And of all christian souls! I pray God. God be wi' you! Laer. Do you see this, O God? [Exit OPHELIA. 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, 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,- Cry to be heard, as 'twere from heaven to earth, That I must call't in question. King. So you shall, And where the offence is, let the great axe fall. I pray you, go with me. SCENE VI. [Exeunt. Another Room in the same. Enter HORATIO, and a Servant. Hor. What are they, that would speak with me? Serv. They say, they have letters for you. Sailors, sir; Hor. Let them come in.— [Exit Servant. I do not know from what part of the world Enter Sailors. 1 Sail. God bless you, sir. Hor. Let him bless thee too. 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 leters for him. Ere we were two days old at sea, a pirate of very warlike appointment gave us chace: Finding ourselves too slow of sail, we put on 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. 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. 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; Laer. It well appears :—But tell me, Why you proceeded not against these feats, So crimeful and so capital in nature, As by your safety, greatness, wisdom, all things else, You mainly were stirr'd King. up. O, for two special reasons; Which may to you, perhaps, seem much unsinew'd,' Is, the great love the general gender2 bear him :/ 9 Since. 1 Deprived of strength. 2 Common people. 3 Petrifying springs are common in many parts of England. 4 Chains. Too slightly timber'd for so loud a wind, 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 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 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: 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. King. If it be so, Laertes, As how should it be so? how otherwise? Will you be rul'd by me? Laer. Ay, my lord; So you will not o'er-rule me to a peace. King. To thine own peace. If he be now return'd, As checking at his voyage, and that he means Under the which he shall not choose but fall : Laer. My lord, I will be rul'd; The rather, if you could devise it so, That I might be the organ. King. It falls right. You have been talk'd of since your travel much, And that in Hamlet's hearing, for a quality Wherein, they say, you shine: your sum of parts 5 Objecting to. |