Faculty of English

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. […]

MESSENGER              Save yourself, my lord. The ocean overpeering of his list Eats not the flats with more impiteous 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!’ – […]

CLAUDIUS                  O my dear Gertrude, this, Like to a murdering-piece in many places Gives me superfluous death. (A noise within) Enter a Messenger. Attend! Where is my Switzers? Let them guard the door. What is the matter?   (4.5.94-98) Claudius is barely remaining in control of himself, and again he turns to Gertrude with a vivid conceit: O my dear Gertrude, this, like to a […]

CLAUDIUS      Last, and as much containing as all these, Her brother is in secret come from France, Feeds on this 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 beggared, Will nothing stick our person to arraign In ear and ear.            (4.5.87-94) Last, and as much containing as all these—of equal weight and impact as all […]