Kin.
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,
Pursu'd my life.

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

Kin.
O, for two special reasons;
Which may to you, perhaps, seem much unsinew'd,
But yet ^note to me they are strong. The queen, his mother,
Lives almost by his looks; and for myself,
(My virtue, or my plague, be it either which)
She is so conjunctive ^note 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 the general gender bear him:
Who, dipping all his faults in their affection,
Would, like ^note the spring that turneth wood to stone,
Convert his gyves to graces; so that my arrows,
Too slightly timber'd for so loud a wind, ^note

Would have reverted to my bow again,
And not ^note where I had aim'd them.

Lae.
And so have I a noble father lost;
A sister driven into desperate terms;
Whose ^note worth, if praises may go back again,
Stood challenger on mount of all the age
For her perfections: But my revenge will come.

Kin.
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 ^note be shook with danger, ^note
And think it pastime. ^note You shortly shall hear more:
I lov'd your father, and we love ourself; ^note
And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine,— Enter a Gentleman.
How now? what news? ^note

Gen.
Letters, my lord, from Hamlet: ^note
These &dagger2; to your ^note majesty; this † to the queen.

Kin.
From Hamlet! Who brought them?

Gen.
Sailors, my lord, they say: I saw them not;
They were given me by Claudio, he receiv'd them
Of him that brought them ^note.

Kin.
Laertes, you shall hear ^note them:—
Leave us. [Exit Gentleman.

High and mighty, [reads.] 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 ^note thereunto, recount the occasion ^note of my sudden return ^note.

Hamlet.

Lae.
Know you the hand?

Kin.
'Tis Hamlet's character. Naked!
And in a postscript here he says, alone:
Can you advise ^note me?

Lae.
I am lost in it, my lord. But let him come;
It warms the very sickness in my heart,
That I shall live ^note and tell him to his teeth,
Thus diddest thou.

Kin.
If it be so, Laertes,
As how should it be so? how otherwise?
Will you be rul'd by me?

Lae.
I will ^note, my lord;
So you will not o'er-rule me to a peace.

Kin.
To thine own peace. If he be now return'd,—
As checking at ^note his voyage, and that he means
No more to undertake it,—I will work him
To an exploit, now ripe in my devise,
Under the which he shall not choose but fall:
And for his death no wind of blame shall breath;
But even his mother shall uncharge the practise,
And call it, accident.

Lae.
My lord, I will be rul'd; ^note
The rather, if you could devise it so
That I might be the organ.

Kin.
It falls right.
You have been talk'd 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,
Of the unworthiest siege.14Q1470

Lae.
What part is that, my lord?

Kin.
A very riband ^note in the cap of youth,

Yet needful too; for youth no less becomes
The light and careless livery that it wears,
Than settl'd age his sables, and his weeds,
Importing health, and graveness. Two months since ^note
Here was a gentleman of Normandy,—
I have seen myself, and serv'd against, the French,
And they can ^note well on horse-back: but this gallant
Had witchcraft in't; he grew unto ^note his seat;
And to such wondrous doing brought his horse,
As he had ^note been incorps'd and demy-natur'd
With the brave beast: so far he top'd my ^note thought, ^note
That I, in forgery of shapes and tricks,
Come ^note short of what he did.

Lae.
A Norman was't?

Kin.
A Norman.

Lae.
Upon my life, Lamord. ^note

Kin.
The very same.

Lae.
I know him well; he is the brooch, indeed,
And jem of all the nation. ^note

Kin.
He made confession of you:
And gave you such a masterly report,
For art and exercise in your defence,
And for your rapier most especial, ^note
That he cry'd out, 'Twould be a sight indeed,
If one could match you; the scrimers of their nation, ^note
He swore, had neither motion, guard, nor eye,
If you oppos'd them: 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 ^note, to play with you. ^note
Now, out of this,—

Lae.
What out ^note of this, my lord?

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

Lae.
Why ask you this?

Kin.
Not that I think, you did not love your father;
But that I know, love is begun by time;
And that I see, in passages of proof,
Time qualifies the spark and fire of it.
There lives within the very flame of love ^note
A kind of wick, or snuff, that will abate it;
And nothing is at a like goodness still;
For goodness, growing to a plurisy,
Dies in his own too much: That 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;
And then this should14Q1471 is like a spend-thrift's ^note sigh,
That hurts by easing. But, to the quick o' the ulcer:
Hamlet comes ^note back; What would you undertake,
To show yourself indeed your father's son ^note
More than in words?

Lae.
To cut his throat i' the church.

Kin.
No place, indeed, should murther sanctuarize;
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 o'er your ^note heads: 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 choose
A sword unbated ^note, and, in a pass of practice,
Requite ^note him for your father.

Lae.
I will do't:
And, for the purpose ^note, I'll anoint my sword.
I bought an unction of a mountebank;
So mortal, that, but dip ^note 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.

Kin.
Let's further think of this;
Weigh what convenience ^note, both of time and means,
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 did blast ^note in proof. Soft; let me see:
We'll make a solemn wager on your cunnings, ^note—
I ha't: ^note
When in your motion you are hot and dry,
(As make your bouts more violent to that end) ^note
And that he calls for drink, I'll have prefer'd ^note him
A chalice for the nonce; ^note whereon but sipping,
If he by chance escape your venom'd stuck, ^note
Our purpose may hold there. But stay, what noise? ^note— Enter Queen.
How now, sweet queen? ^note

Que.
One woe doth tread upon another's heel,
So fast they follow: ^note—

Your sister's drown'd, Laertes.

Lae.
Drown'd! o, where?

Que.
There is a willow14Q1472 grows ascant the brook, ^note
That shews his hoar ^note leaves in the glassy stream;
Therewith ^note fantastick garlands did she make, ^note
Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples,
That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
But our cold ^note maids do dead men's fingers call them:
Then on ^note the pendant boughs her coronet ^note weeds
Clamb'ring to hang, an envious sliver ^note broke;
When down her weedy ^note trophies, and herself,
Fell in the weeping brook. Her cloaths spread wide;
And, mermaid-like, a while they bore her up:
Which time, she chaunted snatches of old tunes; ^note
As one incapable of her own distress,
Or like a creature native and indu'd ^note
Unto that element: but long it could not be,
'Till that her garments, heavy with their drink ^note,
Pull'd the poor wretch ^note from her melodious lay ^note
To muddy death.

Lae.
Alas, then, she is ^note drown'd?

Que.
Drown'd, drown'd.

Lae.
Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia,
And therefore I forbid my tears: But yet
It is our trick; nature her custom holds,
Let shame say what it will: when these are gone,
The woman will be out.—Adieu, my lord:
I have a speech of fire ^note; that fain would blaze,
But that this folly drowns it. ^note [Exit.

Kin.
Let's follow, Gertrude:
How much I had to do to calm his rage!
Now fear I, this will give it start again;

Therefore, let's follow. [Exeunt.

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