QUEEN. (Scattering flowers.)

Sweets to the sweet: farewell!

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.

LAERTES.

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.

HAMLET.

What is he whose grief

(Advancing.)

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.

LAERTES.

The devil take thy soul. (Grappling with him.)

HAMLET.

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.

Pluck them asunder.

KING.

Good my lord, be quiet.

(The Attendants part them, and they come out of the grave.)

HAMLET.

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

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

Make up my sum.

What wilt thou do for her?

'Swounds, show me what thou 'lt do:

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

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,
Make Ossa like a wart! Nay, and thou 'lt mouth,
I'll rant as well as thou.

QUEEN.

This is mere madness:

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.

HAMLET.

Hear you, sir;

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.

KING.

I pray thee, good Horatio, wait upon him.

(Exit.)

(Exit HORATIO.) (To LAERTES) Strengthen your patience in our last night's speech;

We'll put the matter to the present push.
This grave shall have a living monument:
An hour of quiet shortly shall we see ;
Till then, in patience our proceeding be.

(Exeunt.)

[A hall in the castle. HAMLET and HORATIO enter.]

HAMLET.

BUT I am very sorry, good Horatio,
That to Laertes I forgot myself;
For, by the image of my cause, I see

The portraiture of his: I'll court his favours:
But, sure, the bravery of his grief did put me
Into a towering passion.

HORATIO.

Peace! who comes here?

Enter OSRIC.

OSRIC.

Your lordship is right welcome back to Denmark.

HAMLET.

I humbly thank you, sir. Dost know this water

Thy state is the more gracious, for 'tis a vice to know him.

OSRIC.

Sweet lord, if your lordship were at leisure, I should impart a thing to you from his majesty.

HAMLET.

I will receive it, sir, with all diligence of spirit. Put your bonnet to his right use; 'tis for

the head.