Act 4 — Scene VII. Another room in the castle.[1835]

King. Now must your conscience my acquittance seal, And you must put me in your heart for friend, Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear, That he which hath your noble father slain[1836] Pursued my life. Laer. It well appears: but tell me 5 Why you proceeded not against these feats,[1837] So crimeful and so capital in nature,[1838] As by your safety, wisdom, all things else,[1839] You mainly were stirr'd up. King. O, for two special reasons,[1840] Which may to you perhaps seem much unsinew'd,[1841] 10 But yet to me they're strong. The queen his mother[1842] Lives almost by his looks; and for myself— My virtue or my plague, be it either which—[1843] She's so conjunctive to my life and soul,[1844] That, as the star moves not but in his sphere, 15 I could not but by her. The other motive, Why to a public count I might not go, Is the great love the general gender bear him; Who, dipping all his faults in their affection, Would, like the spring that turneth wood to stone,[1845] 20 Convert his gyves to graces; so that my arrows,[1846] Too slightly timber'd for so loud a wind,[1847] Would have reverted to my bow again[1848] And not where I had aim'd them.[1849] Laer. And so have I a noble father lost;[1850] 25 A sister driven into desperate terms, Whose worth, if praises may go back again,[1851] Stood challenger on mount of all the age[1852] For her perfections: but my revenge will come.[1853] King. Break not your sleeps for that: you must not think[1854] 30 That we are made of stuff so flat and dull That we can let our beard be shook with danger[1855] And think it pastime. You shortly shall hear more:[1856] I loved your father, and we love ourself;[1857] And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine—[1858] 35

