William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition (323 page)
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Authors: William Shakespeare
Tags: #Drama, #Literary Criticism, #Shakespeare
BOOK: William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition
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QUEEN GERTRUDE Alas, look here, my lord.
OPHELIA (sings)
Larded with sweet flowers,
Which bewept to the grave did—not—go
With true-love showers.
Which bewept to the grave did—not—go
With true-love showers.
KING CLAUDIUS How do ye, pretty lady?
OPHELIA Well, God’ield 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 (
to Gertrude
) Conceit upon her father.
to Gertrude
) 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)
Tomorrow is Saint Valentine’s day,
All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window
To be your Valentine.
All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window
To be your Valentine.
Then up he rose, and donned his clothes,
And dupped the chamber door;
Let in the maid, that out a maid
Never departed more.
And dupped 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 ‘a’ done, by yonder sun,
An thou hadst not come to my bed.
KING CLAUDIUS (
to Gertrude
) How long hath she been thus?
to Gertrude
) 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’th’ 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 (
to Horatio
)
to Horatio
)
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 judgement,
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 this 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 beggared,
Will nothing stick our persons to arraign
In ear and ear. O my dear Gertrude, this,
Like to a murd’ring-piece, in many places
Gives me superfluous death.
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 judgement,
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 this 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 beggared,
Will nothing stick our persons to arraign
In ear and ear. O my dear Gertrude, this,
Like to a murd’ring-piece, in many places
Gives me superfluous death.
A noise within
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Alack, what noise is this?
KING CLAUDIUS
Where is my Switzers? Let them guard the door.
Enter a Messenger
What is the matter?
MESSENGER
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.’
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!
A noise within
O, this is counter, you false Danish dogs!
KING CLAUDIUS The doors are broke.
Enter Laertes
⌈
with his followers at the door
⌉
LAERTES
Where is the King?—Sirs, stand you all without.
ALL HIS FOLLOWERS No, let’s come in.
LAERTES I pray you, give me leave.
ALL HIS FOLLOWERS We will, we will.
LAERTES
I thank you. Keep the door.
⌈
exeunt followers
⌉
exeunt followers
⌉
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 unsmirchèd brow
Of my true mother.
Cries cuckold to my father, brands the harlot
Even here between the chaste unsmirchèd 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.
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 (
to Laertes
)
to Laertes
)
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 throughly for my father.
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 throughly 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.
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, sweepstake, you will draw both friend and foe,
Winner and loser?
Of your dear father’s death, is’t writ in your revenge
That, sweepstake, 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-rend’ring pelican,
Repast them with my blood.
And, like the kind life-rend’ring 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 sensibly in grief for it,
It shall as level to your judgement pierce
As day does to your eye.
That I am guiltless of your father’s death,
And am most sensibly in grief for it,
It shall as level to your judgement pierce
As day does to your eye.
A noise within
VOICES (within) Let her come in.
LAERTES How now, what noise is that?
Enter Ophelia as before
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 turns 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 mortal 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.
Burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye!
By heaven, thy madness shall be paid by weight
Till our scale turns 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 mortal 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 nony, nony, hey nony,
And on his grave rained many a tear—
Hey non nony, nony, hey nony,
And on his grave rained many a tear—
Fare you well, my dove.
LAERTES
Hadst thou thy wits and didst persuade revenge,
It could not move thus.
It could not move thus.
OPHELIA You must sing ‘Down, a-down’, and 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 a 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.
She turns to favour and to prettiness.
OPHELIA (
sings
)
sings
)
And will a not come again,
And will a not come again?
No, no, he is dead,
Go to thy death-bed,
He never will come again.
His beard as white as snow,
All flaxen was his poll.
He is gone, he is gone,
And we cast away moan.
God ‘a’ mercy on his soul.
And of all Christian souls, I pray God. God b’wi’ ye.
⌈
Exeunt Ophelia and Gertrude
⌉
Exeunt Ophelia and Gertrude
⌉
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 touched, we will our kingdom give,
Our crown, our life, and all that we call 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.
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 touched, we will our kingdom give,
Our crown, our life, and all that we call 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 burial—
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.
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 th’offence is, let the great axe fall.
I pray you go with me.
I pray you go with me.
Exeunt
4.6Enter Horatio with 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.
I should be greeted if not from Lord Hamlet.
Enter
⌈
Sailors
⌉
A SAILOR God bless you, sir.
HORATIO Let him bless thee too.
A SAILOR A shall, sir, an’t please him. There’s a letter for you, sir. It comes from th’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 haste 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 give you way for these your letters,
And do’t the speedier that you may direct me
To him from whom you brought them.
Exeunt
4.7And do’t the speedier that you may direct me
To him from whom you brought them.
Exeunt
Enter King Claudius and Laertes
KING CLAUDIUS
Now must your conscience my acquittance 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.
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 stirred up.
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 stirred up.
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