80 For remembrance: I pray, love, remember.
And there’s pansy for thoughts.
Leartes. A document in madness, thoughts, remembrance:
O God, O God!
Ofelia. There is fennel for you, I would ’a given you
Some violets, but they all withered, when
My father died: alas, they say the owl was
A baker’s daughter, we see what we are,
But cannot tell what we shall be.
For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy.
90 Leartes. Thoughts and afflictions, torments worse than hell!
Ofelia. Nay love, I pray you make no words of this now:
I pray now, you shall sing ‘a-down’,
And you ‘a-down-a’, ’tis o’the king’s daughter
And the false steward, and if anybody
Ask you of anything, say you this:
Tomorrow is Saint Valentine’s day,
All in the morning betime,
And a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine:
100 The young man rose, and donned his clothes,
And dupped the chamber door,
Let in the maid, that out a maid,
Never departed more.
Nay I pray mark now,
By Gis and by Saint Charity,
Away, and fie for shame:
Young men will do’t when they come to’t:
By cock they are to blame.
Quoth she, ‘before you tumbled me,
110 You promised me to wed’.
So would I a’ done, by yonder sun,
If thou hadst not come to my bed.
So God be with you all, God be with you, ladies.
God be with you love. Exit Ofelia.
Leartes. Grief upon grief: my father murdered,
My sister thus distracted.
Cursed be his soul that hath wrought this wicked act.
King. Content you, good leartes, for a time,
Although I know your grief is as a flood,
Brimful of sorrow, but forbear a while,
And think already the revenge is done
120 On him that makes you such a hapless son.
Leartes. You have prevailed my lord. Awhile I’ll strive,
To bury grief within a tomb of wrath
Which once unhearsed, then the world shall hear
Leartes had a father he held dear.
King. No more of that, ere many days be done,
You shall hear that you do not dream upon.
Exeunt omnes.
[Scene 14]
Enter Horatio and the Queen.
Horatio. Madam, your son is safe arrived in Denmark,
This letter I even now received of him,
Whereas he writes how he escaped the danger
And subtle treason that the king had plotted.
Being crossed by the contention of the winds,
He found the packet sent to the king of England,
Wherein he saw himself betrayed to death.
As at his next conversion with your grace,
He will relate the circumstance at full.
10 Queen. Then I perceive there’s treason in his looks
That seeemed to sugar o’er his villainy.
But I will soothe and please him for a time,
But murderous minds are always jealous.
But know not you, Horatio, where he is?
Horatio. Yes madam, and he hath appointed me
To meet him on the east side of the city
Tomorrow morning.
Queen. O fail not, good Horatio, and withal, commend me
A mother’s care to him, bid him a while
20 Be wary of his presence, lest that he
Fail in that he goes about.
Horatio. Madam, never make doubt of that:
I think by this the news be come to court:
He is arrived, observe the king, and you shall
Quickly find, Hamlet being here,
Things fell not to his mind.
Queen. But what became of Gilderstone and Rossencraft?
Horatio. He being set ashore, they set for England,
And in the packet there writ down that doom
30 To be performed on them ’pointed for him.
And by great chance he had his father’s seal,
So all was done without discovery.
Queen. Thanks be to heaven for blessing of the prince.
Horatio once again I take my leave,
With thousand mother’s blessings to my son.
Horatio. Madam, adieu.
[Scene 15]
Enter King and leartes.
King. Hamlet from England! Is it possible?
What chance is this? they are gone, and he come home.
Leartes. O he is welcome, by my soul he is.
At it my jocund heart doth leap for joy,
That I shall live to tell him, thus he dies.
King. leartes, content yourself: be ruled by me,
And you shall have no let for your revenge.
Leartes. My will, not all the world.
King. Nay, but leartes, mark the plot I have laid.
10 I have heard him often with a greedy wish,
Upon some praise that he hath heard of you
Touching your weapon, which with all his heart,
He might be once tasked for to try your cunning.
Leartes. And how for this?
King. Marry, leartes, thus: I’ll lay a wager –
Shall be on Hamlet’s side, and you shall give the odds –
The which will draw him with a more desire,
To try the master: that in twelve venies
You gain not three of him. Now this being granted,
20 When you are hot in midst of all your play,
Among the foils shall a keen rapier lie,
Steeped in a mixture of deadly poison,
That if it draws but the least dram of blood,
In any part of him, he cannot live.
This being done will free you from suspicion,
And not the dearest friend that Hamlet loved
Will ever have leartes in suspect.
Leartes. My lord, I like it well.
But say lord Hamlet should refuse this match?
30 King. I’ll warrant you, we’ll put on you
Such a report of singularity,
Will bring him on, although against his will.
And lest all that should miss,
I’ll have a potion that shall ready stand,
In all his heat when he that calls for drink,
Shall be his period and our happiness.
Leartes. ’Tis excellent, O, would the time were come!
Here comes the queen. Enter the Queen.
King. How now Gertred, why look you heavily?
