    Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste
    Than young Laertes, in a riotous head,
    O'erbears your officers. The rabble call him lord;
    And, as the world were now but to begin,
    Antiquity forgot, custom not known,
    The ratifiers and props of every word,
    They cry 'Choose we: Laertes shall be king:'
    Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds:
    'Laertes shall be king, Laertes king!'

QUEEN GERTRUDE

    How cheerfully on the false trail they cry!
    O, this is counter, you false Danish dogs!

KING CLAUDIUS

    The doors are broke.

    Noise within

    Enter LAERTES, armed; Danes following

LAERTES

    Where is this king? Sirs, stand you all without.

Danes

    No, let's come in.

LAERTES

    I pray you, give me leave.

Danes

    We will, we will.

    They retire without the door

LAERTES

    I thank you: keep the door. O thou vile king,
    Give me my father!

QUEEN GERTRUDE

    Calmly, good Laertes.

LAERTES

    That drop of blood that's calm proclaims me bastard,
    Cries cuckold to my father, brands the harlot
    Even here, between the chaste unsmirched brow
    Of my true mother.

KING CLAUDIUS

    What is the cause, Laertes,
    That thy rebellion looks so giant-like?
    Let him go, Gertrude; do not fear our person:
    There's such divinity doth hedge a king,
    That treason can but peep to what it would,
    Acts little of his will. Tell me, Laertes,
    Why thou art thus incensed. Let him go, Gertrude.
    Speak, man.

LAERTES

    Where is my father?

KING CLAUDIUS

    Dead.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

    But not by him.

KING CLAUDIUS

    Let him demand his fill.

LAERTES

    How came he dead? I'll not be juggled with:
    To hell, allegiance! vows, to the blackest devil!
    Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit!
    I dare damnation. To this point I stand,
    That both the worlds I give to negligence,
    Let come what comes; only I'll be revenged
    Most thoroughly for my father.

KING CLAUDIUS

    Who shall stay you?

LAERTES

    My will, not all the world:
    And for my means, I'll husband them so well,
    They shall go far with little.

KING CLAUDIUS

    Good Laertes,
    If you desire to know the certainty
    Of your dear father's death, is't writ in your revenge,
    That, swoopstake, you will draw both friend and foe,
    Winner and loser?

LAERTES

    None but his enemies.

KING CLAUDIUS

    Will you know them then?

LAERTES

    To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my arms;
    And like the kind life-rendering pelican,
    Repast them with my blood.

KING CLAUDIUS

    Why, now you speak
    Like a good child and a true gentleman.
    That I am guiltless of your father's death,
    And am most sensible in grief for it,
    It shall as level to your judgment pierce
    As day does to your eye.

Danes

    [Within] Let her come in.

LAERTES

    How now! what noise is that?

    Re-enter OPHELIA
    O heat, dry up my brains! tears seven times salt,
    Burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye!
    By heaven, thy madness shall be paid by weight,
    Till our scale turn the beam. O rose of May!
    Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia!
    O heavens! is't possible, a young maid's wits
    Should be as moral as an old man's life?
    Nature is fine in love, and where 'tis fine,
    It sends some precious instance of itself
    After the thing it loves.

OPHELIA

    [Sings]
    They bore him barefaced on the bier;
    Hey non nonny, nonny, hey nonny;
    And in his grave rain'd many a tear:--
    Fare you well, my dove!

LAERTES

    Hadst thou thy wits, and didst persuade revenge,
    It could not move thus.

OPHELIA

    [Sings]
    You must sing a-down a-down,
    An you call him a-down-a.
    O, how the wheel becomes it! It is the false
    steward, that stole his master's daughter.

LAERTES

    This nothing's more than matter.

OPHELIA

    There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray,
    love, remember: and there is pansies. that's for thoughts.

LAERTES

    A document in madness, thoughts and remembrance fitted.

