King.
Now must your conscience my acquittance seal,

And you must put me in your heart for friend;
Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear,
That he, which hath your noble father slain,
Pursued my life.

Laer.
It well appears. But tell me,
Why you proceeded not against these feats,
So crimeful and so capital in nature,
As by your safety, wisdom, all things else,
You mainly were stirr'd up?

King.
O, for two special reasons,
Which may to you, perhaps, seem much unsinew'd,
And yet to me are strong. The Queen, his mother,
Lives almost by his looks; and for myself,
My virtue or my plague, be't either which,
She's so conjunctive to my life and soul,
That, as the star moves not but in his sphere,
I could not but by her. The other motive,
Why to a publick count I might not go,
Is the great love ^{3 note}the general gender bear him;
Who, dipping all his faults in their affection,
^{4 note}Would, like the spring that turneth wood to stone,
Convert his gyves to graces. So that my arrows,
Too slightly timbred for so loud a wind,
Would have reverted to my bow again,
And not where I had aim'd them.

Laer.
And so have I a noble father lost,
A sister driven into desperate terms,
Who has, ^{5 note}if praises may go back again,
Stood challenger on mount of all the age
For her perfections. But my revenge will come.

King.
Break not your sleeps for that. You must not think,
That we are made of stuff so flat and dull,
That we can let our beard be shook with danger,
And think it pastime. You shall soon hear more.
I lov'd your father, and we love ourself,
And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine—
How now? what news? Enter a Messenger.

Mes.
Letters, my Lord, from Hamlet.
These to your Majesty. This to the Queen.

King.
From Hamlet? Who brought them?

Mes.
Sailors, my Lord, they say; I saw them not.
They were given me by Claudio; he receiv'd them.

King.
Laertes, you shall hear them. Leave us, all— [Exit Messenger.

High and Mighty, you shall know, I am set naked on your Kingdom. To-morrow shall I beg leave to see your kingly eyes. When I shall, first asking your pardon thereunto, recount th' occasion of my sudden return.

Hamlet.

Laer.
Know you the hand?

King.
'Tis Hamlet's character;
Naked, and (in a postscript here, he says)
Alone. Can you advise me?

Laer.
I'm lost in it, my Lord. But let him come;
It warms the very sickness in my heart,
That I shall live and tell him to his teeth,
Thus diddest thou.

King.
If it be so, Laertes,
As how should it be so?—how, otherwise?—

Will you be rul'd by me?

Laer.
Ay; so you'll not o'er-rule me to a peace.

King.
To thine own peace. If he be now return'd,
^{6 note}
As liking not his voyage, and that he means
No more to undertake it, I will work him
To an exploit now ripe in my device,
Under the which he shall not chuse but fall:
And for his death no wind of Blame shall breathe;
But ev'n his mother shall uncharge the practice,
And call it accident. Laer.
I will be rul'd,
The rather, if you could devise it so,
That I might be the organ. King.
It falls right.
You have been talkt of since your travel much,
And that in Hamlet's Hearing, for a quality
Wherein, they say, you shine; your sum of parts
Did not together pluck such envy from him,
As did that one, and that in my regard
^{7 note}Of the unworthiest siege.

Laer.
What part is that, my Lord?

King.
A very riband in the cap of youth,
Yet needful too; for youth no less becomes
The light and careless livery that it wears,
Than settled age his sables, and his weeds,
^{8 note}

And they can well on horse-back; but this Gallant
Had witchcraft in't, he grew unto his seat;
And to such wondrous doing brought his horse,
As he had been incorps'd and demy-natur'd
With the brave beast. So far he topp'd my thought,
That I ^{9 note}in forgery of shapes and tricks
Come short of what he did.

Laer.
A Norman, was't?

King.
A Norman.

Laer.
Upon my life, Lamond.

King.
The same.

Laer.
I know him well. He is the brooch, indeed,
And gem of all the nation.

King.
He made confession of you,
And gave you such a masterly report,
For art and exercise ^{1 note}in your defence;
And for your rapier most especial,
That he cry'd out, 'twould be a Sight indeed,
If one could match you. ^{2 note}The Scrimers of their nation,
He swore, had neither motion, guard, nor eye,
If you oppos'd 'em.—Sir, this Report of his
Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy,
That he could nothing do, but wish and beg
Your sudden coming o'er to play with him.
Now out of this—

Laer.
What out of this, my Lord?

King.
Laertes, was your father dear to you,
Or are you like the painting of a sorrow,
A face without a heart?

Laer.
Why ask you this?

King.
Not that I think, you did not love your father,

But that I know, love is begun by time,
And that I see ^{3 note}in passages of proof,
Time qualifies the spark and fire of it:
There lives within the very flame of love
A kind of wick, or snuff, that will abate it,
And nothing is at a like goodness still;
^{4 note}For goodness, growing to a pleurisy,
Dies in his own too much. What we would do,
We should do when we would; for this would changes,
And hath abatements and delays as many
As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents;
^{5 note}

Laer.
To cut his throat i' th' church.

King.
No place, indeed, should murder sanctuarise,
Revenge should have no bounds; but, good Laertes,
Will you do this? keep close within your chamber;
Hamlet, return'd, shall know you are come home:
We'll put on those shall praise your excellence,
And set a double varnish on the fame
The Frenchman gave you; bring you in fine together,
And wager on your heads. ^{6 note}He being remiss,
Most generous, and free from all contriving,
Will not peruse the foils; so that with ease,
Or with a little shuffling, you may chuse
^{7 note}A sword unbated, and in ^{8 note}a pass of practice
Requite him for your father.

Laer.
I will do't;
And for the purpose I'll anoint my sword.
I bought an unction of a Mountebank,
So mortal, that but dip a knife in it,
Where it draws blood, no Cataplasm so rare,
Collected from all Simples that have virtue
Under the Moon, can save the thing from death,
That is but scratch'd withal; I'll touch my point
With this contagion, that if I gall him slightly,
It may be death.

King.
Let's farther think of this;
Weigh, what convenience both of time and means
^{9 note}May fit us to our shape. If this should fail,

And that our drift look through our bad performance,
'Twere better not assay'd; therefore this project
Should have a back, or second, that might hold,
If this should ^{1 note}blast in proof. Soft—let me see—
We'll make a solemn wager on your cunnings.
I ha't—
When in your motion you are hot and dry,
As make your bouts more violent to that end,
And that he calls for Drink, I'll have prepar'd him
A Chalice for the nonce; whereon but sipping,
If he by chance escape your venom'd tuck,
Our purpose may hold there.

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