Internet Shakespeare Editions

Author: Anonymous
Editor: David Bevington
Not Peer Reviewed

Der bestrafte Brudermord (Fratricide Punished)

Hamlet.
Hamlet
Mother, did you know your first husband well?
Queen
Oh, do not remind me of my former sadness. I cannot restrain my tears when I think of him.
315Hamlet
You weep? Leave off doing that; they are only crocodile tears. But look, there in that gallery hangs the counterfeit resemblance of your first husband, and there hangs the counterfeit of your present one. What think you now? Which of them is the finer looking? Is not the first the nobler Lord?
Queen
Indeed that is so.
Hamlet
How then could you forget him so soon? Fie! Shame on you! You celebrated his funeral and your wedding almost on the same day! But hush! are all the doors shut fast?
Queen
Why do you ask that?
[Corambus coughs behind the arras.]
320Hamlet
Ha! ha! Who is that, listening to us?
[Hamlet stabs him.]
Corambus
Oh, Prince, what are you doing? I am slain!
Queen
O Heavens! My son, what have you done? It is Corambus, the Lord Chamberlain!