65 William Shakespeare: Hamlet: Act 4

Hamlet

By William Shakespeare

Edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine

with Michael Poston and Rebecca Niles

Folger Shakespeare Library

https://shakespeare.folger.edu/shakespeares-works/hamlet/

Created on Apr 23, 2016, from FDT version 0.9.2.

ACT 4

Scene 1

Enter King and Queen, with Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern.

KING

There’s matter in these sighs; these profound heaves

You must translate; ’tis fit we understand them.

Where is your son?

QUEEN

Bestow this place on us a little while.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern exit.

Ah, mine own lord, what have I seen tonight!5

KING What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet?

QUEEN

Mad as the sea and wind when both contend

Which is the mightier. In his lawless fit,

Behind the arras hearing something stir,

Whips out his rapier, cries “A rat, a rat,”10

And in this brainish apprehension kills

The unseen good old man.

KING O heavy deed!

It had been so with us, had we been there.

His liberty is full of threats to all—15

To you yourself, to us, to everyone.

Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answered?

It will be laid to us, whose providence

Should have kept short, restrained, and out of haunt

This mad young man. But so much was our love,20

We would not understand what was most fit,

But, like the owner of a foul disease,

To keep it from divulging, let it feed

Even on the pith of life. Where is he gone?

QUEEN

To draw apart the body he hath killed,25

O’er whom his very madness, like some ore

Among a mineral of metals base,

Shows itself pure: he weeps for what is done.

KING O Gertrude, come away!

The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch30

But we will ship him hence; and this vile deed

We must with all our majesty and skill

Both countenance and excuse.—Ho, Guildenstern!

Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Friends both, go join you with some further aid.

Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain,35

And from his mother’s closet hath he dragged him.

Go seek him out, speak fair, and bring the body

Into the chapel. I pray you, haste in this.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern exit.

Come, Gertrude, we’ll call up our wisest friends

And let them know both what we mean to do40

And what’s untimely done. …

Whose whisper o’er the world’s diameter,

As level as the cannon to his blank

Transports his poisoned shot, may miss our name

And hit the woundless air. O, come away!45

My soul is full of discord and dismay.

They exit.

Scene 2

Enter Hamlet.

HAMLET Safely stowed.

GENTLEMEN, within Hamlet! Lord Hamlet!

HAMLET But soft, what noise? Who calls on Hamlet?

O, here they come.

Enter Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and others.

ROSENCRANTZ

What have you done, my lord, with the dead body?5

HAMLET

Compounded it with dust, whereto ’tis kin.

ROSENCRANTZ

Tell us where ’tis, that we may take it thence

And bear it to the chapel.

HAMLET Do not believe it.

ROSENCRANTZ Believe what?10

HAMLET That I can keep your counsel and not mine

own. Besides, to be demanded of a sponge, what

replication should be made by the son of a king?

ROSENCRANTZ Take you me for a sponge, my lord?

HAMLET Ay, sir, that soaks up the King’s countenance,15

his rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the

King best service in the end. He keeps them like an

ape an apple in the corner of his jaw, first mouthed,

to be last swallowed. When he needs what you have

gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you20

shall be dry again.

ROSENCRANTZ I understand you not, my lord.

HAMLET I am glad of it. A knavish speech sleeps in a

foolish ear.

ROSENCRANTZ My lord, you must tell us where the25

body is and go with us to the King.

HAMLET The body is with the King, but the King is not

with the body. The King is a thing—

GUILDENSTERN A “thing,” my lord?

HAMLET Of nothing. Bring me to him. Hide fox, and30

all after!

They exit.

Scene 3

Enter King and two or three.

KING

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;5

And, where ’tis so, th’ offender’s scourge is weighed,

But never the offense. To bear all smooth and even,

This sudden sending him away must seem

Deliberate pause. Diseases desperate grown

By desperate appliance are relieved10

Or not at all.

Enter Rosencrantz.

How now, what hath befallen?

ROSENCRANTZ

Where the dead body is bestowed, my lord,

We cannot get from him.

