Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[blocks in formation]

Laer. Do you see this, O God? King. Laertes, I must commune with your grief, 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: If by direct or by collateral hand

They find us touched, we will our kingdom give, 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,

[blocks in formation]
[graphic]

Hor. Let Him bless thee too.

1st 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.

HORATIO 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 wouldst 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." Come, I will give you way for these your letters; And do't the speedier, that you may direct me To him from whom you brought them. [Exeunt.

[blocks in formation]

Work like the spring that turneth wood to stone,
Convert his gyves to graces; so that my arrows,
Too slightly timbered for so loud a wind,
Would have reverted to my bow again,
And not where I had aimed them.

Laer. And so have I a noble father lost;
A sister driven into desperate terms,
Whose worth, if praises may go back again,
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 think it pastime. You shortly shall hear more:
I loved your father, and we love ourself;
And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine-
How now? what news?

Enter a Messenger.

Mess. 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 received them of him that brought them.

King. Laertes, you shall hear them.-—Leave us. [Exit Messenger.

KING 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 occasion of my sudden and more strange return.

"HAMLET."

What should this mean? Are all the rest come back?

Or is it some abuse, and no such thing?
Laer. Know you the hand?

King. "Tis Hamlet's character. "Naked,”And, in a postscript here, he says, "Alone." Can you advise me?

Laer. I am 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."

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

King.

organ.

It falls right.

You have been talked of since your travel much,
And that in Hamlet's hearing, for a quality
Wherein they say you shine: your sum of parts
Did not together pluck such envy from him,
As did that one; and that, in my regard,
Of the unworthiest siege.

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 served against, the French,
And they can well on horseback: but this gallant
Had witchcraft in 't: he grew unto his seat;
And to such wondrous doing brought his horse,
As he had been incorpsed and demi-natured
With the brave beast: so far he topped my thought,
That I, in forgery of shapes and tricks,
Come short of what he did.

Laer. A Norman was 't?

King. A Norman.

Laer. Upon my life, Lamord.

King. The very same.

Laer. I know him well: he is the brooch, indeed, And gem of all the nation.

King. He made confession of you; And gave you such a masterly report For art and exercise in your defence, And for your rapier most especially, That he cried out, 't would be a sight indeed If one could match you: the scrimers of their nation, He swore, had neither motion, guard, nor eye, If you opposed them. Sir, this report of his Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy, That he could nothing do but wish and beg Your sudden coming o'er, to play with you. Now, out of this,

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

Revenge should have no bounds. But, good Laertes,
Will you do this, keep close within your chamber?
Hamlet, returned, shall know you are come home:
We'll put on those shall praise your excellence,
And set a double varnish on the fame
The Frenchman gave you; bring you, in fine, to-
gether,

And wager on your heads: he, being remiss,
Most generous, and free from all contriving,
Will not peruse the foils; so that, with ease,
Or with a little shuffling, you may choose
A sword unbated, and, in a pass of practice,
Requite him for your father.
I will do 't:

Laer.

And, for the purpose, I'll anoint my sword.
I bought an unction of a mountebank,
So mortal, that, but dip a knife in it,
Where it draws blood, no cataplasm so rare,
Collected from all simples that have virtue
Under the moon, can save the thing from death,
That is but scratched withal: I'll touch my point
With this contagion; that, if I gall him slightly,
It may be death.

King. Let's further think of this;
Weigh what convenience, both of time and means,
May fit us to our shape. If this should fail,
And that our drift look through our bad performance,
"T were better not assayed; therefore, this project
Should have a back, or second, that might hold,
If this should blast in proof. Soft; let me see:
We'll make a solemn wager on your cunnings,—
I ha't:

When in your motion you are hot and dry
(As make your bouts more violent to that end),
And that he calls for drink, I'll have preferred him
A chalice for the nonce; whereon but sipping,
If he by chance escape your venomed stuck,
Our purpose may hold there. But stay, what noise?
Enter QUEEN.

How now, sweet queen?

Queen. One woe doth tread upon another's heel, So fast they follow:-Your sister's drowned, Laertes.

Laer. Drowned! O, where?

Queen. There is a willow grows ascaunt the brook,
That shews his hoar leaves in the glassy stream;
There, with fantastic garlands did she come,
Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples,
That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
But our cold maids do "dead-men's fingers" call
them:

There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke;
When down her weedy trophies, and herself,
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide;
And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up:
Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes;
As one incapable of her own distress,

[blocks in formation]
[graphic]
« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »