Good morrow, 'tis St. Valentine's day, All in the morning betime, And I a maid at your window, To be your Valentine. King. How long hath she been thus? Oph. 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. Follow her close; give her good watch, I pray you. [Exit HOR. O! this is the poison of deep grief; it springs All from her father's death: And now behold, O Gertrude, Gertrude, When sorrows come, they come not single spies, Last, and as much containing as all these, lord; [cry And, as the world were now but to begin, I pray you, give me leave. [They retire without the door. Laer. I thank you :-keep the door.-O thou Give me my father. [vile king, Queen. Calmly, good Laertes. Laer. That drop of blood that's calm, proclaims me bastard. King. Let him demand his fill. Laer. How came he dead? I'll not be juggled To hell, allegiance! To this point I stand,That both the worlds I give to negligence, Let come what comes; only I'll be reveng'd Most thoroughly for my father. Who shall stay you? Laer. My will, not all the world's: And, for my means, I'll husband them so well, They shall go far with little. King. Good Laertes, King. If you desire to know the certainty [venge, Laer. None but his enemies. King. Danes. [Within.] Let her come in. O heat, dry up my brains! tears seven times salt, Oph. They bore him barefac'd on the bier; Oph. 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 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. T-There's a The burthen. Ti. e. By its Sanday name, "herb of grace;" mine is merely rue, i e. sorrow. daisy :-I would give you some violets; but they withered all when my father died :-They say he made a good end, For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy,- [Sings. Laer. Thought and affliction, passion, hell itself, She turns to favour and to prettiness. Oph. 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: [Sings. [Exit OPH. He is gone, he is gone, And we cast away moan; Gramercy on his soul! And of all Christian souls! Adieu. Laer. Do you see this, O God? King. Laertes, I must commune with your grief, Or you deny me right. Go but apart, [will, Make choice of whom your wisest friends you 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, Be you content to lend your patience to us, Laer. Cry to be heard, as 'twere from heaven to earth, That I must call 't in question. King. 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 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 Serv. 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 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 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." Come, I will give you way for these your letters; And do 't the speedier, that you may direct me To him from whom you brought them. [Exeunt. SCENE VII.-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,, So crimeful and so capital in nature, [else, As by your safety, greatness, wisdom, all things You mainly were stirr'd up. King. O, for two special reasons; Which may to you, perhaps, seem much unsinew'd, [mother, But yet to me they are strong. The queen, his Lives almost by his looks; and for myself, (My virtue or my plague, be it either which,) She is 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, Convert his gyvest 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. Laer. And so have I a noble father lost; That we are made of stuff so flat and dull, So you will not o'er-rule me to a peace. [turn'd,- Under the which he shall not choose but fall: Laer. My lord, I will be rul'd The rather, if you could devise it so, That I might be the organ. King. 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.+ Laer. What part is that, my lord? King. 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, Importing health and graveness.-Two months Here was a gentleman of Normandy,-- [since, I have seen myself, and serv'd against, the French, And they can well on horseback: but this gallant Had witchcraft in 't; he grew unto his seat; And to such wond'rous doing brought his horse, As he had been incorps'd and demi-natur'd With the brave beast: so far he topp'd my That I, in forgery of shapes and tricks, [thought, Come short of what he did. Laer. Upon my life, Lamord. The very same. King. He made confession of you; He swore, had neither motion, guard, nor eye, Laer. Why ask you this? King. Not that I think you did not love your But that I know love is begun by time; [father; 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 wili abate it, And nothing is at a like goodness still; And hath abatements and delays as many Hamlet comes back; What would you undertake, Laer. To cut his throat i' the church. King. No place, indeed, should murder sanctuarize; [Laertes, Revenge should have no bounds. But, good 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 [gether, The Frenchman gave you; bring you, in fine, toAnd wager o'er 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: And, for the 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 deatn, 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. Let's further think of this; Weigh what convenience, both of time and means, 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: And, mermaid-like, a while they bore her up: Unto that element: but long it could not be, Alas, then, she is drown'd? Act Fifth. SCENE I-A Churchyard. Exeunt. Enter Two Clowns, with spades, &c. 1 Clo. Is she to be buried in christian burial, that wilfully seeks her own salvation? 