KING But where is he?15

ROSENCRANTZ

Without, my lord; guarded, to know your pleasure.

KING

Bring him before us.

ROSENCRANTZ Ho! Bring in the lord.

They enter with Hamlet.

KING Now, Hamlet, where’s Polonius?

HAMLET At supper.20

KING At supper where?

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 ourselves25

for maggots. Your fat king and your lean beggar is

but variable service—two dishes but to one table.

That’s the end.

KING Alas, alas!

HAMLET A man may fish with the worm that hath eat30

of a king and eat of the fish that hath fed of that

worm.

KING What dost thou mean by this?

HAMLET Nothing but to show you how a king may go a

progress through the guts of a beggar.35

KING Where is Polonius?

HAMLET In heaven. Send thither to see. If your messenger

find him not there, seek him i’ th’ other

place yourself. But if, indeed, you find him not

within this month, you shall nose him as you go up40

the stairs into the lobby.

KING, to Attendants. Go, seek him there.

HAMLET He will stay till you come.Attendants exit.

KING

Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safety

(Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve45

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,

Th’ associates tend, and everything is bent50

For England.

HAMLET For England?

KING Ay, Hamlet.

HAMLET Good.

KING

So is it, if thou knew’st our purposes.55

HAMLET

I see a cherub that sees them. But come, for

England.

Farewell, dear mother.

KING Thy loving father, Hamlet.

HAMLET

My mother. Father and mother is man and wife,60

Man and wife is one flesh, and so, my mother.—

Come, for England.He exits.

KING

Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed aboard.

Delay it not. I’ll have him hence tonight.

Away, for everything is sealed and done65

That else leans on th’ affair. Pray you, make haste.

All but the King exit.

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 awe70

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,75

And thou must cure me. Till I know ’tis done,

Howe’er my haps, my joys will ne’er begin.

He exits.

Scene 4

Enter Fortinbras with his army over the stage.

FORTINBRAS

Go, Captain, from me greet the Danish king.

Tell him that by his license Fortinbras

Craves the conveyance of a promised march

Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous.

If that his Majesty would aught with us,5

We shall express our duty in his eye;

And let him know so.

CAPTAIN I will do ’t, my lord.

FORTINBRAS Go softly on.All but the Captain exit.

Enter Hamlet, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and others.

HAMLET Good sir, whose powers are these?10

CAPTAIN They are of Norway, sir.

HAMLET How purposed, sir, I pray you?

CAPTAIN Against some part of Poland.

HAMLET Who commands them, sir?

CAPTAIN

The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras.15

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.20

To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it;

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 garrisoned.25

HAMLET

Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats

Will not debate the question of this straw.

This is th’ impostume of much wealth and peace,

That inward breaks and shows no cause without

Why the man dies.—I humbly thank you, sir.30

CAPTAIN God be wi’ you, sir.He exits.

ROSENCRANTZ Will ’t please you go, my lord?

HAMLET

I’ll be with you straight. Go a little before.

All but Hamlet exit.

How all occasions do inform against me

And spur my dull revenge. What is a man35

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 godlike reason40

To fust in us unused. Now whether it be

Bestial oblivion or some craven scruple

Of thinking too precisely on th’ event

(A thought which, quartered, hath but one part

wisdom45

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,50

Led by a delicate and tender prince,

Whose spirit with divine ambition puffed

Makes mouths at the invisible event,

Exposing what is mortal and unsure

To all that fortune, death, and danger dare,55

Even for an eggshell. Rightly to be great

Is not to stir without great argument,

But greatly to find quarrel in a straw

When honor’s at the stake. How stand I, then,

That have a father killed, a mother stained,60

Excitements of my reason and my blood,

And let all sleep, while to my shame I see

The imminent death of twenty thousand men

That for a fantasy and trick of fame

Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot65

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!

He exits.

Scene 5

Enter Horatio, Queen, and a Gentleman.

QUEEN I will not speak with her.

GENTLEMAN She is importunate,

Indeed distract; her mood will needs be pitied.

