Queen. I will not speak with her.
Gent. She is importunate, indeed distract:[1666][1667]
Her mood will needs be pitied.[1667]
Queen. What would she have?
Gent. She speaks much of her father, says she hears[1666]
There's tricks i' the world, and hems and beats her heart, 5
Spurns enviously at straws; speaks things in doubt,
That carry but half sense: her speech is nothing,
Yet the unshaped use of it doth move
The hearers to collection; they aim at it,[1668]
And botch the words up fit to their own thoughts;[1669] 10
Which, as her winks and nods and gestures yield them,[1670]
Indeed would make one think there might be thought,[1671]
Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily.
Hor. 'Twere good she were spoken with, for she may strew[1672]
Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds.[1672] 15
Re-enter Gentleman, with Ophelia.
Oph. Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark?
Queen. How now, Ophelia![1678]
Queen. Alas, sweet lady, what imports this song?
Queen. Nay, but, Ophelia,—
Oph. Pray you, mark.
[Sings] White his shroud as the mountain snow,—
Enter King.[1688]
Queen. Alas, look here, my lord. 35
Oph. [Sings] Larded with sweet flowers;[1689]
Which bewept to the grave did go[1690]
With true-love showers.[1691]
King. How do you, pretty lady?[1692]
Oph. Well, God 'ild you! They say the owl was a[1693] 40
baker's daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but know[1694]
not what we may be. God be at your table![1695]
King. Conceit upon her father.
King. Pretty Ophelia!
Oph. Indeed, la, without an oath, I'll make an end on't:[1705] 55
[Sings] By Gis and by Saint Charity,[1706][1707]
Alack, and fie for shame![1707]
Young men will do't, if they come to't;[1707]
By cock, they are to blame.[1707][1708]
Quoth she, before you tumbled me,[1709][1710] 60
You promised me to wed.[1710]
He answers:[1711]
So would I ha' done, by yonder sun,
An thou hadst not come to my bed.[1712]
King. How long hath she been thus?[1713]
Oph. I hope all will be well. We must be patient: but 65
I cannot choose but weep, to think they should lay him i'[1714]
the 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,[1715]
good night. [Exit.[1715][1716] 70
King. Follow her close; give her good watch, I pray you. [Exit Horatio.[1717]
O, this is the poison of deep grief; it springs[1718]
All from her father's death. O Gertrude, Gertrude,[1719]
When sorrows come, they come not single spies,[1720]
But in battalions! First, her father slain:[1721] 75
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,[1722]
For good Polonius' death; and we have done but greenly,[1723]
In hugger-mugger to inter him: poor Ophelia[1724] 80
Divided from herself and her fair judgement,
Without the which we are pictures, or mere beasts:[1725]
Last, and as much containing as all these,
Her brother is in secret come from France,
Feeds on his wonder, keeps himself in clouds,[1726] 85
And wants not buzzers to infect his ear[1727]
With pestilent speeches of his father's death;
Wherein necessity, of matter beggar'd,[1728]
Will nothing stick our person to arraign[1729]
In ear and ear. O my dear Gertrude, this, 90
Like to a murdering-piece, in many places[1730][1731]
Gives me superfluous death. [A noise within.[1731]
Queen. Alack, what noise is this?[1732]
King. Where are my Switzers? Let them guard the door.[1733][1734]
Enter another Gentleman.[1734]
Gent. Save yourself, my lord:[1734][1735]
The ocean, overpeering of his list, 95
Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste[1736]
Than young Laertes, in a riotous head,
O'erbears your officers. The rabble call him lord;[1737]
And, as the world were now but to begin,[1738]
Antiquity forgot, custom not known,[1738] 100
The ratifiers and props of every word,[1738][1739][1740]
They cry 'Choose we; Laertes shall be king!'[1739][1741]
Caps, hands and tongues applaud it to the clouds,[1742]
'Laertes shall be king, Laertes king!'[1743]
Queen. How cheerfully on the false trail they cry! 105
O, this is counter, you false Danish dogs! [Noise within.[1744]
King. The doors are broke.
Enter Laertes, armed; Danes following.[1745]
Laer. Where is this king? Sirs, stand you all without.[1746]
Danes. No, let's come in.[1747]
Laer. I pray you, give me leave.
Danes. We will, we will. 110
[They retire without the door.[1747][1748]
Queen. Calmly, good Laertes.
