Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead Page #6

And I do doubt the hatch and

the disclose will be some danger,

which for to prevent

I have in quick determination.

Thus set it down:

he shall with speed to England.

Gentlemen! Gentlemen,

it doesn't seem to be coming.

We are not getting it at all

what do you think?

What was I supposed to think?

Wasn't that the end?

Do you call that an ending?

With practically everyone

still on his feet?

My goodness

no over your dead body.

There's a design at work in all

art surely you know that?

Events must play themselves

out to an aesthetic, moral

and logical conclusion.

And what's that in this case?

It never varies.

We aim for

the point where everyone

who is marked for death dies.

Marked?

Generally speaking things have

gone about as far as

they can possibly go

when things have got about as

bad as they can reasonably get.

Who decides?

Decides? It is written.

We're tragedians, you see.

We follow direction there

is no choice involved.

The bad end unhappily,

the good unluckily.

That is what tragedy means.

Next!

Having murdered his brother

and wooed the widow,

the Poisoner mounts the throne!

Here we see him.

And his queen give rein

to their unbridled passion!

Enter Lucianus,

nephew to the king!

Usurped by his uncle and shattered

by his mother's incestuous marriage...

He loses his reason.

Throwing the court into turmoil

and disarray staggering

from the suicidal to the merely idle.

He has a plan to catch

the conscience of the king.

The king rises!

What...

frighted with false fire!

How fares my lord?

Give o'er the play!

Give me some light!

Away!

That's so interesting play.

What a thing of the world!

It wasn't that bad...

There's something

they're not telling us.

What?

There's something

they're not telling us.

My lord...

My lord...

The Queen would speak with you.

And presently...

Do you see yonder cloud that's

almost in the shape of a camel?

By the mass, and this like

a camel indeed.

Me thinks it is like a weasel.

It is backed like a weasel.

Or like a whale?

Very like a whale.

Then I will come to

my mother by and by.

I will say so.

'By and by' is easily said.

Leave me, friends.

I like him not, nor stand it safe

with us to let his madness range.

Therefore prepare you.

I your commission will forthwith

despatch, and he to England

shall along with you.

No by the Rood, not so:

You are the Queen,

your husband's brother's wife,

but would you were not so.

You are my mother.

Nay, then I'll set those to you

than can speak.

Come come and sit you down,

you shall not budge.

You go not till I sent you up

a glass, where you may see

the in most part of you.

What wilt thou do thou:

wilt not murder me.

Help... help... ho.

How now! A rat?

Dead, for a ducat dead!

Oh, I am slain!

Oh me, what hast thou done?

Nay, I know not!

Is the king?

Oh, what a rash and

bloody deed is this?

A rash and bloody deed?

A bloody deed almost as bad,

good mother, as kill a king and

marry with his brother.

As kill a king?

Ay, lady, it was my word.

Thou wretched, rash,

intruding fool, farewell!

Is that you?

I don't know.

It's you.

We're not dead yet then?

Well we're here, aren't we?

Are we?

I can't see a thing.

We're on a boat.

I know.

Dark, isn't it?

Not for night.

No, not for night.

It's dark for day.

Oh, yes, it's dark for day.

Do you think death

could possibly be a boat?

No, no, no...

death is... not. Death isn't.

You take my meaning. Death is

the ultimate negative. Not being.

You can't not be on a boat.

I've frequently not been on boats.

No, no, no...

what you've been is not on boats.

I wish I was dead.

I could jump over the side.

That would put a spoke

in their wheel.

Unless they're counting on it.

I shall remain on board.

That will put a spoke in their wheel.

You all right?

Yes, why?

Would you like to come up now?

Yes all right, thank you.

Try to be more careful.

Sorry.

Nice bit of planking that.

Yes.

Lovely bilges.

Yes.

Beautiful bottom...

Yes. I'm very fond of boats myself.

I like the way

they're contained.

You don't have to worry

about which way to go,

or whether to go at all...

the question doesn't arise,

does it?

I think I'll spend the rest

of my life on boats.

Very healthy.

One is free on a boat.

For a time, relatively.

I think I'm going to be sick.

He's there!

What's he doing?

Sleeping.

It's all right for him.

What is?

He can sleep.

It's all right for him.

He's got us now.

He can sleep.

It's all done for him.

He's got us.

And we've got nothing.

And we've got nothing.

Why don't you say something original!

You don't take me up on anything...

you just repeat everything

I say in a different order.

I can't think of anything original.

I am only good in support.

I'm sick of making the running.

There it's all right.

I'll see we're all right.

But we've got nothing to go on.

We're out on our own.

We're on our way to England.

We're taking Hamlet

to the English King.

What for?

What for? Where have you been?

When?

We've got a letter.

You remember the letter.

Do I?

Everything is explained

in the letter.

Is that it, then?

What?

So we take Hamlet to the English

King, we hand over the letter,

what then?

That's it, we're finished.

Who is the English King?

That depends on

when we get there.

So we've got a letter

which explains everything.

You've got it.

I thought you had it.

I do have it.

You have it.

You've got it.

I don't get it.

You haven't got it.

I just said that.

I've got it.

Oh, I've got it.

Shut up.

Right.

What a shambles!

We're just not getting anywhere!

I don't believe in it anyway.

In what?

England.

Just a conspiracy of

cartographers, you mean?

I mean I don't believe it.

And even if it's true, the King of

England won't know what we're

taking about.

What are we going to say?

We say your majesty,

we have arrived.

And who are you?

We are Rosencrantz

and Guildenstern.

Never heard of you!

Well, we're nobody special.

What's your game?

We have our instructions...

First I've heard of it.

Let me finish.

We've come from Denmark.

What do you want?

Nothing...

We're delivering Hamlet...

Who's he?

You've heard of him.

Oh, I've heard of him all right

and I want nothing to do with it.

You march in here without

so much as a by your leave

and expect me to take in every

lunatic you try to pass off with

a lot of unsubstantiated.

We've got a letter!

I see... I see...

Well, this seems to support your

story. Such as it is... it is an exact

command from the King of Denmark.

for several different reasons,

importing Denmark's health

and England's too,

that on the reading of this letter,

without delay, I should have

Hamlet's head cut off!

We're his friends.

How do you know?

From our young days

brought up with him.

You've only got their word for it.

But that's what we depend on.

Well, yes... and then again no.

Let us keep things in proportion.

Assume, if you like, that they're

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