QUEEN What would she have?

GENTLEMAN

She speaks much of her father, says she hears5

There’s tricks i’ th’ 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 unshapèd use of it doth move10

The hearers to collection. They aim at it

And botch the words up fit to their own thoughts;

Which, as her winks and nods and gestures yield

them,

Indeed would make one think there might be15

thought,

Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily.

HORATIO

’Twere good she were spoken with, for she may

strew

Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds.20

QUEEN Let her come in.Gentleman exits.

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.25

Enter Ophelia distracted.

OPHELIA

Where is the beauteous Majesty of Denmark?

QUEEN How now, Ophelia?

OPHELIA sings

How should I your true love know

From another one?

By his cockle hat and staff30

And his sandal shoon.

QUEEN

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;35

At his head a grass-green turf,

At his heels a stone.

Oh, ho!

QUEEN Nay, but Ophelia—

OPHELIA Pray you, mark.40

Sings.White his shroud as the mountain snow—

Enter King.

QUEEN Alas, look here, my lord.

OPHELIA sings

Larded all with sweet flowers;

Which bewept to the ground did not go

With true-love showers.45

KING How do you, pretty lady?

OPHELIA Well, God dild 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 Conceit upon her father.50

OPHELIA Pray let’s have no words of this, but when

they ask you what it means, say you this:

Sings.Tomorrow is Saint Valentine’s day,

All in the morning betime,

And I a maid at your window,55

To be your Valentine.

Then up he rose and donned his clothes

And dupped the chamber door,

Let in the maid, that out a maid

Never departed more.60

KING Pretty Ophelia—

OPHELIA

Indeed, 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;65

By Cock, they are to blame.

Quoth she “Before you tumbled me,

You promised me to wed.”

He answers:

“So would I ’a done, by yonder sun,70

An thou hadst not come to my bed.”

KING 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 would

lay him i’ th’ cold ground. My brother shall know of75

it. And so I thank you for your good counsel. Come,

my coach! Good night, ladies, good night, sweet

ladies, good night, good night.She exits.

KING

Follow her close; give her good watch, I pray you.

Horatio exits.

O, this is the poison of deep grief. It springs80

All from her father’s death, and now behold!

O Gertrude, Gertrude,

When sorrows come, they come not single spies,

But in battalions: first, her father slain;

Next, your son gone, and he most violent author85

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

greenly90

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,

Her brother is in secret come from France,95

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 beggared,

Will nothing stick our person to arraign100

In ear and ear. O, my dear Gertrude, this,

Like to a murd’ring piece, in many places

Gives me superfluous death.

A noise within.

QUEEN Alack, what noise is this?

KING Attend!105

Where is my Switzers? Let them guard the door.

Enter a Messenger.

What is the matter?

MESSENGER Save yourself, my lord.

The ocean, overpeering of his list,

Eats not the flats with more impiteous haste110

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,115

They cry “Choose we, Laertes shall be king!”

Caps, hands, and tongues applaud it to the clouds,

“Laertes shall be king! Laertes king!”

A noise within.

QUEEN

How cheerfully on the false trail they cry.

O, this is counter, you false Danish dogs!120

KING The doors are broke.

Enter Laertes with others.

LAERTES

Where is this king?—Sirs, stand you all without.

ALL No, let’s come in!

LAERTES I pray you, give me leave.

ALL We will, we will.125

LAERTES

I thank you. Keep the door. Followers exit. O, thou

vile king,

Give me my father!

QUEEN Calmly, good Laertes.

LAERTES

That drop of blood that’s calm proclaims me130

bastard,

Cries “cuckold” to my father, brands the harlot

Even here between the chaste unsmirchèd brow

Of my true mother.

KING What is the cause, Laertes,135

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,140

Why thou art thus incensed.—Let him go,

Gertrude.—

Speak, man.

LAERTES Where is my father?

KING Dead.145

QUEEN

But not by him.

KING Let him demand his fill.

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!150

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 Who shall stay you?155

LAERTES My will, not all the world.