2 Clo. I tell thee, she is; therefore make her grave straight:+ the crowner hath sat on her, and finds it christian burial. 1 Clo. How can that be, unless she drowned herself in her own defence? 2 Clo. Why, 'tis found so. 1 Clo. It must be se offendendo; it cannot be else. For here lies the point: If I drown myself wittingly, it argues an act: and an act hath three branches; it is to act, to do, and to perform: Argal, she drowned herself wittingly. 2 Clo. Nay, but hear you, goodman delver. 1 Clo. Give me leave. Here lies the water; good: here stands the man; good: If the man go to this water, and drown himself, it is, will he, nill he, he goes; mark you that: but if the water come to him, and drown him, he drowns not himself: Argal, he, that is not guilty of his own death, shortens not his own life. 2 Clo. But is this law? 1 Clo. Ay, marry is 't; crowner's-quest law. 2 Clo. Will you ha' the truth on't? If this had not been a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out of christian burial. 1 Clo. Why, there thou say'st: And the more pity; that great folks shall have countenance in this world to drown or hang themselves, more than their even ‡ christian. Come, my spade. There is no ancient gentleman but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers; they hold up Adam's profession. 2 Clo. Was he a gentleman? 1 Clo. He was the first that ever bore arms. 2 Clo. Why, he had none. 1 Clo. What, art a heathen? How dost thou understand the scripture? The scripture says, Adam digged; Could he dig without arms? I'll put another question to thee: if thou answerest me not to the purpose, confess thyself-- * Insensible. + Immediate. Fellow. Give over. The song, entire, is printed in Percy's Reliques 2 Clo. Go to. 1 Clo. What is he that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter? 2 Clo. The gallows-maker; for that frame outlives a thousand tenants. 1 Clo. I like thy wit well, in good faith; the gallows does well: But how does it well? it does well to those that do ill: now thou dost ill, to say the gallows is built stronger than the church; argal, the gallows may do well to thee. To't again; come. 2 Clo. Who builds stronger than a mason, a shipwright, or a carpenter? 1 Clo. Ay, tell me that, and unyoke. ? 2 Clo. Marry, now I can tell. 1 Clo. To't. 2 Clo. Mass, I cannot tell. Enter HAMLET and HORATIO, at a distance. 1 Clo. Cudgel thy brains no more about it; for your dull ass will not mend his pace with beating: and, when you are asked this question next, say, a grave-maker; the houses that he makes, last till doomsday. Go, get thee to Yaughan, and fetch me a stoup of liquor. [Exit 2 Clo. 1 Clown digs and sings. In youth, when I did love, did love,|| Methought it was very sweet, To contract, O, the time, for, ah, my behove, he sings at grave-making. Hor. Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness. Ham. 'Tis e'en so: the hand of little employment hath the daintier sense. 1 Clo. But age with his stealing steps, [Throws up a skull. Ham. That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once: How the knave jowls it to the ground, as if it were Cain's jaw-bone, that did the first murder! This might be the pate of a politician, which this ass now o'er-reaches; one that would circumvent any body, might it not? Hor. It might, my lord. Ham. Or of a courtier; which could say, "Good-morrow, sweet lord! How dost thou, good lord?" This might be my lord such-a-one, that praised my lord such-a-one's horse, when he meant to beg it; might it not? Hor. Ay, my lord. Ham. Why, e'en so: and now my lady Worm's; chapless, and knocked about the mazzard with a sexton's spade: Here's fine revolution, an we had the trick to see 't. Did these bones cost no more the breeding, but to play at loggats¶ with them? mine ache to think on 't. 1 Cio. A pick-axe, and a spade, a spade, [Sings. [Throws up a skull. Ham. There's another: Why may not that be the skull of a lawyer? Where be his quiddits** now, his quillets,++ his cases, his tenures, and his of Ancient English Poetry, vol. i.; it was written by Lord Vaux. An ancient game played as quoits are at present. **Subtleties. ++ Frivolous distinctions. |