Not Peer Reviewed
- Edition: Hamlet
Der bestrafte Brudermord (Fratricide Punished)
- Introduction
- Texts of this edition
- Contextual materials
- Facsimiles
Your Highness, I am heartily glad to see you here again in good health. But I pray you, tell me why you have come back again so soon.
Alas! Horatio, thou hast very nearly not seen me alive again, for my life was already at stake, had not the Divine Power specially protected me.
How? What does Your Highness say? How did it happen?
How know that my father gave me two fellow-travellers as servants to accompany me. Now it chanced that one day we had contrary winds, and we cast anchor by an island not far from Dover. With my two attendants I left the ship to breathe the fresh air. There the cursed villains came and wished to take my life, saying that I would give them as much reward, and that if they would report my death to the King, I would never show myself at court again. But there was no mercy in them. At length the gods put an idea in my mind: I begged them that I might say a prayer before my end, and when I called "Shoot!" they were to fire at me. But as I called, I feel flat on the ground, so that they shot each other. Thus I escaped this time with my life. But my arrival will not be very agreeable to the King.
O unheard of treachery!