Complete Plays, The

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Complete Plays, The Page 72

by William Shakespeare


  Hamlet

  My mother: father and mother is man and wife; man and wife is one flesh; and so, my mother. Come, for England!

  Exit

  King Claudius

  Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed aboard;

  Delay it not; I’ll have him hence to-night:

  Away! for every thing is seal’d and done

  That else leans on the affair: pray you, make haste.

  Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

  And, England, if my love thou hold’st at aught —

  As my great power thereof may give thee sense,

  Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red

  After the Danish sword, and thy free awe

  Pays homage to us — thou mayst not coldly set

  Our sovereign process; which imports at full,

  By letters congruing to that effect,

  The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England;

  For like the hectic in my blood he rages,

  And thou must cure me: till I know ’tis done,

  Howe’er my haps, my joys were ne’er begun.

  Exit

  SCENE IV. A PLAIN IN DENMARK.

  Enter Fortinbras, a Captain, and Soldiers, marching

  Prince Fortinbras

  Go, captain, from me greet the Danish king;

  Tell him that, by his licence, Fortinbras

  Craves the conveyance of a promised march

  Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous.

  If that his majesty would aught with us,

  We shall express our duty in his eye;

  And let him know so.

  Captain

  I will do’t, my lord.

  Prince Fortinbras

  Go softly on.

  Exeunt Fortinbras and Soldiers

  Enter Hamlet, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and others

  Hamlet

  Good sir, whose powers are these?

  Captain

  They are of Norway, sir.

  Hamlet

  How purposed, sir, I pray you?

  Captain

  Against some part of Poland.

  Hamlet

  Who commands them, sir?

  Captain

  The nephews to old Norway, Fortinbras.

  Hamlet

  Goes it against the main of Poland, sir,

  Or for some frontier?

  Captain

  Truly to speak, and with no addition,

  We go to gain a little patch of ground

  That hath in it no profit but the name.

  To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it;

  Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole

  A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee.

  Hamlet

  Why, then the Polack never will defend it.

  Captain

  Yes, it is already garrison’d.

  Hamlet

  Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats

  Will not debate the question of this straw:

  This is the imposthume of much wealth and peace,

  That inward breaks, and shows no cause without

  Why the man dies. I humbly thank you, sir.

  Captain

  God be wi’ you, sir.

  Exit

  Rosencrantz

  Wilt please you go, my lord?

  Hamlet

  I’ll be with you straight go a little before.

  Exeunt all except Hamlet

  How all occasions do inform against me,

  And spur my dull revenge! What is a man,

  If his chief good and market of his time

  Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more.

  Sure, he that made us with such large discourse,

  Looking before and after, gave us not

  That capability and god-like reason

  To fust in us unused. Now, whether it be

  Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple

  Of thinking too precisely on the event,

  A thought which, quarter’d, hath but one part wisdom

  And ever three parts coward, I do not know

  Why yet I live to say ‘This thing’s to do;’

  Sith I have cause and will and strength and means

  To do’t. Examples gross as earth exhort me:

  Witness this army of such mass and charge

  Led by a delicate and tender prince,

  Whose spirit with divine ambition puff’d

  Makes mouths at the invisible event,

  Exposing what is mortal and unsure

  To all that fortune, death and danger dare,

  Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be great

  Is not to stir without great argument,

  But greatly to find quarrel in a straw

  When honour’s at the stake. How stand I then,

  That have a father kill’d, a mother stain’d,

  Excitements of my reason and my blood,

  And let all sleep? while, to my shame, I see

  The imminent death of twenty thousand men,

  That, for a fantasy and trick of fame,

  Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot

  Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,

  Which is not tomb enough and continent

  To hide the slain? O, from this time forth,

  My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!

  Exit

  SCENE V. ELSINORE. A ROOM IN THE CASTLE.

  Enter Queen Gertrude, Horatio, and a Gentleman

  Queen Gertrude

  I will not speak with her.

  Gentleman

  She is importunate, indeed distract:

  Her mood will needs be pitied.

  Queen Gertrude

  What would she have?

  Gentleman

  She speaks much of her father; says she hears

  There’s tricks i’ the world; and hems, and beats her heart;

  Spurns enviously at straws; speaks things in doubt,

  That carry but half sense: her speech is nothing,

  Yet the unshaped use of it doth move

  The hearers to collection; they aim at it,

  And botch the words up fit to their own thoughts;

  Which, as her winks, and nods, and gestures yield them,

  Indeed would make one think there might be thought,

  Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily.

