The ratifiers and props of every word, They cry, Choose we: Laertes shall be king! Queen. How cheerfully on the false trail they cry! Enter LAERTES, armed: [Noise within Danes following. Laer. Where is this king?-Sirs, stand you all without. Laer. I pray you, give me leave. Dan. We will, we will. [They retire without the door. Laer. I thank you :-keep the door.-O thou vile king, Give me my father. Queen. Calmly, good Laertes. Laer. That drop of blood, that's calm, proclaims me Cries, cuckold, to my father; brands the harlot King. What is the cause, Laertes, That thy rebellion looks so giant-like ? Let him go, Gertrude ; do not fear our person; That treason can but peep to what it would, Acts little of his will.-Tell me, Laertes, Why thou art thus incens'd;-Let him go, Gertrude ;- Laer. Where is my father? King. Dead. Queen. 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,- King. Who shall stay you? Laer. My will, not all the world's : And, for my means, I'll husband them so well, [7] Hounds run counter when they trace the trail backwards. JOHNSON. [8] Unsmirched brow, i, e. clean, not defiled. STEEVENS. They shall go far with little. King Good Laertes, If you desire to know the certainty Of your dear father's death, is't writ in your revenge, That, sweepstake, 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-rend'ring pelican, Repast them with my blood. King. Why, now you speak Like a good child, and a true gentleman. Danes. [within.] Let her come in. Enter OPHELIA, fantastically dressed with straws and flowers. O heat, dry up my brains! tears seven times salt, By heaven, thy madness shall be paid with weight, Oph. They bore him barefac'd on the bier ; And in his grave rain'd many a tear ; Fare you well, my dove! Laer. Hadst thou thy wits, and didst persuade revenge, It could not move thus. Oph. You must sing, Down a-down, an you call him a-down-a. O how the wheel becomes it !9 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; 1 [9] By the wheel, she means the burden of the song. STEEVENS. [1] See Illustrations, Vol. IX. 1 Pray you, love, remember: And there is pansies, that's for thoughts. Laer. A document in madness; thoughts and remembrance fitted. Oph. There's fennel for you, and columbines ::-there's rue for you; and here's some for me :-we may call it, herb of grace o'Sundays :-you may 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,— Laer. Thought and affliction, passion, hell itself, For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy, She turns to favour, and to prettiness. Oph. And will he not come again? [Sings. [Sings. And will he not come again? 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 of all christian souls !2 I pray God. God be wi'you! Laer. Do you see this, O God? [Exit OPHELIA. King. Laertes, I must commune with your grief, Or you deny me right. Go but apart, Make choice of whom your wisest friends you will, They find us touch'd, we will our kingdom give, Be you content to lend your patience to us, Laer. Let this be so; His means of death, his obscure funeral, No trophy, sword, nor hatchment, o'er his bones, 3 [2] God 'a mercy on his soul! And of all christian souls! This is the common conclusion to many of the ancient monumental inscriptions. STEEVENS. [3] The practice is uniformly kept up to this day of hanging the sword, helmet, gauntlet, spurs and tabard (i. e. coat whereon the armorial ensigns were anciently depicted, from whence the term coat of armour) over the grave of every knight. HAWKINS. 24 VOL. VIII. No noble rite, nor formal ostentation, Cry to be heard, as 'twere from heaven to earth, King. So you shall; And, where the offence is, let the great axe fall. [Exeunt. SCENE VI. Another Room in the same. 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. 1 Sail. God bless you, sir. Hor. Let him bless thee too. 1 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 chace: 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 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 haste as thou would'st 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. [4] The bore is the caliber of a gun, or the capacity of the barrel. matter, says Hamlet, would carry heavier words. JOHNSON. The Come, I will give you way for these your letters ; SCENE VII. [Exeunt. Another Room in the same. Enter King and LAERTES. King. Now must your conscience my acquittance 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, Pursu'd my life. Laer It well appears.-But tell me, Why you proceeded not against these feats, As by your safety, greatness, wisdom, all things else, King. O, for two special reasons; Which may to you, perhaps, seem much unsinew'd, (My virtue, or my plague, be it either which,) Is, the great love the general gender bear him :5 Laer. And so have I a noble father lost; Whose worth, if praises may go back again,6 Stood challenger on mount of all the age For her perfections :-But my revenge will come. King. Break not your sleeps for that: You must not think, 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: [5] The common race of the people. JOHNSON. [6] If I may praise what has been, but is now to be found no more. JOHN. |