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Act 4, page 2

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ACT IV SCENE III� Setting: Another room in the castle.

Enter KING CLAUDIUS, attended.�

KING CLAUDIUS� I have sent to seek him, and to find the body. � � How dangerous is it that this man goes loose! � � Yet must not we put the strong law on him: � � He's loved of the distracted multitude, � Who like not in their judgment, but their eyes; � � And where tis so, the offender's scourge is weigh'd, � � But never the offence. To bear all smooth and even, � � This sudden sending him away must seem � � Deliberate pause: diseases desperate grown � By desperate appliance are relieved, �10 � Or not at all. � � Enter ROSENCRANTZ and others. � � How now! what hath befall'n? � ROSENCRANTZ� Where the dead body is bestow'd, my lord, � � We cannot get from him. KING CLAUDIUS� But where is he? � ROSENCRANTZ� Without, my lord; guarded, to know your pleasure. � KING CLAUDIUS� Bring him before us. � ROSENCRANTZ� Ho, Guildenstern! bring in my lord. � � Enter HAMLET and GUILDENSTERN. � KING CLAUDIUS� Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius? HAMLET� At supper. � KING CLAUDIUS� At supper! where? �19 HAMLET� Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain � � convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your � � worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all � creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for � � maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar is but � � variable service, two dishes, but to one table: � � that's the end. � KING CLAUDIUS� Alas, alas! HAMLET� A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a � � king, and cat of the fish that hath fed of that worm. � KING CLAUDIUS� What dost you mean by this? � HAMLET� Nothing but to show you how a king may go a � � progress through the guts of a beggar. �31 KING CLAUDIUS� Where is Polonius? � HAMLET� In heaven; send hither to see: if your messenger � � find him not there, seek him i' the other place yourself. But indeed, if you find him not within � this month, you shall nose him as you go up the � stairs into the lobby. � KING CLAUDIUS� Go seek him there. � � To some Attendants. � HAMLET� He will stay till ye come. � � Exeunt Attendants. � KING CLAUDIUS� Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safety,–– � � Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve �40 � For that which thou hast done,––must send thee hence � � With fiery quickness: therefore prepare thyself; � � The bark is ready, and the wind at help, � � The associates tend, and every thing is bent � � For England. HAMLET� For England. � KING CLAUDIUS� Ay, Hamlet. � HAMLET� Good. � KING CLAUDIUS� So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes. � HAMLET� I see a cherub that sees them. But, come; for � England! Farewell, dear mother. � KING CLAUDIUS� Thy loving father, Hamlet. �49 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 �60 � 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

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Act 4, page 3

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ACT IV SCENE IV� Setting: 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. �10 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; �20 � 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. �30 � Exit � ROSENCRANTZ� Will't 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 �40 � 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, �50 � 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, �60 � 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

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Act 4, page 4

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ACT IV SCENE V� Setting: 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; �10 � 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. � � Aside. 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. �20 � 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; �30 � 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 did go � � With true–love showers. � KING CLAUDIUS� How do you, pretty lady? �40 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. �50 � 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, �60 � 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, �70 � 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 a Messenger. � � What is the matter? Gentleman� Save yourself, my lord: �81 � 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: �90 � 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, �100 � 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. �110 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 �121 � 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, �130 � 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 �140 � 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. �150 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. �159 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? �170 � 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' you. � � Exit � LAERTES� Do you see this, O God? KING CLAUDIUS� Laertes, I must commune with your grief, �180 � 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; �190 � 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

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Act 4, page 5

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ACT IV SCENE VI� Setting: Another room in the castle.

Enter HORATIO and a Servant.�

HORATIO� What are they that would speak with me? � Servant� Sailors, sir: they say they have letters for you. � HORATIO� 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 Sailor� God bless you, sir. � HORATIO� Let him bless thee too. � First Sailor� 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. � 10 HORATIO� 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 valour, 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 � 19 � did; I am to do a good turn for them. Let the king � � have the letters I have sent; and repair thou to me � � with as much speed as thou wouldst fly death. I � � have words to speak in thine ear will make thee � � dumb; yet are they much too light for the bore of � the matter. These good fellows will bring thee � � where I am. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern hold their � � course for England: of them I have much to tell � � thee. Farewell. � � He that thou knowest thine, Hamlet.' � Come, I will make you way for these your letters; � 28 � And do't the speedier, that you may direct me � � To him from whom you brought them. � � Exeunt

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Act 4, page 6

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ACT IV SCENE VII� Setting: Another room in the castle.