OPHELIA

    There's fennel for you, and columbines: there's rue
    for you; and here's some for me: we may call it
    herb-grace o' Sundays: O you must wear your rue with
    a difference. There's a daisy: I would give you
    some violets, but they withered all when my father
    died: they say he made a good end,--

    Sings
    For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy.

LAERTES

    Thought and affliction, passion, hell itself,
    She turns to favour and to prettiness.

OPHELIA

    [Sings]
    And will he not come again?
    And will he not come again?
    No, no, he is dead:
    Go to thy death-bed:
    He never will come again.
    His beard was as white as snow,
    All flaxen was his poll:
    He is gone, he is gone,
    And we cast away moan:
    God ha' mercy on his soul!
    And of all Christian souls, I pray God. God be wi' ye.

    Exit

LAERTES

    Do you see this, O God?

KING CLAUDIUS

    Laertes, I must commune with your grief,
    Or you deny me right. Go but apart,
    Make choice of whom your wisest friends you will.
    And they shall hear and judge 'twixt you and me:
    If by direct or by collateral hand
    They find us touch'd, we will our kingdom give,
    Our crown, our life, and all that we can ours,
    To you in satisfaction; but if not,
    Be you content to lend your patience to us,
    And we shall jointly labour with your soul
    To give it due content.

LAERTES

    Let this be so;
    His means of death, his obscure funeral--
    No trophy, sword, nor hatchment o'er his bones,
    No noble rite nor formal ostentation--
    Cry to be heard, as 'twere from heaven to earth,
    That I must call't in question.

KING CLAUDIUS

    So you shall;
    And where the offence is let the great axe fall.
    I pray you, go with me.

    Exeunt


SCENE VI - Another room in the castle

    Enter HORATIO and a Servant

HORATIO

    What are they that would speak with me?

Servant

    Sailors, sir: they say they have letters for you.

HORATIO

    Let them come in.

    Exit Servant
    I do not know from what part of the world
    I should be greeted, if not from Lord Hamlet.

    Enter Sailors

First Sailor

    God bless you, sir.

HORATIO

    Let him bless thee too.

First Sailor

    He shall, sir, an't please him. There's a letter for
    you, sir; it comes from the ambassador that was
    bound for England; if your name be Horatio, as I am
    let to know it is.

HORATIO

    [Reads] 'Horatio, when thou shalt have overlooked
    this, give these fellows some means to the king:
    they have letters for him. Ere we were two days old
    at sea, a pirate of very warlike appointment gave us
    chase. Finding ourselves too slow of sail, we put on
    a compelled valour, and in the grapple I boarded
    them: on the instant they got clear of our ship; so
    I alone became their prisoner. They have dealt with
    me like thieves of mercy: but they knew what they
    did; I am to do a good turn for them. Let the king
    have the letters I have sent; and repair thou to me
    with as much speed as thou wouldst fly death. I
    have words to speak in thine ear will make thee
    dumb; yet are they much too light for the bore of
    the matter. These good fellows will bring thee
    where I am. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern hold their
    course for England: of them I have much to tell
    thee. Farewell.
    'He that thou knowest thine, HAMLET.'
    Come, I will make you way for these your letters;
    And do't the speedier, that you may direct me
    To him from whom you brought them.

    Exeunt


SCENE VII - Another room in the castle

    Enter KING CLAUDIUS and LAERTES

KING CLAUDIUS

    Now must your conscience my acquaintance seal,
    And you must put me in your heart for friend,
    Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear,
    That he which hath your noble father slain
    Pursued my life.

LAERTES

    It well appears: but tell me
    Why you proceeded not against these feats,
    So crimeful and so capital in nature,
    As by your safety, wisdom, all things else,
    You mainly were stirr'd up.

