Commands them, sir? Who Cap. The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras. Cap. Truly to speak, sir, and with no addition, Ham. Why, then the Polack never will defend it. Cap. Yes, 'tis already garrison'd. Ham. Two thousand souls, and twenty thousand ducats, Will not debate the question of this straw: To fust in us unus'd. Now, whether it be A thought, which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom, And, ever, three parts coward, I do not know To all that fortune, death, and danger, dare, Go to their graves, like beds; fight for a plot 17) them, Indeed would make one think, there might be thought, Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily. 22) Queen. 'Twere good, she were spoken with; for she may strew Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds: To my sick soul, as sin's true nature is, Re-enter HORATIO, with OPHELIA. Oph. How should I your true love know 24) By his cockle hat and staff, And his sandal shoon. 25) [Singing. So would I ha' done, by yonder sun, An thou hadst not come to my bed. King. How long hath she been thus? Oph. 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. Follow her close; give her good watch, I pray you. [Exit HOBATIO. O! this is the poison of deep grief; it springs When sorrows come, they come not single spies, For good Polonius' death; and we have done but greenly, 33) In hugger-mugger to inter him: 34) Poor Ophelia King. Attend. Where are my Switzers? 36) Let them guard the door: What is the matter? Gent. Save yourself, my lord; The ocean, overpeering of his list, 37) 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! Laer. I thank you: vile king, Sirs, stand you all I pray you, give me leave. [They retire without the door. keep the door. O thou Give me my father. Cries, cuckold, to my father; brands the harlot Laer. Where is my father? Queen. Dead. Let him go, Ger But not by him. King. Let him demand his fill. Laer. 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 reveng'd Most throughly for my father. King. Who shall stay you? Laer. My will, not all the world's: And, for my means, I'll husband them so well, They shall go far with little. King. 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? Laer. None but his enemies. Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia ! - Oph. They bore him barefac'd on the bier; And in his grave rain'd many a tear; Fare you well, my dove! Laer. Hadst thou thy wits, and didst persuade revenge, It could not move thus. Oph. You must sing, Down a-down, an you call him a-down-a. O, how the wheel becomes it! 42) It is the false steward, that stole his master's daughter. Laer. This nothing's more than matter. Oph. There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; 43) pray you, love, remember: and there is pansies, that's for thoughts. Laer. A document in madness; thoughts and remembrance fitted. we Oph. There's fennel for you, and columbines: there's rue for you; and here's some for me: may call it, herb of grace o'Sundays: you may wear your rue with a difference. 44) 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, For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy, SCENE VI. Another Room in the same. Enter HORATIO, and a Servant. Hor. What are they, that would speak with me? They say, they have letters for you. I do not know from what part of the world 1 Sail. God bless you, sir. 1 Sail. 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. Hor. [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 chace: 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 would'st 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. 48) These good fellows will bring thee [Sings. where I am. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern hold their course for England; of them I have much to tell thee. Farewell. [Sings. Laer. Thought and affliction, 45) passion, hell itself, She turns to favour, and to prettiness. Oph. And will he not come again? 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 of all Christian souls! 46) I pray God. God Laer. Do you see this, O God? They find us touch'd, we will our kingdom give, To you in satisfaction; but, if not, Be you content to lend your patience to us, Laer. Let this be so; Cry to be heard, as 'twere from heaven to earth, King. So you shall; And, where the offence is, let the great axe fall. [Exeunt. He that thou knowest thine, Hamlet. Come, I will give you way for these your letters; As by your safety, greatness, wisdom, all things else, King. O, for two special reasons; Lives almost by his looks; and for myself, Work like the spring 5o) that turneth wood to stone, || Importing health and graveness.—54) Two months Convert his gyves to graces; so that my arrows, Too slightly timber'd for so loud a wind, Laer. And so have I a noble father lost; For her perfections: But my revenge will come. King. Break not your sleeps for that: you must not think, That we are made of stuff so flat and dull, Enter a Messenger. Mess. Letters, my lord, from Hamlet: This to your majesty; this to the queen. King. From Hamlet! Who brought them? Mess. Sailors, my lord, they say: I saw them not; They were given me by Claudio, he receiv'd them Of him that brought them. King. Leave us. Laertes, you shall hear them: [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? Laer. I am lost in it, my lord. But let him come; Laer. My lord, I will be rul'd; The rather, if you could devise it so, That I might be the organ. King. 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. 53) Laer. What part is that, my lord? King. A very ribband 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, since, 4 Here was a gentlem in of Normandy, I have seen myself, and serv'd against, the French, King. A Norman. Laer. Upon my life, Lamord. King. A Norman, was't? The very same. Laer. I know him well: he is the brooch, indeed, And gem of all the nation. King. He made confession of you; That he cried out, 'twould be a sight indeed, He swore, had neither motion, guard, nor eye, Laer. father; Hamlet comes back: what would you undertake, To show yourself in deed your father's son More than in words? Laer. Laer. Where it draws blood, no cataplasm so rare, see: let me Queen. One woe doth tread upon another's heel, So fast they follow:- Your sister's drown'd, Laertes. Laer. Drown'd! O, where? Queen. There is a willow grows ascaunt the brook, That shows his hoar leaves in the grassy stream; Therewith fantastic garlands did she make Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples, That liberal 7) 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, 68) Or like a creature native and indu'd 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. Laer. Alas then, she is drown'd? 1 Clo. How can that be, unless she drowned herself in her own defence? 2 Clo. Why, 'tis found so. 1 Clo. It must be se offendendo; it cannot be else. For here lies the point: If I drown myself wittingly, it argues an act: and an act hath three branches; it is, to act, to do, and to perform: 2) Argal, she drowned herself wittingly. 2 Clo. Nay, but hear you, goodman delver. 1 Clo. Give me leave. Here lies the water; good: here stands the man; good: If the man go to this water, and drown himself, it is, will he, nill he, he goes; mark you that: but if the water come to him, and drown him, he drowns not himself: Argal, he, that is not guilty of his own death, shortens not his own life. 2 Clo. But is this law? 1 Clo. Ay, marry is't; crowner's quest law. 2 Clo. Will you ha' the truth on't? If this had not been a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out of christian burial. 1 Clo. Why, there thou say'st: And the more pity; that great folks shall have countenance in this world to drown or hang themselves, more than their even christian. 3) Come, my spade. There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers; they hold up Adam's profession. 2 Clo. Was he a gentleman? 1 Clo. He was the first that ever bore arms, 2 Clo. Why, he had none. 1 Clo. What, art a heathen? How dost thou understand the Scripture? The Scripture says, Adam digged; Could he dig without arms? I'll put another question to thee: if thou answerest me not to the purpose, confess thyself — 2 Clo. Go to. 1 Clo. What is he that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter? 2 Clo. The gallows-maker; for that frame outlives a thousand tenants. 1 Clo. I like thy wit well, in good faith; the gallows does well: But how does it well? it does well to those that do ill: now thou dost ill, to say, the gallows is built stronger than the church; argal, the gallows may do well to thee. To't again; Enter HAMLET and HORATIO, at a distance. 1 Clo. Cudgel thy brains no more about it; for your dull ass will not mend his pace with beating: and when you are asked this question next, say, a grave-maker; the houses that he makes, last till doomsday. Go, get thee to Yaughan, and fetch me a stoup of liquor. [Exit 2 Clown. 1 Clown digs, and sings. To contract, O, the time, for, ah, my behove Ham. Has this fellow no feeling of his business? he sings at grave making. Hor. Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness. Ham. 'Tis e'en so: the hand of little employment hath the daintier sense. |