Hamlet Page #14

What, frighted with false fire?

-How fares my lord?

-Give o'er the play.

Give me some light.

Away.

GUARD:

Lights, lights, lights!

HAMLET:

Horatio!

Horatio!

Why, let the strucken deer go weep...

...the hart ungalled play...

...for some must watch,

while some must sleep...

...thus runs the world away.

Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers,

if my fortunes turn Turk...

...with two provincial roses

on my razed shoes...

...get me a fellowship in a cry of players?

-Half a share.

-A whole one, I.

For thou dost know, O Damon dear...

...this realm dismantled was

of Jove himself...

...and now reigns here

a very, very peacock.

You might have rhymed.

O good Horatio, Ill take the ghost's word

for a thousand pound.

-Didst perceive?

-Very well, my lord.

Upon the talk of the poisoning?

I did very well note him.

Ah.

Come, some music, come, the recorders.

For if the king like not the comedy,

why then, belike he likes it not, perdy.

Come, some music.

-Vouchsafe me a word with you.

-A whole history.

-The king, sir--

-What of him?

Is in his retirement

marvelous distempered.

-With drink, sir?

-No, rather with choler.

Your wisdom should show

to signify this to his doctor.

For for me to put him to his purgation

might plunge him into far more choler.

Put your discourse into some frame,

and start not so wildly from my affair.

I am tame, sir. Pronounce.

The queen, your mother, in most great

affliction of spirit, hath sent me to you.

-You are welcome.

-Nay, this courtesy is not of the right breed.

If you make me a wholesome answer,

I will do your mother's commandment.

If not, your pardon and my return

shall be the end of my business.

But, sir, I cannot.

-What, my lord?

-Make you a wholesome answer.

My wit's diseased.

But, sir, such answer as I can make,

you shall command...

...or rather, as you say, my mother.

Therefore no more, but to the matter.

My mother, you say?

Then thus she says:

Your behavior hath struck her

into amazement and admiration.

O wonderful son,

that can so astonish a mother.

But is there no sequel at the heels

of this mother's admiration? Impart.

She desires to speak with you

in her closet ere you go to bed.

We shall obey,

were she 10 times our mother.

Have you any further trade with us?

-My lord, you once did love me.

-And do still, by these pickers and stealers.

Good my lord,

what is the cause of your distemper?

You bar the door of your own liberty

if you deny your griefs to your friends.

Sir, I lack advancement.

How can that be when you have the voice

of the king himself for your succession?

Ay, sir, but "while the grass grows...."

The proverb is something musty.

[RECORDERS PLAYING]

The recorders. Let me see one.

To withdraw with you, why do you

go about to recover the wind of me...

...as if you would drive me into a toil?

O my lord, if my duty be too bold,

my love is too unmannerly.

I do not well understand that.

Will you play upon this pipe?

-My lord, I cannot.

-I pray you.

-Believe me, I cannot.

-I do beseech you.

HORATIO:
I know no touch of it, my lord.

-It is as easy as lying.

Govern these ventages

with your fingers and thumb.

Give it breath and it will discourse

eloquent music. These are the stops.

But these cannot I command to any

utterance of harmony. I have not the skill.

Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing

you would make of me.

You would play upon me,

you would seem to know my stops...

...you would pluck out the heart

of my mystery...

...you would sound me from my lowest note

to the top of my compass.

And there is much music,

excellent voice in this little organ...

...yet cannot you make it speak.

'Sblood, do you think I am easier

to be played upon than a pipe?

Well, call me what instrument you will,

though you can fret me...

...yet you cannot play upon me.

-God bless you, sir.

-My lord, the queen would speak with you.

Do you see yonder cloud

that's almost in the shape of a camel?

By the mass, and 'tis like a camel.

-It is like a weasel.

-Backed like a weasel.

-Or like a whale.

-Very like a whale.

Then I will come to my mother by and by.

They fool me to the top of my bent.

I will come by and by.

-I will say so.

-"By and by" is easily said.

Leave me, friends.

I like him not, nor stands it safe with us

to let his madness range.

Therefore prepare you.

I your commission will forthwith dispatch,

and he to England shall along with you.

The terms of our estate

may not endure...

...hazard so dangerous as doth hourly grow

out of his lunacies.

We will ourselves provide.

Most holy and religious fear it is

to keep those many, many bodies safe...

...that live and feed upon Your Majesty.

The single and peculiar life is bound

by all the strength and armor of the mind...

...to keep itself from noyance.

But much more...

...that spirit upon whose weal

depends and rests...

...the lives of many.

The cease of majesty dies not alone...

...but like a gulf doth draw

what's near it with it.

It is a massy wheel

fixed on the summit of the highest mount...

...to whose huge spokes 10,000

lesser things are mortised and adjoined...

...which when it falls...

...each small annexment,

petty consequence...

...attends the boist'rous ruin.

Never alone did the king sigh,

but with a general groan.

Arm you, I pray you,

to this speedy voyage...

...for we will fetters put upon this fear

which now goes too free-footed.

-We will haste us.

-My lord.

POLONIUS:

He's going to his mother's closet.

Behind the arras Ill convey myself

to hear the process.

Ill warrant she'll tax him home.

And, as you said-- And wisely was it said.

--'tis meet that some more audience

than a mother...

...since nature makes them partial,

should o'erhear the speech of vantage.

Fare you well, my liege.

Ill call ere you go to bed,

and tell you what I know.

Thanks, dear my lord.

'Tis now

the very witching time of night...

...when churchyards yawn,

and hell itself breathes out...

...contagion to this world.

Now could I drink hot blood...

...and do such bitter business as the day

would quake to look on.

Soft, now to my mother.

O heart, lose not thy nature.

Let not ever

the soul of Nero enter this firm bosom.

Let me be cruel, not unnatural.

I will speak daggers to her, but use none.

My tongue and soul...

...in this be hypocrites.

How in my words somever she be shent...

...to give them seals

never my soul consent.

O, my offense is rank.

It smells to heaven.

It hath the primal eldest curse upon't...

...a brother's murder.

Pray can I not.

Though inclination be as sharp as will...

...my stronger guilt

defeats my strong intent.

And like a man to double business bound,

I stand in pause where I shall first begin...

...and both neglect.

What if this cursed hand were thicker

than itself with brother's blood...

...is there not rain enough

in the sweet heavens...

...to wash it white as snow?

Whereto serves mercy

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