He answers, ^note

Kin.

How long hath she been thus? ^note

Oph.

I hope, all will be well. We must be patient: but I cannot choose but weep, to think, they would ^note lay him i' the cold ground: My brother shall know of it, and so I thank you for your good counsel.—Come, my coach!—Good night ^note, ladies; good night, sweet ladies; good night, good night.

Kin.
Follow her close; give her good watch, I pray you [Exeunt Hor. and Att.
O! This is the poison of deep grief; it springs
All from her father's death. O Gertrude, Gertrude ^note,
When sorrows come, they come ^note not single spies,

But in battalions. ^note First, her father slain:
Next, your son gone; and he most violent author
Of his own just remove: The people muddy'd,
Thick and unwholsome in their ^note thoughts, and whispers,
For good Polonius' death; and we have done14Q1465
But greenly to interr him: Poor Ophelia
Divided from herself, and her fair judgment;
Without the which we are ^note pictures, or meer beasts.
Last, and as much containing as all these,
Her brother is in secret come from France:
Feeds on his wonder, keeps himself in ^note clouds,
And wants not buzzers to infect his ear
With pestilent speeches of his father's death;
Wherein necessity, of matter beggar'd,
Will nothing stick our persons ^note to arraign
In ear and ear. O my dear Gertrude, this,
Like to a murthering piece, in many places
Gives me superfluous death. [Noise within.

Que.
Alack, what noise is this? ^note

Kin.
Where ^note are my ^note Switzers? let them guard the door:— Enter a Gentleman, hastily.
What is the matter?

Gen.
Save yourself, my lord;
The ocean, overpeering of his list,
Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste,
Than young Laertes, in a riotous head,
O'er-bears your officers! The rabble call him, lord:
And, as the world were now but to begin,
Antiquity forgot, custom not known,
The ratifiers and props of every work, ^note
They cry ^note, Choose we; Laertes shall be king:14Q1466

Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds,
Laertes shall be king, Laertes king! [Noise again, and Shouts: Door assaulted.

Que.
How cheerfully on the false trail they cry!
O, this is counter, you false Danish dogs.

Kin.
The doors are broke. Enter Laertes, arm'd; Danes following.

Lae.
Where is this king? ^note—Sirs, stand you all without.

Dan.
No, let's come in.

Lae.
I pray you, give me leave.

Dan.
We will, we will. [retiring without the Door.

Lae.
I thank you; keep the door.—O thou vile king,
Give me my father.

Que.
Calmly, good Laertes.

Lae.
That drop of blood, that's calm ^note, proclaims me bastard;
Cries, cuckold, to my father; brands the harlot
Even here, between the chast unsmirched ^note brow
Of my true mother.

Kin.
What is the cause, Laertes,
That thy rebellion looks so giant-like?—
Let him go, Gertrude; do not fear our person;
There's such divinity doth hedge a king,
That treason can but peep ^note to what it would
Acts little of his will.—Tell me, Laertes,
Why thou art thus incens'd;—Let him go, Gertrude;—
Speak, man.

Lae.
Where is ^note my father?

Kin.
Dead, Laertes.

Que.
But not by him.

Kin.
Let him demand his fill.

Lae.
How came he dead? I'll not be juggl'd with:

To hell, allegiance! vows, to the blackest devil!
Conscience, and grace, to the profoundest pit!
I dare damnation: To this point I stand,—
That both the worlds I give to negligence,
Let come what comes; only I'll be reveng'd
Most throughly for my father.

Kin.
Who shall stay you?

Lae.
My will, not all the world's: ^note
And, for my means, I'll husband them so well,
They shall go far with little.

Kin.
Good Laertes,
If you desire to know the certainty
Of your dear father's death, is't ^note writ ^note in your revenge,
That, sweep-stake, ^note14Q1467 you will draw both friend and foe,
Winner and loser?

Lae.
None but his enemies.

Kin.
Will you know them then?

Lae.
To his good friends thus wide I'll ope ^note my arms;
And, like the kind life-rend'ring pelican, ^note
Repast them with my blood.

Kin.
Why, now you speak ^note
Like a good child, and a true gentleman.
That I am guiltless of your father's death,
And am most sensibly ^note in grief for it,
It shall as level to your judgment pierce ^note
As day does to your eye. [Noise within.

Dan. [within.]
Let her come in. ^note

Lae.
How now! what noise is that? Enter Ophelia, fantastically drest up with Flowers, &c.
O heat, dry up my brains! tears, seven times salt,
Burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye!—

By heaven, thy madness shall be pay'd by weight ^note,
'Till ^note our scale turn the beam. O rose of May,
Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia!—
O heavens! is't possible, a young maid's wits
Should be as mortal as an old man's ^note life?
Nature is fine in love14Q1468: and, where 'tis fine, ^note
It sends some precious instance of itself
After the thing it loves.

Oph.
They bore him bare-fac'd ^note on the bier, [sings.
and on his grave rains ^note many a tear;—
Fare you well, my dove.

Lae.
Hadst thou thy wits, and didst persuade revenge,
It could not move thus.

Oph.

You must sing, Down, a-down ^note, an you call him a-down-a. O, how the wheel becomes ^note it! It is the false steward, that stole his master's daughter.

Lae.

This nothing's more than matter.

Oph.

There's &dagger2; rosemary,14Q1469 that's for remembrance; pray you, love ^note, remember: and there is ^note &dagger2; pansies, that's for thoughts.

Lae.

A document in madness; thoughts and remembrance fitted.

Oph.

There's &dagger2; fennel for you, and columbines:— There's &dagger2; rue for you;—and here's some for me: we may call it, herb of grace, o'sundays:—you may wear ^note your rue with a difference.—There's &dagger2; a daisy:—I would give you some violets; but they wither'd all, when my father dy'd: They say, he made ^note a good end,—