KING CLAUDIUS

    O, for two special reasons;
    Which may to you, perhaps, seem much unsinew'd,
    But yet to me they are strong. The queen his mother
    Lives almost by his looks; and for myself--
    My virtue or my plague, be it either which--
    She's so conjunctive to my life and soul,
    That, as the star moves not but in his sphere,
    I could not but by her. The other motive,
    Why to a public count I might not go,
    Is the great love the general gender bear him;
    Who, dipping all his faults in their affection,
    Would, like the spring that turneth wood to stone,
    Convert his gyves to graces; so that my arrows,
    Too slightly timber'd for so loud a wind,
    Would have reverted to my bow again,
    And not where I had aim'd them.

LAERTES

    And so have I a noble father lost;
    A sister driven into desperate terms,
    Whose worth, if praises may go back again,
    Stood challenger on mount of all the age
    For her perfections: but my revenge will come.

KING CLAUDIUS

    Break not your sleeps for that: you must not think
    That we are made of stuff so flat and dull
    That we can let our beard be shook with danger
    And think it pastime. You shortly shall hear more:
    I loved your father, and we love ourself;
    And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine--

    Enter a Messenger
    How now! what news?

Messenger

    Letters, my lord, from Hamlet:
    This to your majesty; this to the queen.

KING CLAUDIUS

    From Hamlet! who brought them?

Messenger

    Sailors, my lord, they say; I saw them not:
    They were given me by Claudio; he received them
    Of him that brought them.

KING CLAUDIUS

    Laertes, you shall hear them. Leave us.

    Exit Messenger

    Reads
    'High and mighty, You shall know I am set naked on
    your kingdom. To-morrow shall I beg leave to see
    your kingly eyes: when I shall, first asking your
    pardon thereunto, recount the occasion of my sudden
    and more strange return. 'HAMLET.'
    What should this mean? Are all the rest come back?
    Or is it some abuse, and no such thing?

LAERTES

    Know you the hand?

KING CLAUDIUS

    'Tis Hamlets character. 'Naked!
    And in a postscript here, he says 'alone.'
    Can you advise me?

LAERTES

    I'm lost in it, my lord. But let him come;
    It warms the very sickness in my heart,
    That I shall live and tell him to his teeth,
    'Thus didest thou.'

KING CLAUDIUS

    If it be so, Laertes--
    As how should it be so? how otherwise?--
    Will you be ruled by me?

LAERTES

    Ay, my lord;
    So you will not o'errule me to a peace.

KING CLAUDIUS

    To thine own peace. If he be now return'd,
    As checking at his voyage, and that he means
    No more to undertake it, I will work him
    To an exploit, now ripe in my device,
    Under the which he shall not choose but fall:
    And for his death no wind of blame shall breathe,
    But even his mother shall uncharge the practise
    And call it accident.

LAERTES

    My lord, I will be ruled;
    The rather, if you could devise it so
    That I might be the organ.

KING CLAUDIUS

    It falls right.
    You have been talk'd of since your travel much,
    And that in Hamlet's hearing, for a quality
    Wherein, they say, you shine: your sum of parts
    Did not together pluck such envy from him
    As did that one, and that, in my regard,
    Of the unworthiest siege.

LAERTES

    What part is that, my lord?

KING CLAUDIUS

    A very riband in the cap of youth,
    Yet needful too; for youth no less becomes
    The light and careless livery that it wears
    Than settled age his sables and his weeds,
    Importing health and graveness. Two months since,
    Here was a gentleman of Normandy:--
    I've seen myself, and served against, the French,
    And they can well on horseback: but this gallant
    Had witchcraft in't; he grew unto his seat;
    And to such wondrous doing brought his horse,
    As he had been incorpsed and demi-natured
    With the brave beast: so far he topp'd my thought,
    That I, in forgery of shapes and tricks,
    Come short of what he did.

LAERTES

    A Norman was't?

KING CLAUDIUS

    A Norman.

LAERTES

    Upon my life, Lamond.

KING CLAUDIUS

    The very same.

LAERTES

    I know him well: he is the brooch indeed
    And gem of all the nation.

