The Laurence Olivier Awards 1997 Page #8

---

Avoid what is to come.

And do not spread the compost

on the weeds to make them ranker.

Forgive me this my virtue.

O Hamlet. Thou hast

cleft my heart in twain.

Oh.

Throw away the worser part

of it,

and live the purer

with the other half.

Good night.

But go not to my uncles bed.

Assume a virtue,

if you have it not.

Refrain tonight,

and that shall lend a kind

of easiness to the next abstinence.

The next more easy.

For use can almost change

the stamp of nature.

Once more, good night.

And when you are

desirous to be blessed,

Ill blessing beg of you.

I must be cruel

only to be kind.

I must to England.

You know that?

Alack, I had forgot.

Tis so concluded on?

Theres letters sealed.

This man shall send me packing.

Ill lug the guts

into the neighbor room.

Indeed, this counselor

is now most still,

most secret

and most grave,

that was in life a foolish,

prating knave.

Come, sir, to draw

toward an end with you.

Good night, Mother.

Now Hamlet,

wheres Polonius?

- At supper.

- At supper?

- Mmm.

- Where?

Not where he eats,

but where he is eaten.

A certain complication

of politic worms are even at him.

Your worm is your

only emperor for diet.

We fat all creatures

else to fat us,

and we fat ourselves

for worms.

Your fat king and your lean beggar is but

variable service, two dishes, but to one table.

- Thats the end.

- Alas, alas.

A man may fish with the worm

that hath eat of a king,

and eat of a fish that

hath fed of that worm.

- What dost thou mean by this?

- Nothing.

But to show you how a king may go

a progress through the guts of a beggar.

- Where is Polonius?

- In heaven.

Send thither to see. If your messenger

find him not there,

seek him in the

other place yourself.

But indeed, if you find him

not within this month,

you shall nose him as you go

up the stairs into the lobby.

Go, seek him there.

He will stay

till you come.

Hamlet, for thine especial

safety, which we do tender,

as we do deeply grieve

for that which thou hast done,

this deed must send thee hence

with fiery quickness.

Therefore prepare thyself.

The bark is ready,

the wind sets fair and everything

is bent for England.

- For England.

- Aye, Hamlet.

-Good.

-So is it, if thou knewst our purposes.

I see a cherub

that sees them.

But come, for England.

Farewell, dear Mother.

Thy loving father,

Hamlet.

My mother.

Father and mother

is man and wife.

Man and wife is one flesh.

And so...

my mother.

Come.

- For England.

- Follow him close. Tempt him with speed aboard.

Delay it not. Ill have him

hence tonight. Away!

Everything is sealed and done

that else leans on the affair.

Pray you make haste.

And England, if my love

thou holdst at aught,

thou mayst not coldly treat

our sovereign order...

which imports at full...

the present death of Hamlet.

Do it, England,

for like the fever

in my blood he rages,

and thou must cure me.

Till I know tis done, howeeer

my haps, my joys, were neeeer begun.

Where is the beauteous majesty

of Denmark?

Why, how now, Ophelia?

Say you?

Nay, pray you, mark.

He is dead and gone, lady

He is dead and gone

At his head

a grass green turf

At his heels

a stone

Nay, but Ophelia.

Pray you, mark!

White his shroud

as the mountain snow

- Larded with sweet flowers

- Alas, look here, my lord.

Which bewept

to the grave did go

With true love showers

How do you, pretty lady?

Well, God ild you.

They say the owl

was a bakers daughter.

Lord, we know what we are,

but not what we may be.

God be at your table.

Distraction

for her father.

I hope all will be well.

We must be patient.

But I cannot choose

but weep...

to think they should lay him

in the cold ground.

My brother shall know of it.

And so I thank you

for your good counsel.

Come, my coach.

Good night, ladies.

Sweet ladies, good night.

Good night.

Follow her close.

Give her good watch, I pray you.

O Gertrude, Gertrude.

When sorrows come,

they come not single spies,

but in battalions.

First, her father slain.

Next, our son gone.

The people muddied, thick and unwholesome

in their thoughts and whispers.

Poor Ophelia,

divided from herself

and her fair judgment.

Last, and more dangerous

than all of these,

her brother is in secret

come from France...

and wants not buzzers to infect his ear

with pestilent speeches of his fathers death,

while he himself

not hesitates to threaten...

our own person.

O my dear Gertrude.

This like to

a murdering-piece...

in many places gives me

superfluous death.

How now? What news?

- Letters, my lord, from Hamlet.

- From Hamlet?

This to Your Majesty.

This to the queen.

- Who brought them?

- Sailors, my lord, they say.

Leave us.

God bless you, sir.

- Let Him bless thee too.

- He shall, sir, and it please Him.

Theres a letter for you, sir. It comes from

the ambassador that was bound for England.

If your name be Horatio,

as I am let to know it is.

Horatio.

Ere we were two days old

at sea,

a pirate, a very warlike

appointment, gave us chase.

Finding ourselves

too slow of sail,

we put on a compelled valor.

And in the grapple

I boarded them.

On the instant,

they got clear of our ship.

So I alone

became their prisoner.

They have dealt with me

like thieves of mercy,

but they knew what they did.

I am to do a good turn

for them.

Repair thou to me with as much speed

as thou wouldst fly death.

These good fellows

will bring thee where I am.

Farewell. He that thou

knowest thine. Hamlet.

Quote she

Before you tumbled me

You promised me to wed

So would I ha done

by yonder sun

Come, that you may direct me to him from whom you brought this.

How came he dead?

Ill not bejuggled with!

To hell, allegiance!

Vows, to the blackest pit!

I dare damnation, only Ill be revenged

most throughly for my father.

Good Laertes,

if you desire to know the certainty...

of your dear fathers death,

istt writ in your revenge...

that swoopstake you will draw

both friend and foe, winner and loser?

- None but his enemies!

- Will you know them, then?

To his good friends thus

wide Ill ope my arms.

Why, now you speak like a good

child and a true gentleman.

That I am guiltless of your fathers death

and am most sensibly in grief for it...

shall appear as clearly to your judgment

as day doth to your eyes.

- You must sing.

- What noise is this?

A-down, a-down

Kind sister.

Sweet Ophelia.

It is the false steward

that stole his masters daughter.

O heat, dry up my brains.

O rose of May.

Oh, heavens, ist possible a young maidss

wits should be as mortal as an old mansss life?

By heaven, thy madness

shall be paid by weight...

till our scale turn the beam.

Fare you well, my dove.

Theres rosemary.

Thatss for remembrance.

Pray you, love,

remember.

There is pansies.

Thats for thoughts.

Theres fennel for you,

and columbines.

Theres rue for you,

and heres some for me.

We may call it herb of grace

o Sundays.

Oh, you must wear your rue

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes