This to your majesty; this to the queen. King. From Hamlet! who brought them?

Mess. Sailors, my lord, they say; I saw them not: They were given me by Claudio; he received them Of him that brought them.

King.

Leave us.

39

Laertes, you shall hear them. [Exit Messenger. [Reads] High and mighty, You shall know I am To-morrow

ret naked on your kingdom.

shall I beg leave to see your kingly eyes:
when I shall, first asking your pardon there-
unto, recount the occasion of my sudden and
more strange return.

'HAMLET.'

What should this mean? Are all the rest come back?
Or is it some abuse, and no such thing?

Laer. Know you the hand?

King. 'Tis Hamlet's character. 'Naked'!

And in a postscript here, he says 'alone.'
Can you advise me?

Laer. I'm lost in it, my lord. But let him come;
It warms the very sickness in my heart,
That I shall live and tell him to his teeth,
'Thus didest thou.'

King.

Laer.

If it be so, Laertes,

As how should it be so? how otherwise?—

Will you be ruled by me?

Ay, my lord;

So you will not o'errule me to a peace.

King. To thine own peace. If he be now return'd,

51

60

Laer.

King.

As checking at his voyage, and that he means
No more to undertake it, I will work him
To an exploit, now ripe in my device,

Under the which he shall not choose but fall:

And for his death no wind of blame shall breathe,
But even his mother shall uncharge the practice
And call it accident.

My lord, I will be ruled;
The rather, if you could devise it so
That I might be the organ.

It falls right.

You have been talk'd of since your travel much,
And that in Hamlet's hearing, for a quality
Wherein, they say, you shine: your sum of parts
Did not together pluck such envy from him.
As did that one, and that, in my regard,
Of the unworthiest siege.

70

What part is that, my lord?

Laer.
King. A very riband in the cap of youth,

80

Yet needful too; for youth no less becomes
The light and careless livery that it wears
Than settled age his sables and his weeds,
Importing health and graveness. Two months since,
Here was a gentleman of Normandy:-
I've seen myself, and served against, the French,
And they can well on horseback: but this gallant
Had witchcraft in't; he grew unto his seat,
And to such wondrous doing brought his horse,
As had he been incorpsed and demi-natured

With the brave beast: so far he topp'd my thought,

Laer.

That I, in forgery of shapes and tricks,

Come short of what he did.

King. A Norman.

90

A Norman was't?

Laer. Upon my life, Lamond.

King.

The very same.

Laer. I know him well: he is the brooch indeed

And gem of all the nation.

King. He made confession of you,

And gave you such a masterly report

For art and exercise in your defence,

And for your rapier most especial,

That he cried out, 'twould be a sight indeed

100

Laer.

If one could match you: the scrimers of their

nation,

He swore, had neither motion, guard, nor eye,

If you opposed them. Sir, this report of his

Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy

That he could nothing do but wish and beg
Your sudden coming o'er, to play with him.
Now, out of this-

What out of this, my lord?

King. Laertes, was your father dear to you?

Laer.

Or are you like the painting of a sorrow,
A face without a heart?

Why ask you this?

King. Not that I think you did not love your father,

But that I know love is begun by time,
And that I see, in passages of proof,
Time qualifies the spark and fire of it.

IIO

Laer.

There lives within the very flame of love

A kind of wick or snuff that will abate it;
And nothing is at a like goodness still;
For goodness, growing to a plurisy,

Dies in his own too much: that we would do,

We should do when we would; for this 'would'

changes

And hath abatements and delays as many

As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents;

120

And then this should' is like a spendthrift sigh, That hurts by easing. But, to the quick o' the ulcer:

Hamlet comes back: what would you undertake,

To show yourself your father's son in deed
More than in words?

To cut his throat i' the church.

King. No place, indeed, should murder sanctuarize;
Revenge should have no bounds. But, good
Laertes,

Will you do this, keep close within your chamber.
Hamlet return'd shall know you are come home: 131
We'll put on those shall praise your excellence
And set a double varnish on the fame

The Frenchman gave you, bring you in fine together
And wager on your heads: he, being remiss,
Most generous and free from all contriving,
Will not peruse the foils, so that, with ease,
Or with a little shuffling, you may choose
A sword unbated, and in a pass of practice
Requite him for your father.

Laer.

I will do't;

King.

And for that purpose I'll anoint my sword.
I bought an unction of a mountebank,
So mortal that, but dip a knife in it,
Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare,
Collected from all simples that have virtue
Under the moon, can save the thing from death
That is but scratch'd withal: I'll touch my point
With this contagion, that, if I gall him slightly,
It may be death.

140

Let's further think of this;
Weigh what convenience both of time and means 150
May fit us to our shape: if this should fail,

And that our drift look through our bad performance,
'Twere better not assay'd: therefore this project
Should have a back or second, that might hold
If this did blast in proof. Soft! let me see:
We'll make a solemn wager on your cunnings:
I ha't:

When in your motion you are hot and dry-
As make your bouts more violent to that end-
And that he calls for drink, I'll have prepared him
A chalice for the nonce, whereon but sipping,
If he by chance escape your venom'd stuck,
Our purpose may hold there.

Enter QUEEN.

161

How now, sweet queen!

Queen. One woe doth tread upon another's heel,

So fast they follow: your sister's drown'd, Laertes,

་