KING CLAUDIUS

    He made confession of you,
    And gave you such a masterly report
    For art and exercise in your defence
    And for your rapier most especially,
    That he cried out, 'twould be a sight indeed,
    If one could match you: the scrimers of their nation,
    He swore, had had neither motion, guard, nor eye,
    If you opposed them. Sir, this report of his
    Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy
    That he could nothing do but wish and beg
    Your sudden coming o'er, to play with him.
    Now, out of this,--

LAERTES

    What out of this, my lord?

KING CLAUDIUS

    Laertes, was your father dear to you?
    Or are you like the painting of a sorrow,
    A face without a heart?

LAERTES

    Why ask you this?

KING CLAUDIUS

    Not that I think you did not love your father;
    But that I know love is begun by time;
    And that I see, in passages of proof,
    Time qualifies the spark and fire of it.
    There lives within the very flame of love
    A kind of wick or snuff that will abate it;
    And nothing is at a like goodness still;
    For goodness, growing to a plurisy,
    Dies in his own too much: that we would do
    We should do when we would; for this 'would' changes
    And hath abatements and delays as many
    As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents;
    And then this 'should' is like a spendthrift sigh,
    That hurts by easing. But, to the quick o' the ulcer:--
    Hamlet comes back: what would you undertake,
    To show yourself your father's son in deed
    More than in words?

LAERTES

    To cut his throat i' the church.

KING CLAUDIUS

    No place, indeed, should murder sanctuarize;
    Revenge should have no bounds. But, good Laertes,
    Will you do this, keep close within your chamber.
    Hamlet return'd shall know you are come home:
    We'll put on those shall praise your excellence
    And set a double varnish on the fame
    The Frenchman gave you, bring you in fine together
    And wager on your heads: he, being remiss,
    Most generous and free from all contriving,
    Will not peruse the foils; so that, with ease,
    Or with a little shuffling, you may choose
    A sword unbated, and in a pass of practise
    Requite him for your father.

LAERTES

    I will do't:
    And, for that purpose, I'll anoint my sword.
    I bought an unction of a mountebank,
    So mortal that, but dip a knife in it,
    Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare,
    Collected from all simples that have virtue
    Under the moon, can save the thing from death
    That is but scratch'd withal: I'll touch my point
    With this contagion, that, if I gall him slightly,
    It may be death.

KING CLAUDIUS

    Let's further think of this;
    Weigh what convenience both of time and means
    May fit us to our shape: if this should fail,
    And that our drift look through our bad performance,
    'Twere better not assay'd: therefore this project
    Should have a back or second, that might hold,
    If this should blast in proof. Soft! let me see:
    We'll make a solemn wager on your cunnings: I ha't.
    When in your motion you are hot and dry--
    As make your bouts more violent to that end--
    And that he calls for drink, I'll have prepared him
    A chalice for the nonce, whereon but sipping,
    If he by chance escape your venom'd stuck,
    Our purpose may hold there.

    Enter QUEEN GERTRUDE
    How now, sweet queen!

QUEEN GERTRUDE

    One woe doth tread upon another's heel,
    So fast they follow; your sister's drown'd, Laertes.

LAERTES

    Drown'd! O, where?

QUEEN GERTRUDE

    There is a willow grows aslant a brook,
    That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream;
    There with fantastic garlands did she come
    Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples
    That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
    But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them:
    There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds
    Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke;
    When down her weedy trophies and herself
    Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide;
    And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up:
    Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes;
    As one incapable of her own distress,
    Or like a creature native and indued
    Unto that element: but long it could not be
    Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
    Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay
    To muddy death.

LAERTES

    Alas, then, she is drown'd?

QUEEN GERTRUDE

    Drown'd, drown'd.

LAERTES

    Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia,
    And therefore I forbid my tears: but yet
    It is our trick; nature her custom holds,
    Let shame say what it will: when these are gone,
    The woman will be out. Adieu, my lord:
    I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze,
    But that this folly douts it.

    Exit

KING CLAUDIUS

    Let's follow, Gertrude:
    How much I had to do to calm his rage!
    Now fear I this will give it start again;
    Therefore let's follow.

    Exeunt

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