30

[Sings.] He is dead and gone, lady,
He is dead and gone;

Oh, oh!

At his head a grass-green turf

At his heels a stone.

Queen. Nay, but, Ophelia,

35 Oph. Pray you, mark.

40

45

50

[Sings.] White his shroud as the mountain snow,— Enter King.

Queen. Alas, look here, my lord.

Oph. [Sings.] Larded with sweet flowers;

Which bewept to the grave did go

With true-love showers.

King. How do you, pretty lady?

Oph. Well, God 'ild you! They say the owl was a baker's daughter. Lord, we know what we

are, but know not what we may be. God be at your table!

King. Conceit upon her father.

Oph. Pray you, let's have no words of this, but when they ask you what it means, say you this:

[Sings.] To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day,
All in the morning betime,

And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine.

55 King. How long hath she been thus?

Oph. I hope all will be well. We must be patient;

but I can not choose but weep, to think they should lay him i' the cold ground. My brother shall know of it; and so I thank you for your good counsel. Come, my coach! Good night, 60 ladies; good night, sweet ladies; good night, good night. [Exit. King. Follow her close; give her good watch, I pray you. [Exit Horatio. O, this is the poison of deep grief; it springs 65 All from her father's death. O Gertrude,

Gertrude,

When sorrows come, they come not single spies,

But in battalions. First, her father slain;
Next, your son gone; and he most violent
author

Of his own just remove; the people muddied, 70
Thick and unwholesome in their thoughts

and whispers,

For good Polonius' death; and we have done
but greenly

In hugger-mugger to inter him; poor Ophelia
Divided from herself and her fair judgement,
Without the which we are pictures, or mere 75
beasts;

Last, and as much containing as all these,
Her brother is in secret come from France,
Feeds on his wonder, keeps himself in clouds,
And wants not buzzers to infect his ear

With pestilent speeches of his father's death, so

85

90

95

Wherein necessity, of matter beggared, Will nothing stick our person to arraign In ear and ear. O my dear Gertrude, this, Like to a murdering-piece, in many places Gives me superfluous death. [A noise within. [Queen. Alack, what noise is this?]

King. Where are my Switzers? Let them guard the door.

What is the matter?

Gent.

Enter a Gentleman.

Save yourself, my lord!

The ocean, overpeering of his list,

Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste
Than young Laertes, in a riotous head,
O'erbears

lord;

your officers. The rabble call him

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!"

Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds,

"Laertes shall be king, Laertes king!"

Queen. How cheerfully on the false trail they cry!
O, this is counter, you false Danish dogs!
[Noise within.
Enter Laertes, armed; Danes following.
Laer. Where is this king? Sirs, stand you all

100 King. The doors are broke.

without.

Danes. No, let's come in.
Laer.

Danes. We will, we will.

I pray you, give me leave.

[They retire without the door.

Laer. I thank you; keep the door. O thou vile

king,

Give me my father!

Queen.

Calmly, good Laertes. 105 [Laying hold of him.

Laer. That drop of blood that's calm proclaims

King.

me bastard,

Cries cuckold to my father, brands the harlot
Even here, between the chaste unsmirched

brows

Of my true mother.

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,
That treason can but peep to what it would,
Acts little of his will. Tell me, Laertes,

110

Why thou art thus incensed. Let him go, 115
Gertrude.

King. Let him demand his fill.

Laer. How came he dead? I'll not be juggled

with.

120

125

130

King.

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 negligence,
Let come what comes; only I'll be revenged
Most throughly for my father.

Who shall stay you? Laer. My will, not all the world.

And for my means, I'll husband them so

well,

They shall go far with little.

King.

Good Laertes,

If you desire to know the certainty

Of your dear father's death, is 't writ in your

Laer. To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my

arms,

135 And like the kind life-rendering pelican, Repast them with my blood.

140

King.

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 pierce