Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead Page #2

and love without the rhetoric

without the love...

and we can do you all three

concurrent or consecutive.

But we can't do you love

and rhetoric without the blood.

Blood is compulsory.

They're all blood, you see.

Is that what people want?

It's what we do.

Would you like a bet?

Double or nothing.

Heads.

Heads.

Double or... nothing.

Come on.

I say that was lucky.

It was "tails".

Welcome! Dear Rosencrantz

and Guildenstern.

Moreover that we much did

long to see you.

The need we have to use

you did provoke our hasty sending.

Something have you heard

of Hamlet's transformation,

so call it,

sith nor th' exterior

nor the inward men

resembles that it was.

What it should be,

more than his father's death,

that thus hath put him

so much from th' understanding

of himself.

I cannot dream of.

I entreat you both

that, being of so young days

brought up with him.

And sith so neighbored

to his youth and haviour,

that you vouch-safe your rest

here in our court some little time

so by your companies

to draw him on to pleasures

and to gather so much as

from occasion you may glean

whether aught to us

unknown afflicts him thus

that opened lies within our remedy.

Good...

Gentleman, he hath much

talked of you,

and sure I am, two men

there are not living

to whom he more adheres.

If it will please you

to show us so much gentry

and good will

as to extend your time

with us awhile for the supply

and profit of our hope,

your visitation shall

receive such thanks

as fits a king's remembrance.

Both your majesties might

by the sovereign power

you have of us,

put your dread pleasures

more into command

than to entreaty.

But we both obey,

and here give up ourselves

in the full bent

to lay our service freely

at your feet, to be commanded.

Thanks, Rosencrantz...

and gentle Guildenstern.

Thanks Guildenstern

and gentle Rosencrantz.

And I beseech you instantly to visit

my too much changed son.

Heaven make our presence

and our practises pleasant

and helpful to him!

Ah, amen!

I want to go home.

Don't let them confuse you.

We're in over our steps,

heading out of depth.

stepping out of the heads,

so heading to that step.

Stop there!

Hasn't it ever happened to you

that all of a sudden

and for no reason at all

you haven't the faintest idea

how to spell the word...

which or "house"...

because when you write it down

you just can't remember ever

having seen those letters

in that order before?

I remember...

What?

I remember when there were

no questions.

There were always questions.

Answers, yes.

There were answers to everything.

You've forgotten.

I haven't forgotten.

How I used to remember my own

name! And yours, Oh, yes!

There were answers

everywhere you looked.

There was no question about it--

people knew who we were

and if they didn't they asked

and we told them out names.

We did the trouble is,

each of them is plausible,

without being instinctive.

Instinctive?

All your life you live so close

to truth, it becomes a permanent

blur in the corner of your eye,

and when something nudges it into

outline it is like being ambushed

by a grotesque.

A man standing in his saddle

in the half-lit, half-alive dawn

banged in the shutters

and called two names.

And when he called we came.

That much is certain, we came.

Well, I can tell you

I'm sick to death of it.

I don't care which one I am.

So why don't you

make up your mind.

We didn't come all this way

for a christening. But we have been

comparatively fortunate.

We might have been left

to sift the whole field...

of human nomen-clauture

like two blind men... looting

a bazaar for heir own portraits

at least we are presented

with alternatives.

Well, as from now my name is...

But not choice.

Your smallest action sets off

another somewhere else,

and is set off by it.

And I do think or else this brain of

mine hunts not the trail of policy...

We're going round in circles!

... so sure as it hath use to do

that I have found the very cause

of hamlet's lunacy!

Oh, speak of that!

That do I long to hear.

Give first admittance

to the ambassadors.

He tells me, my dear Gertrude,

he hath found the head and

source of all your son's distemper.

I doubt it is no other

but the main...

his father's death and

our o'er hasty marriage.

Well... we shall sift him.

It's all right.

There's a logic at work.

It's all done for you, don't worry.

Enjoy it. Relax.

Relax.

We have been briefed.

Have we?

Hamlet's transformation.

What do you recollect?

Well, he's changed, hasn't he?

The exterior and inward

man fails to resemble.

Draw him onto pleasures...

glean what afflicts him.

Something more than

his father's death.

He's always talking about us...

there aren't two people living

whom he dotes on more than us.

We cheer him up... find out

what's the matter.

Exactly.

It's a matter of asking the right

questions and giving away

as little as we can.

And then we can go?

And receive such thanks as fits

as king's remembrance.

Oh, I like the sound of that...

What do you think

she means by remembrance?

He doesn't forget his friend?

Would you care to estimate?

Some kings tend to be amnesiac,

others in the opposite, I suppose...

whatever that is...

How much?

Elephantine.

How much?

Retentive... he's a very

retentive king, a royal retainer.

What are you playing at?

Words... words

they're all we have to go on.

Look at this.

Leave things alone.

Sorry.

This is interesting.

You would think

that this would fall

faster than this, wouldn't you?

Well... and you'd be

absolutely right.

Fancy a game?

We're spectators.

Do you want to play questions?

How do you play that?

You have to ask questions.

Statement! One... love.

Cheating!

How?

I hadn't started yet.

Statement! Two... love.

Are you counting that?

What?

Are you counting that?

Foul! No repetitions.

Three... love and game.

I'm not going to play if you're

going to be like that.

Whose serve?

Err...

Hesitation! Love... one.

Whose go?

Why?

Why not?

What for?

Foul! No synonyms!

One... all.

What in God's name is going on?

Foul! No rhetoric!

Two... one.

What does it all add up to?

Can't you guess?

Were you addressing me?

Is there anyone else?

Who?

How would I know?

Why do you ask?

Are you serious?

Was that rhetoric?

No.

Statement! Two all.

Game point.

What's the matter with you today?

When?

What?

Are you deaf?

Am I dead?

Yes or no?

Is there a choice?

Is there a God?

Foul! No non sequiturs!

Three... two, one game all.

What's your name?

What's yours?

You first.

Statement! One... love.

What's your name

when you're at home?

What's yours?

When I'm at home?

Is it different at home?

What home?

Haven't you got one?

Why do you ask?

What are you driving at?

What's your name?

Repetition! Two... love.

Match point.

Who do you think you are?

Rhetoric!! Game and match!

Rosencrantz!

What?

There!

How was that?

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