2932Enter King and Laertes. Now must your conscience my acquittance seal,
30082934And you must put me in your heart for friend,
30092935Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear,
30102936That he which hath your noble father slain
It well appears. But tell me
30132939Why you proceed not against these feats
30142940So criminal and so capital in nature,
30152941As by your safety, greatness, wisdom, all things else,
Oh for two special reasons,
30182944Which may to you perhaps seem much unsinewed,
30192945But yet to me they're strong. The Queen his mother
30202946Lives almost by his looks, and for myself--
30212947My virtue or my plague, be it either which--
30222948She is so conjunct to my life and soul
30232949That, as the star moves not but in his sphere,
30242950I could not but by her. The other motive
30252951Why to a public count I might not go
30262952Is the great love the general gender bear him,
30272953Who, dipping all his faults in their affection,
30282954Work, like the spring that turneth wood to stone,
30292955Convert his gyves to graces, so that my arrows,
30302956Too slightly timbered for so lovèd armed,
30312957Would have reverted to my bow again,
30322958But not where I have aimed them.
And so have I a noble father lost,
30342960A sister driven into desp'rate terms,
30352961Whose worth, if praises may go back again,
30362962Stood challenger on mount of all the age
30372963For her perfections. But my revenge will come.
Break not your sleeps for that. You must not think
30402965That we are made of stuff so flat and dull
30412966That we can let our beard be shook with danger
30422967And think it pastime. You shortly shall hear more.
30432968I loved your father, and we love ourself,
30442969And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine--
These to your majesty, this to the Queen.
[He gives letters.]
From Hamlet! Who brought them?
Sailors, my lord, they say. I saw them not.
30512974They were given me by Claudio. He received them
Laertes, you shall hear them. [To the Messenger] Leave us.
[Exit Messenger.]
High and mighty, you shall know I am set naked on your kingdom.
30552978Tomorrow shall I beg leave to see your kingly eyes, when I shall first,
30562979asking you pardon, thereunto recount the occasion of my sudden
30572980return. [Hamlet.]
What should this mean? Are all the rest come back?
30602982Or is it some abuse, and no such thing?
Know you the hand?
'Tis Hamlet's character. "Naked!"
2985And in a postscript here he says "alone."
I am lost in it, my lord. But let him come.
30652988It warms the very sickness in my heart
30662989That I live and tell him to his teeth
If it be so, Laertes--
2992As how should it be so, how otherwise?--
Ay, my lord,
So you will not o'errule me to a peace.
To thine own peace. If he be now returned
30722996As checking at his voyage, and that he means
30732997No more to undertake it, I will work him
30742998To an exploit, now ripe in my device,
30752999Under the which he shall not choose but fall;
30763000And for his death no wind of blame shall breathe,
30773001But even his mother shall uncharge the practice
My lord, I will be ruled,
It falls right.
3078.53007You have been talked of since your travel much,
3078.63008And that in Hamlet's hearing, for a quality
3078.73009Wherein they say you shine. Your sum of parts
3078.83010Did not together pluck such envy from him
3078.93011As did that one, and that, in my regard,
What part is that, my lord?
A very riband in the cap of youth,
3078.163018Importing health and graveness. Two months since
30793019Here was a gentleman of Normandy.
30803020I have seen myself, and served against, the French,
30813021And they can well on horseback, but this gallant
30823022Had witchcraft in't; he grew unto his seat,
30833023And to such wondrous doing brought his horse
30843024As had he been incorpsed and demi-natured
30853025With the brave beast. So far he topped my thought
30863026That I in forgery of shapes and tricks
A Norman was't?
A Norman.
Upon my life, Lamord.
The very same.
I know him well. He is the brooch indeed
He made confession of you,
30953035And gave you such a masterly report
30963036For art and exercise in your defense,
30973037And for your rapier most especial,
30983038That he cried out 'twould be a sight indeed
30993039If one could match you. Th'escrimers of their nation,
3099.13040He swore, had neither motion, guard, nor eye
3099.23041If you opposed them. Sir, this report of his
31003042Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy
31013043That he could nothing do but wish and beg
31023044Your sudden coming o'er to play with you.