How now! what news?[1859] Mess. Letters, my lord, from Hamlet: This to your majesty; this to the queen.[1860] King. From Hamlet! who brought them?[1861] Mess. Sailors, my lord, they say; I saw them not: They were given me by Claudio; he received them 40 Of him that brought them. King. Laertes, you shall hear them.[1862] Leave us. [Exit Messenger.[1863] [Reads] 'High and mighty, You shall know I am set[1864] naked on your kingdom. To-morrow shall I beg leave[1865] to see your kingly eyes: when I shall, first asking your[1866][1867] 45 pardon thereunto, recount the occasion of my sudden and[1866][1868][1869] more strange return.[1869] 'Hamlet.'[1870] What should this mean? Are all the rest come back? Or is it some abuse, and no such thing?[1871] 50 Laer. Know you the hand? King. Tis Hamlet's character. 'Naked!'[1872][1873] And in a postscript here, he says 'alone.'[1872][1873] Can you advise me?[1872][1874] Laer. I'm lost in it, my lord. But let him come;[1875] 55 It warms the very sickness in my heart, That I shall live and tell him to his teeth,[1876] 'Thus didest thou.'[1877] King. If it be so, Laertes,—[1878] As how should it be so? how otherwise?—[1878][1879] Will you be ruled by me?[1878] Laer. Ay, my lord;[1880][1881] 60 So you will not o'errule me to a peace.[1880] King. To thine own peace. If he be now return'd,[1882] As checking at his voyage, and that he means[1883] No more to undertake it, I will work him To an exploit now ripe in my device,[1884] 65 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 the practice, And call it accident.[1885] Laer. My lord, I will be ruled;[1886][1887] The rather, if you could devise it so[1886] 70 That I might be the organ.[1886][1888] King. It falls right.[1886] You have been talk'd of since your travel much,[1886] And that in Hamlet's hearing, for a quality[1886] Wherein, they say, you shine: your sum of parts[1886] Did not together pluck such envy from him,[1886] 75 As did that one, and that in my regard[1886] Of the unworthiest siege.[1886] Laer. What part is that, my lord?[1886] King. A very riband in the cap of youth,[1886][1889] Yet needful too; for youth no less becomes[1886] The light and careless livery that it wears[1886] 80 Than settled age his sables and his weeds,[1886] Importing health and graveness. Two months since,[1886][1890] Here was a gentleman of Normandy:—[1891] I've seen myself, and served against, the French,[1892] And they can well on horseback: but this gallant[1893] 85 Had witchcraft in't; he grew unto his seat,[1894] And to such wondrous doing brought his horse As had he been incorpsed and demi-natured[1895] With the brave beast: so far he topp'd my thought[1896] That I, in forgery of shapes and tricks, 90 Come short of what he did.[1897] Laer. A Norman was't? King. A Norman. Laer. Upon my life, Lamond. King. The very same.[1898] Laer. I know him well: he is the brooch indeed And gem of all the nation.[1899] 95 King. He made confession of you,[1900] And gave you such a masterly report, For art and exercise in your defence, And for your rapier most especial,[1901] That he cried out, 'twould be a sight indeed[1902] 100 If one could match you: the scrimers of their nation.[1903][1904] He swore, had neither motion, guard, nor eye,[1903] If you opposed them. Sir, this report of his[1903] Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy[1905] That he could nothing do but wish and beg 105 Your sudden coming o'er, to play with him.[1906] Now, out of this— Laer. What out of this, my lord? King. Laertes, was your father dear to you?[1907] Or are you like the painting of a sorrow, A face without a heart? Laer. Why ask you this? 110 King. Not that I think you did not love your father, But that I know love is begun by time,[1908] And that I see, in passages of proof, Time qualifies the spark and fire of it. There lives within the very flame of love[1909] 115 A kind of wick or snuff that will abate it;[1909][1910] And nothing is at a like goodness still,[1909] For goodness, growing to a plurisy,[1909][1911] Dies in his own too much: that we would do[1909][1912] We should do when we would; for this 'would' changes[1909][1913] 120 And hath abatements and delays as many[1909] As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents,[1909][1914] And then this 'should' is like a spendthrift sigh,[1909][1913][1915] That hurts by easing. But, to the quick o' the ulcer:[1909] Hamlet comes back: what would you undertake,[1916] 125 To show yourself your father's son in deed[1917] More than in words? Laer. To cut his throat i' the church. King. No place indeed should murder sanctuarize;[1918] Revenge should have no bounds. But, good Laertes, Will you do this, keep close within your chamber.[1919] 130 Hamlet return'd shall know you are come home: We'll put on those shall praise your excellence And set a double varnish on the fame[1920] The Frenchman gave you; bring you in fine together[1921] And wager on your heads: he, being remiss,[1922] 135 Most generous and free from all contriving, Will not peruse the foils, so that with ease,[1923] Or with a little shuffling, you may choose A sword unbated, and in a pass of practice[1924] Requite him for your father. Laer. I will do't 140 And for that purpose I'll anoint my sword.[1925] I bought an unction of a mountebank, So mortal that but dip a knife in it,[1926] Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare, Collected from all simples that have virtue 145 Under the moon, can save the thing from death That is but scratch'd withal: I'll touch my point With this contagion, that, if I gall him slightly,[1927][1928] It may be death.[1927] King. Let's further think of this; Weigh what convenience both of time and means[1929] 150 May fit us to our shape: if this should fail,[1930] And that our drift look through our bad performance,[1931] 'Twere better not assay'd: therefore this project Should have a back or second, that might hold If this did blast in proof. Soft! let me see:[1932] 155 We'll make a solemn wager on your cunnings:[1933] I ha't:[1934][1935] When in your motion you are hot and dry—[1935][1936] As make your bouts more violent to that end—[1937] And that he calls for drink, I'll have prepared him[1938] 160 A chalice for the nonce; whereon but sipping,[1939] If he by chance escape your venom'd stuck,[1940] Our purpose may hold there. But stay, what noise?

How now, sweet queen![1942] Queen. One woe doth tread upon another's heel,[1943] 165 So fast they follow: your sister's drown'd, Laertes.[1944] Laer. Drown'd! O, where? Queen. There is a willow grows aslant a brook,[1945] That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream;[1946] There with fantastic garlands did she come[1947] 170 Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples, That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,[1948] But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them:[1949] There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds[1950] Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke;[1951] 175 When down her weedy trophies and herself[1952] Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide, And mermaid-like awhile they bore her up:[1953] Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes,[1954] As one incapable of her own distress, 180 Or like a creature native and indued[1955] Unto that element: but long it could not be Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,[1956] Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay[1957] To muddy death. Laer. Alas, then she is drown'd![1958] 185 Queen. Drown'd, drown'd. Laer. Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia, And therefore I forbid my tears: but yet It is our trick; nature her custom holds, Let shame say what it will: when these are gone, 190 The woman will be out. Adieu, my lord: I have a speech of fire that fain would blaze,[1959] But that this folly douts it. [Exit.[1960] King. Let's follow, Gertrude: How much I had to do to calm his rage![1961] Now fear I this will give it start again; 195 Therefore let's follow. [Exeunt.