Enter KING CLAUDIUS and LAERTES.�

KING CLAUDIUS� Now must your conscience my acquaintance seal, � � And you must put me in your heart for friend, � � Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear, � � That he which hath your noble father slain � Pursued my life. � LAERTES� It well appears: but tell me � � Why you proceeded not against these feats, � � So crimeful and so capital in nature, � � As by your safety, wisdom, all things else, � You mainly were stirr'd up. � KING CLAUDIUS� O, for two special reasons; � � Which may to you, perhaps, seem much unsinew'd, �10 � But yet to me they are strong. The queen his mother � � Lives almost by his looks; and for myself–– � My virtue or my plague, be it either which–– � � She's so conjunctive to my life and soul, � � That, as the star moves not but in his sphere, � � I could not but by her. The other motive, � � Why to a public count I might not go, � Is the great love the general gender bear him; � � Who, dipping all his faults in their affection, � � Would, like the spring that turneth wood to stone, �20 � Convert his gyves to graces; so that my arrows, � � Too slightly timber'd for so loud a wind, � Would have reverted to my bow again, � � And not where I had aim'd them. � LAERTES� And so have I a noble father lost; � � A sister driven into desperate terms, � � Whose worth, if praises may go back again, � Stood challenger on mount of all the age � � For her perfections: but my revenge will come. � KING CLAUDIUS� Break not your sleeps for that: you must not think �30 � That we are made of stuff so flat and dull � � That we can let our beard be shook with danger � And think it pastime. You shortly shall hear more: � � I loved your father, and we love ourself; � � And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine–– � � Enter a Messenger. � � How now! what news? � Messenger� Letters, my lord, from Hamlet: � This to your majesty; this to the queen. � KING CLAUDIUS� From Hamlet! who brought them? � Messenger� Sailors, my lord, they say; I saw them not: � � They were given me by Claudio; he received them �40 � Of him that brought them. KING CLAUDIUS� Laertes, you shall hear them. Leave us. � � Exit Messenger. � � Reads. � � High and mighty, You shall know I am set naked on � � your kingdom. To–morrow shall I beg leave to see � � your kingly eyes: when I shall, first asking your � � pardon thereunto, 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? �50 LAERTES� Know you the hand? � KING CLAUDIUS� Tis Hamlets character. "Naked!" � And in a postscript here, he says "alone." � � Can you advise me? � LAERTES� 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 CLAUDIUS� If it be so, Laertes–– � � As how should it be so? how otherwise?–– � � Will you be ruled by me? � LAERTES� Ay, my lord; � So you will not o'errule me to a peace. �60 KING CLAUDIUS� To thine own peace. If he be now return'd, � � 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 practise � � And call it accident. � LAERTES� My lord, I will be ruled; � The rather, if you could devise it so � � That I might be the organ. � KING CLAUDIUS� It falls right. � � You have been talk'd of since your travel much, � � And that in Hamlet's hearing, for a quality �70 � 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. � LAERTES� What part is that, my lord? KING CLAUDIUS� A very riband in the cap of youth, � � Yet needful too; for youth no less becomes � � The light and careless livery that it wears � � Than settled age his sables and his weeds, �80 � 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 he had been incorpsed and demi–natured � � With the brave beast: so far he topp'd my thought, � � That I, in forgery of shapes and tricks, � � Come short of what he did. � LAERTES� A Norman was't? �90 KING CLAUDIUS� A Norman. � LAERTES� Upon my life, Lamond. � KING CLAUDIUS� The very same. � LAERTES� I know him well: he is the brooch indeed � � And gem of all the nation. KING CLAUDIUS� He made confession of you, � � And gave you such a masterly report � � For art and exercise in your defence � � And for your rapier most especially, � � That he cried out, 'twould be a sight indeed, � If one could match you: the scrimers of their nation, �100 � He swore, had 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,–– � LAERTES� What out of this, my lord? � KING CLAUDIUS� Laertes, was your father dear to you? � � Or are you like the painting of a sorrow, � A face without a heart? � LAERTES� Why ask you this? � KING CLAUDIUS� Not that I think you did not love your father; �110 � 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. � � 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 �120 � As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents; � � 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? � LAERTES� To cut his throat i' the church. KING CLAUDIUS� 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: � � 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 practise � � Requite him for your father. � LAERTES� I will do't: � � And, for that purpose, I'll anoint my sword. �140 � 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. � KING CLAUDIUS� Let's further think of this; � � Weigh what convenience both of time and means �149 � 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 should 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, �160 � If he by chance escape your venom'd stuck, � � Our purpose may hold there. � � Enter QUEEN GERTRUDE. � � How now, sweet queen! � QUEEN GERTRUDE� One woe doth tread upon another's heel, � � So fast they follow; your sister's drown'd, Laertes. LAERTES� Drown'd! O, where? � QUEEN GERTRUDE� There is a willow grows aslant a brook, � � That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream; � � There with fantastic garlands did she come � � Of crow–flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples � That liberal shepherds give a grosser name, � � But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them: � � There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds �170 � Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke; � � When down her weedy trophies and herself � Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide; � � And, mermaid–like, awhile they bore her up: � � Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes; � � As one incapable of her own distress, � � Or like a creature native and indued � Unto that element: but long it could not be � � Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, � � Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay �180 � To muddy death. � LAERTES� Alas, then, she is drown'd? QUEEN GERTRUDE� Drown'd, drown'd. � LAERTES� Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia, � � And therefore I forbid my tears: but yet � � It is our trick; nature her custom holds, � � Let shame say what it will: when these are gone, � The woman will be out. Adieu, my lord: � � I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze, � � But that this folly douts it. � � Exit. � KING CLAUDIUS� Let's follow, Gertrude: � � How much I had to do to calm his rage! � Now fear I this will give it start again; � � Therefore let's follow. � � Exeunt

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