LAERTES                    Do you see this, O God? CLAUDIUS      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 […]

LAERTES        Thought and afflictions, passion, hell itself She turns to favour and to prettiness. OPHELIA (Sings.)         And will ’a not come again?         And will ’a not come again?         No, no, he is dead,         Go to thy deathbed.         He never will come again.         His beard was as white as snow,          Flaxen was his poll.         He is gone, he is gone,         And we cast away moan.          God a’ mercy on his soul. And […]

OPHELIA        There’s rosemary: that’s for remembrance. Pray you, love, remember. And there is pansies: that’s for thoughts. LAERTES        A document in madness – thoughts and remembrance fitted! OPHELIA        There’s fennel for you, and columbines. There’s rue for you, and here’s some for me. We may call it herb of grace o’Sundays. You may wear your […]

OPHELIA (Sings.)         They bore him bare-faced on the bier         And in his grave rained many a tear. Fare you well, my dove. LAERTES         Hadst thou thy wits and didst persuade revenge It could not move thus. OPHELIA         You must sing ‘a-down a-down’, an you call him ‘a-down-a’. O how the wheel becomes it. It is the false steward that stole his master’s […]

Enter Ophelia. LAERTES                    Let her come in. How now, what noise is that? O heat, dry up my brains, tears seven times salt Burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye. By heaven, thy madness shall be paid with weight Till our scale turn the beam. O rose of May, Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia, O heavens, is’t possible a young maid’s wits […]

LAERTES        To his good friends thus wide I’ll ope my arms And like the kind life-rendering pelican Repast them with my blood. CLAUDIUS                  Why, now you speak Like a good child and a true gentleman. That I am guiltless of your father’s death And am most sensibly in grief for it It shall as level to your judgement ’pear As day does to your eye. (A […]

CLAUDIUS      Who shall stay you? LAERTES                    My will, not all the world’s. And for my means I’ll husband them so well They shall go far with little. CLAUDIUS                  Good Laertes, If you desire to know the certainty Of your dear father, is’t writ in your revenge That swoopstake you will draw both friend and foe, Winner and loser? LAERTES                    None but his enemies. CLAUDIUS      Will you know them, […]

LAERTES                                Where is my father? CLAUDIUS                                          Dead. GERTRUDE     But not by him. CLAUDIUS                              Let him demand his fill. LAERTES        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 […]

LAERTES                    O thou vile King, Give me my father. GERTRUDE     Calmly, good Laertes. 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 brow Of my true mother. CLAUDIUS                  What is the cause, Laertes, That thy rebellion looks so giant-like? Let him go, Gertrude, do not fear our person. There’s such divinity doth hedge a king […]

GERTRUDE     How cheerfully on the false trail they cry. (A noise within) O, this is counter, you false Danish dogs! CLAUDIUS      The doors are broke. Enter Laertes with Followers. LAERTES        Where is this king? Sirs, stand you all without. FOLLOWERS  No, let’s come in. LAERTES                    I pray you give me leave. FOLLOWERS  We will, we will. LAERTES                    I thank you, keep the door. […]