The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works
Page 231
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.Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Come, Gertrude, we’ll call up our wisest friends
To let them know both what we mean to do
And what’s untimely done. O, come away!
My soul is full of discord and dismay.
Exeunt
4.2 Enter Prince Hamlet
HAMLET Safely stowed.
ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN (within)
Hamlet, Lord Hamlet!
HAMLET
What noise? Who calls on Hamlet?
Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
O, here they come.
ROSENCRANTZ
What have you done, my lord, with the dead body?
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?
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, 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, you 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 the 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, and all after.
Exit running, pursued by the others
4.3 Enter King Claudius
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 judgement but their eyes,
And where ‘tis so, th’offender’s scourge is weighed,
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,
Or not at all.
Enter Rosencrantz
How now, what hath befall’n?
ROSENCRANTZ
Where the dead body is bestowed, 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 Prince Hamlet and Guildenstern
KING CLAUDIUS
Now, Hamlet, where’s Polonius?
HAMLET At supper.
KING CLAUDIUS At supper? Where?
HAMLET Not where he eats, but where a 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 eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.
KING CLAUDIUS 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. 31
KING CLAUDIUS 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 indeed, if you find him not this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby. 36
KING CLAUDIUS ⌈to Rosencrantz⌉ Go seek him there.
HAMLET ⌈to Rosencrantz⌉ A will stay till ye come.
Exit ⌈Rosencrantz⌉
KING CLAUDIUS
Hamlet, this deed of thine, for thine especial safety—
Which we do tender as we dearly grieve
For that which thou hast done—must send thee hence
With fiery quickness. Therefore prepare thyself.
The barque is ready, and the wind at help,
Th’associates tend, and everything 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.
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 ⌈to Guildenstern⌉
Follow him at foot. Tempt him with speed aboard. 56
Delay it not. I’ll have him hence tonight.
Away, for everything is sealed and done
That else leans on th’affair. Pray you, make haste.
Exit ⌈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
Pays homage to us—thou mayst not coldly set
Our sovereign process, which imports at full,
By letters conjuring 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
4.4 Enter Fortinbras with an army over the stage
FORTINBRAS
Go, captain, from me greet the Danish king.
Tell him that by his licence Fortinbras
Claims 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.
⌈Exit⌉
FORTINBRAS Go safely on.
Exeunt marching
4.5 Enter Queen Gertrude and Horatio
QUEEN GERTRUDE
I will not speak with her.
HORATIO
She is importunate,
Indeed distraught. Her mood will needs be pitied.
QUEEN GERTRUDE What would she have?
HORATIO
She speaks much of her father, says she hears
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 move
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 be thought,
Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
’Twere good she were spoken with,
for she may strew
Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds.
Let her come in.⌈Horatio withdraws to admit Ophelia⌉
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.
Enter Ophelia mad, ⌈her hair down, with a lute⌉
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.
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—not—go
With true-love showers.
KING CLAUDIUS How do ye, pretty lady?
OPHELIA Well, God’ield 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 (to Gertrude) 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)
Tomorrow is Saint Valentine’s day,
All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window
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.
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 ‘a’ done, by yonder sun,
An thou hadst not come to my bed.
KING CLAUDIUS (to Gertrude) 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’th’ 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 (to Horatio)
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,
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 judgement,
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,
Feeds on this 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 persons to arraign
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 GERTRUDE
Alack, what noise is this?
KING CLAUDIUS
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 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,
‘Laertes shall be king, Laertes king.’
QUEEN GERTRUDE
How cheerfully on the false trail they cry!
A noise within
O, this is counter, you false Danish dogs!
KING CLAUDIUS The doors are broke.
Enter Laertes ⌈with his followers at the door⌉
LAERTES
Where is the King?—Sirs, stand you all without.
ALL HIS FOLLOWERS No, let’s come in.
LAERTES I pray you, give me leave.
ALL HIS FOLLOWERS We will, we will.
LAERTES
I thank you. Keep the door.
⌈exeunt followers⌉
O thou vile king,
Give me my father.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Calmly, good Laertes.
LAERTES
That drop of blood that’s calm proclaims me bastard,
Cries cuckold to my father, brands the harlot
Even here between the chaste unsmirchèd 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 (to Laertes)
But not by him.
KING CLAUDIUS
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!
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 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
Of your dear father’s death, is’t writ in your revenge
That, sweepstake, 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-rend’ring 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,
And am most sensibly in grief for it,
It shall as level to your judgement pierce
As day does to your eye.
A noise within
VOICES (within) Let her come in.
LAERTES How now, what noise is that?
Enter Ophelia as before
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 turns 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
It sends some precious instance of itself
After the thing it loves.
OPHELIA (sings)
They bore him barefaced on the bier,
Hey non nony, nony, hey nony,
And on his grave rained many a tear—
Fare you well, my dove.
LAERTES
Hadst thou thy wits and didst persuade revenge,
It could not move thus.
OPHELIA You must sing ‘Down, a-down’, and 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.
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 a 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 a not come again,
And will a not come again?