And of all christian souls! I pray God. God be wi' you! [Exit OPHELIA. Laer. Do you see this, O God? King. Laertes, I must commune with your grief, Or you deny me right. Go but apart, They find us touch'd, we will our kingdom give, Be you content to lend your patience to us, Laer. 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, Cry to be heard, as 't were from heaven to earth, King. So you shall; And, where th' offence is, let the great axe fall. [Exeunt. SCENE VI. Another Room in the Same. Enter HORATIO, and a Servant. Hor. What are they, that would speak with me? - 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. [Exit Servant. 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." [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, Laer. 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, King. O! for two special reasons, Which may to you, perhaps, seem much unsinew'd, That, as the star moves not but in his sphere, Laer. And so have I a noble father lost, Stood challenger on mount of all the age 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 that, I hope, will teach you to imagine,· Mess. Enter a Messenger. -- Letters, my lord, from Hamlet. This to your majesty: this to the queen. King. From Hamlet! who brought them? Mess. Sailors, my lord, they say; I saw them not: They were given me by Claudio, he receiv'd them Of him that brought them. King. Leave us. Laertes, you shall hear them. – [Exit Messenger. [Reads.] "High and mighty, you shall know, I am set naked on your kingdom. To-morrow shall I beg leave to see your kingly eyes; when I shall, first asking your pardon thereunto, recount the occasions of my sudden and more strange return. What should this mean? Are all the rest come back? Laer. Know you the hand? King. HAMLET." "T is Hamlet's character. "Naked," And, in a postscript here, he says, "alone:" Can you advise me? Laer. I'm lost in it, my lord. But let him come : It warms the very sickness in my heart, That I shall live and tell him to his teeth, "Thus diddest thou." King. To thine own peace. If he be now return'd, you will not o'er-rule me to a peace. As liking not his voyage, and that he means 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, You have been talk'd of since your travel much, Wherein, they say, you shine: your sum of parts As did that one; and that, in my regard, 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 since, Here was a gentleman of Normandy, I have seen myself, and serv'd against the French, Come short of what he did. Laer. King. A Norman. Laer. Upon my life, A Norman, was 't? Lamord. The very same. |