  Horatio

  ’Twere good she were spoken with; for she may strew

  Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds.

  Queen Gertrude

  Let her come in.

  Exit Horatio

  To my sick soul, as sin’s true nature is,

  Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss:

  So full of artless jealousy is guilt,

  It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.

  Re-enter Horatio, with Ophelia

  Ophelia

  Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark?

  Queen Gertrude

  How now, Ophelia!

  Ophelia

  [Sings]

  How should I your true love know

  From another one?

  By his cockle hat and staff,

  And his sandal shoon.

  Queen Gertrude

  Alas, sweet lady, what imports this song?

  Ophelia

  Say you? nay, pray you, mark.

  Sings

  He is dead and gone, lady,

  He is dead and gone;

  At his head a grass-green turf,

  At his heels a stone.

  Queen Gertrude

  Nay, but, Ophelia,—

  Ophelia

  Pray you, mark.

  Sings

  White his shroud as the mountain snow,—

  Enter King Claudius

  Queen Gertrude

  Alas, look here, my lord.

  Ophelia

  [Sings]

  Larded with sweet flowers

  Which bewept to the grave d
id go

  With true-love showers.

  King Claudius

  How do you, pretty lady?

  Ophelia

  Well, God ’ild you! They say the owl was a baker’s daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be. God be at your table!

  King Claudius

  Conceit upon her father.

  Ophelia

  Pray you, let’s have no words of this; but when they ask you what it means, say you this:

  Sings

  To-morrow is Saint Valentine’s day,

  All in the morning betime,

  And I a maid at your window,

  To be your Valentine.

  Then up he rose, and donn’d his clothes,

  And dupp’d the chamber-door;

  Let in the maid, that out a maid

  Never departed more.

  King Claudius

  Pretty Ophelia!

  Ophelia

  Indeed, la, without an oath, I’ll make an end on’t:

  Sings

  By Gis and by Saint Charity,

  Alack, and fie for shame!

  Young men will do’t, if they come to’t;

  By cock, they are to blame.

  Quoth she, before you tumbled me,

  You promised me to wed.

  So would I ha’ done, by yonder sun,

  An thou hadst not come to my bed.

  King Claudius

  How long hath she been thus?

  Ophelia

  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 Claudius

  Follow her close; give her good watch,

  I pray you.

  Exit Horatio

  O, this is the poison of deep grief; it springs

  All from her father’s death. O Gertrude, Gertrude,

  When sorrows come, they come not single spies

  But in battalions. First, her father slain:

  Next, your son gone; and he most violent author

  Of his own just remove: the people muddied,

  Thick and unwholesome in their thoughts and whispers,

  For good Polonius’ death; and we have done but greenly,

  In hugger-mugger to inter him: poor Ophelia

  Divided from herself and her fair judgment,

  Without the which we are pictures, or mere beasts:

  Last, and as much containing as all these,

  Her brother is in secret come from France;

  Feeds on his wonder, keeps himself in clouds,

  And wants not buzzers to infect his ear

  With pestilent speeches of his father’s death;

  Wherein necessity, of matter beggar’d,

  Will nothing stick our person to arraign

  In ear and ear. O my dear Gertrude, this,

  Like to a murdering-piece, in many places

  Gives me superfluous death.

  A noise within

  Queen Gertrude

  Alack, what noise is this?

  King Claudius

  Where are my Switzers? Let them guard the door.

  Enter another Gentleman

  What is the matter?

  Gentleman

  Save yourself, my lord:

  The ocean, overpeering of his list,

  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:’

  Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds:

  ‘Laertes shall be king, Laertes king!’

  Queen Gertrude

  How cheerfully on the false trail they cry!

  O, this is counter, you false Danish dogs!

  King Claudius

  The doors are broke.

  Noise within

  Enter Laertes, armed; Danes following

  Laertes

  Where is this king? Sirs, stand you all without.

  Danes

  No, let’s come in.

  Laertes

  I pray you, give me leave.

  Danes

  We will, we will.

  They retire without the door

  Laertes

  I thank you: keep the door. O thou vile king,

  Give me my father!

  Queen Gertrude

  Calmly, good Laertes.