40 Queen. O my lord, the young Ofelia
Having made a garland of sundry sorts of flowers,
Sitting upon a willow by a brook,
The envious sprig broke, into the brook she fell.
And for a while her clothes spread wide abroad,
Bore the young lady up: and there she sat smiling,
Even mermaid-like, ’twixt heaven and earth,
Chanting old sundry tunes uncapable
As it were of her distress. But long it could not be
Till that her clothes, being heavy with their drink,
50 Dragged the sweet wretch to death.
Leartes. So, she is drowned.
Too much of water has thou, Ofelia,
Therefore I will not drown thee in my tears.
Revenge it is must yield this heart relief,
For woe begets woe, and grief hangs on grief. Exeunt.
[Scene 16]
Enter [1] Clown and an other [2 Clown].
1 Clown. I say no, she ought not to be buried
In Christian burial.
2 Clown. Why sir?
1 Clown. Marry, because she’s drowned.
2 Clown. But she did not drown herself.
1 Clown. No, that’s certain, the water drowned her.
2 Clown. Yea but it was against her will.
1 Clown. No, I deny that, for look you sir: I stand here,
If the water comes to me, I drown not myself,
10 But if I go to the water, and am there drowned,
Ergo I am guilty of my own death.
Y’are gone, go y’are gone sir.
2 Clown. I but see, she hath Christian burial,
Because she is a great woman.
1 Clown. Marry more’s the pity, that great folk
Should have more authority to hang or drown
Themselves, more than other people.
Go fetch me a stoup of drink, but before thou
Goest, tell me one thing. Who builds strongest,
20 Of a mason, a shipwright, or a carpenter?
2 Clown. Why a mason, for he builds all of stone,
And will endure long.
1 Clown. That’s pretty. To’t again, to’t again.
2 Clown. Why then a carpenter, for he builds the gallows,
And that brings many a one to his long home.
1 Clown. Pretty again, the gallows doth well, marry how does it well? the gallows does well to them that do ill, go get thee gone:
And if anyone asks thee hereafter, say,
30 A grave-maker, for the houses he builds
Last till doomsday. Fetch me a stoup of beer, go.
Enter Hamlet and Horatio.
A pick-axe and a spade,
A spade for and a winding sheet,
Most fit it is, for t’will be made, He throws up a shovel.
For such a guest most meet.
Hamlet. Hath this fellow any feeling of himself,
That is this merry in making of a grave?
See how the slave jowls their heads against the earth.
Horatio. My lord, custom hath made it in him seem nothing.
40 1 Clown. A pick-axe and a spade, a spade,
For and a winding sheet,
Most fit it is for to be made,
For such a guest most meet.
Hamlet. look you, there’s another Horatio.
Why may’t not be the skull of some lawyer?
Methinks he should indict that fellow
Of an action of battery, for knocking
Him about the pate with a shovel: now where is your
Quirks and quillets now, your vouchers and
50 Double vouchers, your leases and freehold,
And tenement? Why that same box there will scarce
Hold the conveyance of his land, and must
The honour lie there? O pitiful transformance!
I prithee tell me, Horatio,
Is parchment made of sheepskins?
Horatio. Ay, my lord, and of calfskins too.
Hamlet. I’faith, they prove themselves sheep and calves
That deal with them, or put their trust in them.
There’s another, why may not that be such a one’s
60 Skull, that praised my lord such a one’s horse,
When he meant to beg him? Horatio, I prithee
Let’s question yonder fellow.
Now my friend, whose grave is this?
1 Clown. Mine sir.
Hamlet. But who must lie in it?
1 Clown. If I should say, I should, I should lie in my throat sir.
Hamlet. What man must be buried here?
1 Clown. No man sir.
Hamlet. What woman?
70 1 Clown. No woman neither sir, but indeed
One that was a woman.
Hamlet. An excellent fellow, by the lord, Horatio.
This seven years have I noted it: the toe of the peasant
Comes so near the heel of the courtier,
That he galls his kibe. I prithee, tell me one thing:
How long will a man lie in the ground before he rots?
1 Clown. I’faith sir, if he be not rotten before
He will be laid in, as we have many pocky corpses,
He will last you, eight years, a tanner
80 Will last you eight years full out, or nine.
Hamlet. And why a tanner?
1 Clown Why his hide is so tanned with his trade,
That it will hold out water, that’s a parlous
Devourer of your dead body, a great soaker.
Look you, here’s a skull hath been here this dozen year,
Let me see, ay ever since our last king Hamlet
Slew Fortenbrasse in combat, young Hamlet’s father,
He that’s mad.
Hamlet. Ay marry, how came he mad?
90 1 Clown. I’faith, very strangely, by losing of his wits.
Hamlet. Upon what ground?
1 Clown. A’ this ground, in Denmark.
Hamlet. Where is he now?
1 Clown. Why now they sent him to England.
Hamlet. To England! Wherefore?
1 Clown. Why they say he shall have his wits there,
Or if he have not, ’tis no great matter there,
It will not be seen there.