What out of this, my lord?
Laertes, was your father dear to you?
31063048Or are you like the painting of a sorrow,
Why ask you this?
Not that I think you did not love your father,
31103052But that I know love is begun by time,
31113053And that I see, in passages of proof,
31123054Time qualifies the spark and fire of it.
3112.13055There lives within the very flame of love
3112.23056A kind of wick or snuff that will abate it,
3112.33057And nothing is at a like goodness still,
3112.53059Dies in his own too much. That we would do
3112.63060We should do when we would, for this "would" changes
3112.83062As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents,
3112.93063And then this "should" is like a spendthrift's sigh,
3112.103064That hurts by easing. But to the quick of th'ulcer:
31133065Hamlet comes back. What would you undertake
31143066To show yourself indeed your father's son
To cut his throat i'th' church.
No place, indeed, should murder sanctuarize.
31183070Revenge should have no bounds. But, good Laertes,
31193071Will you do this: keep close within your chamber.
31203072Hamlet returned shall know you are come home.
31213073We'll put on those shall praise your excellence
31223074And set a double varnish on the fame
31233075The Frenchman gave you, bring you in fine together,
31243076And wager o'er your heads. He being remiss,
31253077Most generous, and free from all contriving,
31263078Will not peruse the foils, so that with ease,
31273079Or with a little shuffling, you may choose
31283080A sword unbated, and in a pass of practice
I will do't,
31313083And for [that] purpose I'll anoint my sword.
31323084I bought an unction of a mountebank
31333085So mortal that, but dip a knife in it,
31343086Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare,
31353087Collected from all simples that have virtue
31363088Under the moon, can save the thing from death
31373089That is but scratched withal. I'll touch my point
31383090With this contagion, that if I gall him slightly,
Lets further think of this.
31413092Weigh what convenience both of time and means
31423093May fit us to our shape. If this should fail,
31433094And that our drift look through our bad performance,
31443095'Twere better not assayed. Therefore this project
31453096Should have a back or second, that might hold
31463097If this did blast in proof. Soft, let me see.
31473098We'll make a solemn wager on your cunnings--
31483099I ha't! When in your motion you are hot and dry--
31493100As make your bouts more violent to that end--
31503101And that he calls for drink, I'll have preferred him
31513102A chalice for the nonce, whereon but sipping,
31523103If he by chance escape your venomed stuck,
31533104Our purpose may hold there.
[A cry within.] But stay, what noise?
One woe doth tread upon another's heel,
31563107So fast they follow. Your sister's drowned, Laertes.
Drowned! Oh, where?
There is a willow grows askant the brook
31593110That shows his hoary leaves in the glassy stream.
31603111Therewith fantastic garlands did she make
31613112Of crowflowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples,
31623113That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
31633114But our cull-cold maids do dead men's fingers call them.
31643115There on the pendent boughs her crownet weeds
31653116Clamb'ring to hang, an envious sliver broke,
31663117When down her weedy trophies and herself
31673118Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide,
31683119And mermaid-like awhile they bore her up,
31693120Which time she chanted snatches of old lauds,
31703121As one incapable of her own distress,
31713122Or like a creature native and endued
31723123Unto that element. But long it could not be
31733124Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
31743125Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay
Alas, then she is drowned.
Drowned, drowned.
Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia,
31793130And therefore I forbid my tears. But yet
31803131It is our trick; nature her custom holds,
31813132Let shame say what it will.
[He weeps.] When these are gone,
31823133The woman will be out. Adieu, my lord.
31833134I have a speech o'fire that fain would blaze,
Exit.
Let's follow, Gertrude.
31863137How much I had to do to calm his rage!
31873138Now fear I this will give it start again;
Exeunt.