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Shakespeare on Stage
The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Henry IV, Part One. To Jun. 24, 2012.
American Shakespeare Center, The Merchant of Venice. To Nov. 23, 2012.
American Shakespeare Center, The Winter's Tale. To Jun. 16, 2012.
Atlanta Shakespeare Company, As You Like It. To Jun. 24, 2012.
The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, The Comedy of Errors. To Jul. 29, 2012.
More Performances…
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Hamlet (Quarto 2, 1604)

Author: William Shakespeare
Not Peer Reviewed
The Tragedie of Hamlet
I doe beseech you giue him leaue to goe.
King. Take thy faire houre Laertes, time be thine
And thy best graces spend it at thy will:
But now my Cosin Hamlet, and my sonne.
245Ham. A little more then kin, and lesse then kind.
King. How is it that the clowdes still hang on you.
Ham. Not so much my Lord, I am too much in the sonne.
Queene. Good Hamlet cast thy nighted colour off
And let thine eye looke like a friend on Denmarke,
250Doe not for euer with thy vailed lids
Seeke for thy noble Father in the dust,
Thou know'st tis common all that liues must die,
Passing through nature to eternitie.
Ham. I Maddam, it is common.
255Quee. If it be
VVhy seemes it so perticuler with thee.
Ham. Seemes Maddam, nay it is, I know not seemes,
Tis not alone my incky cloake coold mother
Nor customary suites of solembe blacke
260Nor windie suspiration of forst breath
No, nor the fruitfull riuer in the eye,
Nor the deiected hauior of the visage
Together with all formes, moodes, chapes of griefe
That can deuote me truely, these indeede seeme,
265For they are actions that a man might play
But I haue that within which passes showe
These but the trappings and the suites of woe.
King. Tis sweete and commendable in your nature Hamlet,
270To giue these mourning duties to your father
But you must knowe your father lost a father,
That father lost, lost his, and the suruiuer bound
In filliall obligation for some tearme
To doe obsequious sorrowe, but to perseuer
275In obstinate condolement, is a course
Of impious stubbornes, tis vnmanly griefe,
It showes a will most incorrect to heauen
A hart vnfortified, or minde impatient
An vnderstanding simple and vnschoold
280For what we knowe must be, and is as common
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