Hamlet. Why not there?
100 1 Clown. Why there they say the men are as mad as he.
Hamlet. Whose skull was this?
1 Clown. This, a plague on him, a mad rogue’s it was,
He poured once a whole flagon of Rhenish of my head,
Why, do not you know him? this was one Yorick’s skull.
110 Hamlet. Was this? I prithee let me see it, alas, poor Yorick, I knew him, Horatio. A fellow of infinite mirth, he hath carried me twenty times upon his back. Here hung those lips that I have kissed a hundred times, and to see, now they abhor me: where’s your jests now, Yorick? your flashes of merriment? Now go to my lady’s chamber, and bid her paint herself an inch thick, to this she must come, Yorick. Horatio, I prithee tell me one thing, dost thou think that Alexander looked thus?
Horatio. Even so, my lord.
Hamlet. And smelt thus?
Horatio. Ay, my lord, no otherwise.
120 Hamlet. No, why might not imagination work, as thus of Alexander. Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander became earth, of earth we make clay, and Alexander being but clay, why might not time bring to pass, that he might stop the bunghole of a beer barrel?
Imperious Caesar dead and turned to clay,
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away.
Enter King and Queen, leartes, and other lords, with a Priest after the coffin.
What funeral’s this, that all the court lament?
It shows to be some noble parentage.
Stand by a while.
Leartes. What ceremony else? say, what ceremony else?
Priest. My lord, we have done all that lies in us,
And more than well the church can tolerate.
130 She hath a dirge sung for her maiden soul:
And but for favour of the king, and you,
She had been buried in the open fields,
Where now she is allowed Christian burial.
Leartes. So, I tell thee churlish priest, a ministering angel shall my sister be, when thou liest howling.
Hamlet. The fair Ofelia dead!
Queen. Sweets to the sweet, farewell:
I had thought to adorn thy bridal bed, fair maid,
And not to follow thee unto thy grave.
140 Leartes. Forbear the earth a while: sister, farewell:
Leartes leaps into the grave.
Now pour your earth on, Olympus high,
And make a hill to o’ertop Pelion:
Hamlet leaps in after leartes.
What’s he that conjures so?
Hamlet. Behold ’tis I, Hamlet the Dane.
Leartes. The devil take thy soul.
Hamlet. O thou prayest not well.
I prithee take thy hand from off my throat,
For there is something in me dangerous,
Why let thy wisdom fear. Hold o
ff thy hand!
150 I loved Ofelia as dear as twenty brothers could.
Show me what thou wilt do for her:
Wilt fight? wilt fast? wilt pray?
Wilt drink up vessels? eat a crocodile? I’ll do’t.
Com’st thou here to whine?
And where thou talk’st of burying thee alive,
Here let us stand: and let them throw on us.
Whole hills of earth, till with the heighth thereof,
Make Ossa as a wart.
King. Forbear leartes; now is he mad, as is the sea,
160 Anon as mild and gentle as a dove:
Therefore a while give his wild humour scope.
Hamlet. What is the reason sir that you wrong me thus?
I never gave you cause: but stand away,
A cat will mew, a dog will have a day.
Exit Hamlet and Horatio.
Queen. Alas, it is his madness makes him thus,
And not his heart, leartes.
King. My lord, ’tis so: but we’ll no longer trifle.
This very day shall Hamlet drink his last,
For presently we mean to send to him.
170 Therefore leartes be in readiness.
Leartes. My lord, till then my soul will not be quiet.
King. Come Gertred, we’ll have leartes, and our son
Made friends and lovers, as befits them both,
Even as they tender us, and love their country.
Queen. God grant they may. Exeunt omnes.
[Scene 17]
Enter Hamlet and Horatio.
Hamlet. Believe me, it grieves me much, Horatio,
That to leartes I forgot myself:
For by myself methinks I feel his grief,
Though there’s a difference in each other’s wrong.
Enter a Braggart Gentleman.
Horatio, but mark yon water-fly,
The Court knows him, but he knows not the court.
Gentleman. Now God save thee, sweet Prince Hamlet.
Hamlet. And you sir: foh, how the musk-cod smells!
Gentleman. I come with an embassage from his majesty to you.
10 Hamlet. I shall give you attention:
By my troth methinks it is very cold.
Gentleman. It is indeed very rawish cold.
Hamlet. ’Tis hot methinks.
Gentleman. Very sweltery hot:
The king, sweet prince, hath laid a wager on your side,
Six Barbary horse, against six French rapiers,
With all their accoutrements too, o’the carriages:
In good faith they are very curiously wrought.
Hamlet. The carriages sir, I do not know what you mean.
20 Gentleman. The girdles, and hangers sir, and such like.
Hamlet. The word hath been more cousin-german to the phrase, if he could have carried the cannon by his side.
Five Revenge Tragedies: The Spanish Tragedy, Hamlet, Antonio's Revenge, The Tragedy of Hoffman, The Revenger's Tragedy (Penguin Classics) Page 17
