King.

Even here, between the chaste unsmirched brows

Of my true mother.

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,

120

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

Laer. Where is my father?

King.

Queen.

Dead.

But not by him.

King. Let him demand his fill.

Laer. 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 throughly for my father.

King.

Laer. My will, not all the world:

King.

129

Who shall stay you?

And for my means, I'll husband them so well,
They shall go far with little.

Good Laertes,

If you desire to know the certainty

your

140

Of dear father's death, is't writ in your revenge,
That, swoopstake, you will draw both friend and foe,
Winner and loser?

Laer. None but his enemies.

King.

Will you know them then? Laer. To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my arms; And like the kind life-rendering pelican,

King.

Repast them with my blood.

Why, now you speak
Like a good child and a true gentleman.
That I am guiltless of your father's death,
And am most sensibly in grief for it,
It shall as level to your judgment pierce

As day does to your eye.

Danes. [Within]

Let her come in.

Laer. 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!

150

By heaven, thy madness shall be paid with 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 mortal 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.

Oph. [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!

160

Laer. Hadst thou thy wits, and didst persuade revenge,

It could not move thus.

Oph. [Sings] You must sing 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.

Laer. This nothing's more than matter.

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

Laer. A document in madness, thoughts and re

membrance fitted.

170

Oph. There's fennel for you, and columbines: 180 there's rue for you: and here's some for me: we may call it herb of 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 bonnie sweet Robin is all my joy.
Laer. Thought and affliction, passion, hell itself,
She turns to favor and to prettiness.

Oph. [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:

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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.

Laer. Do you see this, O God?

[Exit. 200

King. Laertes, I must commune with your grief,

Laer.

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

King.

They find us touch'd, we will our kingdom give,
Our crown, our life, and all that we call ours,
To you in satisfaction; but if not,

Be you content to lend your patience to us,
And we shall jointly labor with your soul
To give it due content.

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.

So you shall;

And where the offence is let the great axe fall.
I pray you, go with me.

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[Exeunt.

SCENE VI

Another room in the castle.

Enter HORATIO and a SERVANT.

Hor. What are they that would speak with me?
Serv. Sailors, sir: they say they have letters for you.
Hor. Let them come in.
[Exit Servant.
I do not know from what part of the world
I should be greeted, if not from Lord Hamlet.
Enter SAILORS.

First Sail. God bless you, sir.

Hor. Let him bless thee too.

First Sail. He shall, sir, an't please him.

There's

a letter for you, sir; it comes from the ambassador that was bound for England; if your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is. Hor. [Reads] 'Horatio, when thou shalt have overlooked this, give these fellows some means to the king: they have letters for him. Ere we were two days old at sea, a pirate of very warlike appointment gave us chase. Finding ourselves too slow of sail, we put on a compelled valor, and in the grapple I boarded them: on the instant they got clear of our ship; so I alone became their prisoner. They have dealt with me like thieves of mercy: but they knew what they did; I am to do a good turn for them. Let the king have

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