LAERTES        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.         (4.7.139-146) I bought an unction of a mountebank—a […]

CLAUDIUS                  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. LAERTES                    I will do’t. And for that purpose I’ll anoint my sword. (4.7.132-138) He being remiss—and because Hamlet’s a bit of a dreamer, a bit casual (Claudius is back […]

CLAUDIUS      No place indeed should murder sanctuarize. 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 together And wager on your heads.    (4.7.125-132) No place indeed […]

CLAUDIUS                  That we would do We should do when we would, for this ‘would’ changes And hath abatements and delays as many As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents, And then this ‘should’ is like a spendthrift’s sigh That hurts by easing. But to the quick of th’ulcer – Hamlet comes back. What would you undertake To show yourself in deed your father’s […]

CLAUDIUS      Not that I think you did not love your father But that I know love is begun by time And that I see in passages of proof Time qualifies the spark and fire of it. There lives within the very flame of love A kind of wick or snuff that will abate it, And nothing is at a like goodness still, […]

CLAUDIUS      Now out of this – LAERTES                    What out of this, my lord? CLAUDIUS      Laertes, was your father dear to you? Or are you like the painting of a sorrow, A face without a heart? LAERTES                    Why ask you this?     (4.7.104-107) Now out of this—and it seems that Claudius is finally going to ask Laertes to do […]

LAERTES                    A Norman was’t? CLAUDIUS      A Norman. LAERTES                    Upon my life, Lamord! CLAUDIUS                                          The very same. LAERTES        I know him well. He is the brooch, indeed, And gem of all the nation. CLAUDIUS      He made confession of you And gave you such a masterly report For art and exercise in your defence, And for your rapier most especial, That he cried out ’twould be […]

CLAUDIUS      A very ribbon 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 […]

CLAUDIUS                              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. LAERTES                    What part is that, my […]

CLAUDIUS      To thine own peace. If he be now returned As checking at his voyage, and that he means No more to undertake it, I will work him To an exploit, now ripe in my device, Under the which he shall not choose but fall. And for his death no wind of blame shall breathe But even his mother shall uncharge […]