And for my means, I’ll husband them so well

They shall go far with little.

KING Good Laertes,

If you desire to know the certainty160

Of your dear father, is ’t writ in your revenge

That, swoopstake, you will draw both friend and

foe,

Winner and loser?

LAERTES None but his enemies.165

KING Will you know them, then?

LAERTES

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 speak170

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 ’pear

As day does to your eye.175

A noise within: “Let her come in!”

LAERTES How now, what noise is that?

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 with weight180

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,185

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 rained many a tear.190

Fare you well, my dove.

LAERTES

Hadst thou thy wits and didst persuade revenge,

It could not move thus.

OPHELIA You must sing “A-down a-down”—and you

“Call him a-down-a.”—O, how the wheel becomes195

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 you, love, remember. And there is pansies,200

that’s for thoughts.

LAERTES A document in madness: thoughts and remembrance

fitted.

OPHELIA There’s fennel for you, and columbines.

There’s rue for you, and here’s some for me; we205

may call it herb of grace o’ Sundays. 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.210

LAERTES

Thought and afflictions, passion, hell itself

She turns to favor and to prettiness.

OPHELIA sings

And will he not come again?

And will he not come again?

No, no, he is dead.215

Go to thy deathbed.

He never will come again.

His beard was as white as snow,

All flaxen was his poll.

He is gone, he is gone,220

And we cast away moan.

God ’a mercy on his soul.

And of all Christians’ souls, I pray God. God be wi’

you.She exits.

LAERTES Do you see this, O God?225

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,

And they shall hear and judge ’twixt you and me.

If by direct or by collateral hand230

They find us touched, 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 soul235

To give it due content.

LAERTES 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)240

Cry to be heard, as ’twere from heaven to earth,

That I must call ’t in question.

KING So you shall,

And where th’ offense is, let the great ax fall.

I pray you, go with me.245

They exit.

Scene 6

Enter Horatio and others.

HORATIO What are they that would speak with me?

GENTLEMAN Seafaring men, sir. They say they have

letters for you.

HORATIO Let them come in. Gentleman exits. I do not

know from what part of the world I should be5

greeted, if not from Lord Hamlet.

Enter Sailors.

SAILOR God bless you, sir.

HORATIO Let Him bless thee too.

SAILOR He shall, sir, an ’t please Him. There’s a letter

for you, sir. It came from th’ ambassador that was10

bound for England—if your name be Horatio, as I

am let to know it is.He hands Horatio a letter.

HORATIO reads the letter Horatio, when thou shalt have

overlooked this, give these fellows some means to the

King. They have letters for him. Ere we were two days15

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 like20

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 speed

as thou wouldst fly death. I have words to speak in

thine ear will make thee dumb; yet are they much too25

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,30

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.

They exit.

Scene 7

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

Pursued my life.5

LAERTES It well appears. But tell me

Why you proceeded not against these feats,

So criminal and so capital in nature,

As by your safety, greatness, wisdom, all things else,

You mainly were stirred up.10

KING O, for two special reasons,

Which may to you perhaps seem much unsinewed,

But yet to me they’re strong. The Queen his mother

Lives almost by his looks, and for myself

(My virtue or my plague, be it either which),15

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,20

Who, dipping all his faults in their affection,

Work like the spring that turneth wood to stone,

Convert his gyves to graces, so that my arrows,

Too slightly timbered for so loud a wind,

Would have reverted to my bow again,25

But not where I have aimed them.

LAERTES

And so have I a noble father lost,

A sister driven into desp’rate terms,

Whose worth, if praises may go back again,

Stood challenger on mount of all the age30

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.35

I loved your father, and we love ourself,

And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine—

Enter a Messenger with letters.

How now? What news?

MESSENGER Letters, my lord, from

Hamlet.40

These to your Majesty, this to the Queen.

KING From Hamlet? Who brought them?

MESSENGER

Sailors, my lord, they say. I saw them not.

They were given me by Claudio. He received them

Of him that brought them.45

KING Laertes, you shall hear

them.—

Leave us.Messenger exits.