  Laertes

  That drop of blood that’s calm proclaims me bastard,

  Cries cuckold to my father, brands the harlot

  Even here, between the chaste unsmirched brow

  Of my true mother.

  King Claudius

  What is the cause, Laertes,

  That thy rebellion looks so giant-like?

  Let him go, Gertrude; do not fear our person:

  There’s such divinity doth hedge a king,

  That treason can but peep to what it would,

  Acts little of his will. Tell me, Laertes,

  Why thou art thus incensed. Let him go, Gertrude.

  Speak, man.

  Laertes

  Where is my father?

  King Claudius

  Dead.

  Queen Gertrude

  But not by him.

  King Claudius

  Let him demand his fill.

  Laertes

  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 revenged

  Most thoroughly for my father.

  King Claudius

  Who shall stay you?

  Laertes

  My will, not all the world:

  And for my means, I’ll husband them so well,

  They shall go far with little.

  King Claudius

  Good Laertes,

  If you desire to know the certainty

  Of your dear father’s death, is’t writ in your revenge,

  That, swoopstake, you will draw both friend and foe,

  Winner and loser?

  Laertes

  None but his enemies.

  King Claudius

  Will you know them then?

  Laertes

  To his good friends thus wide I’ll ope my arms;

  And like the kind life-rendering pelican,

  Repast them with my blood.

  King Claudius

  Why, now you speak

  Like a good child and a true gentleman.

  That I am guiltless of your father’s death,

  And am most sensible in grief for it,

  It shall as level to your judgment pierce

  As day does to your eye.

  Danes

  [Within] Let her come in.

  Laertes

  How now! what noise is that?

  Re-enter Ophelia

  O heat, dry up my brains! tears seven times salt,

  Burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye!

  By heaven, thy madness shall be paid by weight,

  Till our scale turn the beam. O rose of May!

  Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia!

  O heavens! is’t possible, a young maid’s wits

  Should be as moral as an old man’s life?

  Nature is fine in love, and where ’tis fine,

  It sends some precious instance of itself

  After the thing it loves.

  Ophelia

  [Sings]

  They
bore him barefaced on the bier;

  Hey non nonny, nonny, hey nonny;

  And in his grave rain’d many a tear:—

  Fare you well, my dove!

  Laertes

  Hadst thou thy wits, and didst persuade revenge,

  It could not move thus.

  Ophelia

  [Sings] You must sing a-down a-down,

  An you call him a-down-a.

  O, how the wheel becomes it! It is the false steward, that stole his master’s daughter.

  Laertes

  This nothing’s more than matter.

  Ophelia

  There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance; pray, love, remember: and there is pansies. that’s for thoughts.

  Laertes

  A document in madness, thoughts and remembrance fitted.

  Ophelia

  There’s fennel for you, and columbines: there’s rue for you; and here’s some for me: we may call it herb-grace o’ Sundays: O you must wear your rue with a difference. 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,—

  Sings

  For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy.

  Laertes

  Thought and affliction, passion, hell itself,

  She turns to favour and to prettiness.

  Ophelia

  [Sings]

  And will he not come again?

  And will he not come again?

  No, no, he is dead:

  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 we cast away moan:

  God ha’ mercy on his soul!

  And of all Christian souls, I pray God. God be wi’ ye.

  Exit

  Laertes

  Do you see this, O God?

  King Claudius

  Laertes, I must commune with your grief,

  Or you deny me right. Go but apart,

  Make choice of whom your wisest friends you will.

  And they shall hear and judge ’twixt you and me:

  If by direct or by collateral hand

  They find us touch’d, we will our kingdom give,

  Our crown, our life, and all that we can ours,

  To you in satisfaction; but if not,

  Be you content to lend your patience to us,

  And we shall jointly labour with your soul

  To give it due content.

  Laertes

  Let this be so;

  His means of death, his obscure funeral —

  No trophy, sword, nor hatchment o’er his bones,

  No noble rite nor formal ostentation —

  Cry to be heard, as ’twere from heaven to earth,

  That I must call’t in question.

  King Claudius

  So you shall;

  And where the offence is let the great axe fall.

  I pray you, go with me.

  Exeunt

  SCENE VI. ANOTHER ROOM IN THE CASTLE.

  Enter Horatio and a Servant

  Horatio

 

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