Laer.

Ham.

As to peace-parted souls.

Lay her i' the earth: 250
And from her fair and unpolluted flesh

May violets spring! I tell thee, churlish priest,
A ministering angel shall my sister be,

When thou liest howling.

What, the fair Ophelia!

Queen. [Scattering flowers] Sweets to the sweet: fare

well!

I hoped thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife;
I thought thy bride-bed to have deck'd, sweet maid,
And not have strew'd thy grave.

260

Laer.
O, treble woe
Fall ten times treble on that cursed head
Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense
Deprived thee of! Hold off the earth a while,
Till I have caught her once more in mine arms:
[Leaps into the grave.

Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead,
Till of this flat a mountain you have made
To o'ertop old Pelion or the skyish head
Of blue Olympus.

Ham. [Advancing] What is he whose grief

Bears such an emphasis? whose phrase of sorrow
Conjures the wandering stars and makes them stand.
Like wonder-wounded hearers? This is I,

Hamlet the Dane.

Laer. The devil take thy soul!

Ham.

[Leaps into the grave. 270

[Grappling with him.

Thou pray'st not well.

I prithee, take thy fingers from my throat;
For, though I am not splenitive and rash,
Yet have I in me something dangerous,

Which let thy wisdom fear. Hold off thy hand.

Ham. Why, I will fight with him upon this theme
Until my eyelids will no longer wag.

Queen. O my son, what theme?

Ham. I loved Ophelia: forty thousand brothers
Could not, with all their quantity of love,

Make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her?

King. O, he is mad, Laertes.

Queen. For love of God, forbear him.

Ham. 'Swounds, show me what thou 'lt do:

280

Woo't weep? woo't fight? woo't fast? woo 't tear thyself?

Woo 't drink up eisel? eat a crocodile?

I'll do 't. Dost thou come here to whine?

To outface me with leaping in her grave?

Be buried quick with her, and so will I:
And, if thou prate of mountains, let them throw
Millions of acres on us, till our ground,

Singeing his pate against the burning zone,

290

I'll rant as well as thou.

Make Ossa like a wart!

Nay, an thou 'lt mouth,

This is mere madness:

Queen.

And thus a while the fit will work on him;
Anon, as patient as the female dove

When that her golden couplets are disclosed,
His silence will sit drooping.

Ham.

Hear you, sir;

300

What is the reason that you use me thus?

I loved you ever: but it is no matter;

Let Hercules himself do what he may,

The cat will mew, and dog will have his day. [Exit. King. I pray thee, good Horatio, wait upon him.

[Exit Horatio. [To Laertes] Strengthen your patience in our last night's speech;

We'll put the matter to the present push.

Good Gertrude, set some watch over your son.
This grave shall have a living monument:

An hour of quiet shortly shall we see;

310

Till then, in patience our proceeding be. [Exeunt.

Scene II.

A hall in the castle.

Enter Hamlet and Horatio.

Ham. So much for this, sir: now shall you see the other; You do remember all the circumstance?

Hor. Remember it, my lord!

Ham. Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting,
That would not let me sleep: methought I lay
Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly,
And praised be rashness for it, let us know,
Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well

Hor.

When our deep plots do pall; and that should learn

us

There's a divinity that shapes our ends,

Rough-hew them how we will.

Ham. Up from my cabin,

That is most certain.

My sea-gown scarf'd about me, in the dark

IO