Reads. High and mighty, you shall know I am set

naked on your kingdom. Tomorrow shall I beg leave to50

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?55

LAERTES Know you the hand?

KING ’Tis Hamlet’s character. “Naked”—

And in a postscript here, he says “alone.”

Can you advise me?

LAERTES

I am lost in it, my lord. But let him come.60

It warms the very sickness in my heart

That I shall live and tell him to his teeth

“Thus didst thou.”

KING If it be so, Laertes

(As how should it be so? how otherwise?),65

Will you be ruled by me?

LAERTES Ay, my lord,

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

KING

To thine own peace. If he be now returned,

As checking at his voyage, and that he means70

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 practice75

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 It falls right.80

You have been talked 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,85

Of the unworthiest siege.

LAERTES What part is that, my lord?

KING

A very ribbon in the cap of youth—

Yet needful too, for youth no less becomes

The light and careless livery that it wears90

Than settled age his sables and his weeds,

Importing health and graveness. Two months since

Here was a gentleman of Normandy.

I have seen myself, and served against, the French,

And they can well on horseback, but this gallant95

Had witchcraft in ’t. He grew unto his seat,

And to such wondrous doing brought his horse

As had he been encorpsed and demi-natured

With the brave beast. So far he topped my thought

That I in forgery of shapes and tricks100

Come short of what he did.

LAERTES A Norman was ’t?

KING A Norman.

LAERTES

Upon my life, Lamord.

KING The very same.105

LAERTES

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 defense,110

And for your rapier most especial,

That he cried out ’twould be a sight indeed

If one could match you. The ’scrimers of their

nation

He swore had neither motion, guard, nor eye,115

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 you.

Now out of this—120

LAERTES What out of this, my lord?

KING

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?125

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.

There lives within the very flame of love130

A kind of wick or snuff that will abate it,

And nothing is at a like goodness still;

For goodness, growing to a pleurisy,

Dies in his own too-much. That we would do

We should do when we would; for this “would”135

changes

And hath abatements and delays as many

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 of th’ ulcer:140

Hamlet comes back; what would you undertake

To show yourself indeed your father’s son

More than in words?

LAERTES To cut his throat i’ th’ church.

KING

No place indeed should murder sanctuarize;145

Revenge should have no bounds. But, good Laertes,

Will you do this? Keep close within your chamber.

Hamlet, returned, shall know you are come home.

We’ll put on those shall praise your excellence

And set a double varnish on the fame150

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,155

Or with a little shuffling, you may choose

A sword unbated, and in a pass of practice

Requite him for your father.

LAERTES I will do ’t,

And for that purpose I’ll anoint my sword.160

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 death165

That is but scratched 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 means170

May fit us to our shape. If this should fail,

And that our drift look through our bad

performance,

’Twere better not assayed. Therefore this project

Should have a back or second that might hold175

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)180

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 venomed stuck,

Our purpose may hold there.—But stay, what185

noise?

Enter Queen.

QUEEN

One woe doth tread upon another’s heel,

So fast they follow. Your sister’s drowned, Laertes.

LAERTES Drowned? O, where?

QUEEN

There is a willow grows askant the brook190

That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream.

Therewith fantastic garlands did she make

Of crowflowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples,

That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,

But our cold maids do “dead men’s fingers” call195

them.

There on the pendant boughs her coronet weeds

Clamb’ring to hang, an envious sliver broke,

When down her weedy trophies and herself

Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide,200

And mermaid-like awhile they bore her up,

Which time she chanted snatches of old lauds,

As one incapable of her own distress

Or like a creature native and endued

Unto that element. But long it could not be205

Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,

Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay

To muddy death.

LAERTES Alas, then she is drowned.

QUEEN Drowned, drowned.210

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.215

I have a speech o’ fire that fain would blaze,

But that this folly drowns it.He exits.

KING Let’s follow, Gertrude.

How much I had to do to calm his rage!

Now fear I this will give it start again.220

Therefore, let’s follow.

They exit.