Laer. That drop of blood that's calm proclaims me bastard;[1751]
Cries cuckold to my father; brands the harlot
Even here, between the chaste unsmirched brow[1752] 115
Of my true mother.
King. 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,[1753] 120
Acts little of his will. Tell me, Laertes,[1754]
Why thou art thus incensed: let him go, Gertrude:[1755]
Speak, man.
Laer. Where is my father?
King. Dead.
King. Let him demand his fill. 125
Laer. How came he dead? I'll not be juggled with:
To hell, allegiance! vows, to the blackest devil![1757]
Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit![1758]
I dare damnation: to this point I stand,[1758]
That both the worlds I give to negligence, 130
Let come what comes; only I'll be revenged
Most throughly for my father.
King. Who shall stay you?
Laer. My will, not all the world:[1759]
And for my means, I'll husband them so well,
They shall go far with little.[1760]
King. Good Laertes,[1761] 135
If you desire to know the certainty[1761]
Of your dear father's death, is't writ in your revenge,[1762]
That, swoopstake, you will draw both friend and foe,[1763]
Winner and loser?[1764]
Laer. None but his enemies.
King. Will you know them then?[1765] 140
Laer. To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my arms;[1766]
And, like the kind life-rendering pelican,[1767]
Repast them with my blood.[1768]
King. Why, now you speak
Like a good child and a true gentleman.
That I am guiltless of your father's death, 145
And am most sensibly in grief for it,[1769]
It shall as level to your judgement pierce[1770]
As day does to your eye.
Danes. [Within] Let her come in.
Laer. How now! what noise is that?
Re-enter Ophelia.[1771]
O heat, dry up my brains! tears seven times salt, 150
Burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye![1772]
By heaven, thy madness shall be paid with weight,[1773]
Till our scale turn the beam. O rose of May![1774]
Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia!
O heavens! is't possible a young maid's wits 155
Should be as mortal as an old man's life?[1775]
Nature is fine in love, and where 'tis fine[1776][1777]
It sends some precious instance of itself[1776][1777]
After the thing it loves.[1776]
Oph. [Sings] They bore him barefaced on the bier;[1778] 160
Hey non nonny, nonny, hey nonny:[1779]
And in his grave rain'd many a tear,—[1780]
Fare you well, my dove![1781]
Laer. Hadst thou thy wits, and didst persuade revenge,[1782]
It could not move thus.[1782][1783] 165
Oph. [Sings] You must sing down a-down,[1784]
An you call him a-down-a.[1785]
O, how the wheel becomes it! It is the false steward, that[1786]
stole his master's daughter.
Laer. This nothing's more than matter.[1787] 170
Oph. There's rosemary, that's for remembrance: pray[1788][1789]
you, love, remember: and there is pansies, that's for[1789][1790]
thoughts.
Laer. A document in madness; thoughts and remembrance
fitted. 175
Oph. There's fennel for you, and columbines: there's
rue for you; and here's some for me: we may call it herb[1791]
of grace o' Sundays: O, you must wear your rue with a[1791][1792]
difference. There's a daisy: I would give you some
violets, but they withered all when my father died: they 180
say a' made a good end,—[1793]
[Sings] For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy.[1794]
Laer. Thought and affliction, passion, hell itself,[1795]
She turns to favour and to prettiness.
His beard was as white as snow,[1800] 190
All flaxen was his poll:[1801]
He is gone, he is gone,[1802]
And we cast away moan:[1802]
God ha' mercy on his soul![1803]
And of all Christian souls, I pray God. God be wi' you. 195
[Exit.[1804]
Laer. Do you see this, O God?[1805]
King. Laertes, I must commune with your grief,[1806]
Or you deny me right. Go but apart,
Make choice of whom your wisest friends you will,
And they shall hear and judge 'twixt you and me: 200
If by direct or by collateral hand[1807]
They find us touch'd, we will our kingdom give,[1808]
Our crown, our life, and all that we call ours,
To you in satisfaction; but if not,
Be you content to lend your patience to us,[1809] 205
And we shall jointly labour with your soul
To give it due content.
Laer. Let this be so;
His means of death, his obscure funeral,[1810]
No trophy, sword, nor hatchment o'er his bones,[1811]
No noble rite nor formal ostentation,[1812] 210
Cry to be heard, as 'twere from heaven to earth,
That I must call't in question.[1813]
King. So you shall;
And where the offence is let the great axe fall.[1814]
I pray you, go with me. [Exeunt.
Scene VI. Another room in the castle.
Enter Horatio and a Servant.[1815]