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Queen

Gent.

Queen

Gent.

Hor.

Queen

Oph.

Queen

SCENE V-ELSINORE

A ROYAL APARTMENT IN THE CASTLE

Enter QUEEN, HORATIO, and a Gentleman

I will not speak with her.

She is importunate;

Indeed distract. Her mood will needs be pitied.
What would she have?

She speaks much of her father; says she hears
There's tricks i' the world; and hems, and beats her

heart;

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 gape at it,

And botch the words up fit to their own thoughts;
Which, as her winks, and nods, and gestures yield them,
Indeed would make one think there might be thought,
Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily.

'Twere good she were spoken with, for she may strew
Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds.

Let her come in.

[Exit Gentleman]

[Aside] To my sick soul, (as sin's true nature is)
Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss;
So full of artless jealousy is guilt,

It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.

Re-enter Gentleman, with OPHELIA

[Ophelia playing on a lute, and her hair down]

Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark ?
How now, Ophelia ?

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King
Oph.

King

Oph.

How do you, pretty lady?

Well, God yield you they say the owl was a baker's
daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but know not
what we may be. God be at your table!

Conceit upon her father. This is a change indeed :
Oh Time, how swiftly runs our joys away!

Content on earth was never certain bred,

To-day we laugh and live, to-morrow dead.

Pray let's have no words of this; but when they ask you what it means, say you this

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Then up he rose, and donn'd his clothes,
And dupp'd the chamber door;

Let in the maid, that out a maid.

Never departed more.

King

Pretty Ophelia !

Oph.

King

Oph.

King

Indeed, without an oath, I'll make an end on't

[Sings] By Gis and by Saint Charity,

Alack, and fie for shame!

Young men will do't, if they come to't;

By Cock, they are to blame.

Quoth she, before you tumbled me,
You promised me to wed:

(He answers)

So would I ha' done, by yonder sun,
An thou hadst not come to my bed.

How long hath she been thus ?

I hope all will be well. We must be patient; but I cannot choose but weep, to think they should lay him i' 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, good night.

[Exit Ophelia]
Follow her close; give her good watch, I pray you.—
[Exit Horatio]

Oh, this is the poison of deep grief; it springs
All from her father's death; and now behold!
O Gertrude, Gertrude,

When sorrows come, they come not single spies,
But in battalions! First, her father slain ;

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,
For good Polonius' death and we have done but
greenly,

In hugger-mugger to inter him: poor Ophelia
Divided from herself, and her fair judgment,

Queen

King

Gent.

Queen

King

Laer.

Danes

Without the which we are pictures, or mere beasts:
Last, and as much containing as all these,

Her brother is in secret come from France;
Feeds on his wonder; keeps himself in clouds;
And wants not buzzers to infect his ear
With pestilent speeches of his father's death ;
Wherein necessity (of matter beggar'd)
Will nothing stick our person to arraign
In ear and ear. O my dear Gertrude, this,
Like to a murdering-piece, in many places
Gives me superfluous death.

[A noise within] Alack, what noise is this?

Attend! where are my Switzers? Let them guard the door.

Enter another Gentleman

What is the matter?

Save yourself, my lord.

The ocean, overpeering of his list,

Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste

Than young Laertes, in a riotous head,

O'erbears your officers. The rabble call him lord;

And, as the world were now but to begin,

Antiquity forgot, custom not known,

The ratifiers and props of every word,

They cry

"Choose we; Laertes shall be king!
Caps, hands, and tongues applaud it to the clouds,
"Laertes shall be king, Laertes king!"

How cheerfully on the false trail they cry!
Oh, this is counter, you false Danish dogs!
The doors are broke.

[Noise within]

Enter LAERTES, armed; Danes following

Where is this king ?-Sirs, stand you all without.
No, let's come in.

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Queen

Laer.

King

I thank you keep the door.

:

O thou vile king-give me my father!
Speak! say where's my father?

Calmly, good Laertes.
That drop of blood that's calm proclaims me bastard;
Cries cuckold to my father; brands the harlot
Even here, between the chaste unsmirched brows
Of my true mother.

What is the cause, Laertes,

That thy rebellion looks so giant-like ?

[The Queen restrains Laertes]

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,
Acts little of his will. Tell me, Laertes,
Why thou art thus incensed.—
Speak, man.

Where is my father?

Let him go, Gertrude.

Laer.

King

Queen

King

Laer.

King

Laer.

Let him demand his fill.

Dead.

But not by him.

How came he dead? I'll not be juggled with.
To hell, allegiance! vows, to the blackest devil!
Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit!
I dare damnation. To this point I stand,
That both the worlds I give to negligence,
Let come what comes; only I'll be revenged
Most throughly for my father.

My will, not all the world's:

Who shall stay you?

And for my means, I'll husband them so well,

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