And of all Christian souls! I pray God. God be [Exit OPHELIA. wi' you. 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, 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, SCENE VI.-Another Room in the Same. Enter HORATIO, and a Servant. Hor. What are they, that would speak with me? Serv. Sailors, sir: they say, they have letters for you. Hor. Let them come in. [Exit Servant. I do not know from what part of the world I should be greeted, if not from lord Hamlet. 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 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 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." King. Now must your conscience my acquittance seal, And you must put me in your heart for friend, Laer. King. Lives almost by his looks; and for myself, Is the great love the general gender bear him; Laer. And so have I a noble father lost, That we are made of stuff so flat and dull, 7 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, 1 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 occasions of my sudden and more strange return. HAMLET." What should this mean? Are all the rest come back? 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 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 serv'd against the French, That I, in forgery of shapes and tricks, Laer. King. A Norman. A Norman, was't? The very same. Laer. Upon my life, Lamord. 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, 'twould be a sight indeed, If one could match you; the scrimers of their nation, He swore, had neither motion, guard, nor eye, Laer. Laer. Why ask you this? King. Not that I think you did not love your father, But that I know love is begun by time; Dies in his own too-much. That we would do, We should do when we would; for this "would" changes, And hath abatements and delays as many, sigh, King. No place, indeed, should murder sanc tuarize; Revenge should have no bounds. But, good Laertes, And wager on your heads: he, being remiss, King. And that our drift look through our bad perform Laer. Drown'd! O, where? Queen. There is a willow grows aslant a brook, There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds And, mermaid-like, a while they bore her up; Laer. Alas! then, is she drown'd? Queen. Drown'd, drown'd. I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze, Laer. Too much of water hast thou, poor But that this folly drowns it. And therefore I forbid my tears; but yet Let shame say what it will: when these are gone, King. [Exit. Let's follow, Gertrude. [Exeunt. 1 Clo. What is he, that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter? 2 Clo. The gallows-maker; for that frame outlives a thousand tenants. 1 Clo. I like thy wit well, in good faith: the gallows does well: but how does it well? it does well to those that do ill: now, thou dost ill to say the gallows is built stronger than the church: argal, |