Rosencrantz and Guildenstern hold their course for England: of them I have much to tell thee. Farewell. He that thou knowest thine, Hamlet. Come, I will give you way for these your letters; And do 't the speedier, that you may direct me To him from whom you brought them. [Exeunt. SCENE VII. Another Room in the same. Enter King and LAERTES. King. Now must your conscience my acquittance seal, And you must put me in your heart for friend; 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, greatness, 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, But yet 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,) 5 Is, the great love the general gender bear him. s Common people. Who, dipping all his faults in their affection, Laer. And so have I a noble father lost; 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 that, I hope, will teach you to imagine, Enter a Messenger. Mess. Letters, my lord, from Hamlet: This to your majesty; this to the queen. King. From Hamlet? who brought them? Mess. Sailors, my lord, they say: I saw them not; They were given me by Claudio, he receiv'd them Of him that brought them. King. Leave us. Laertes, you shall hear them: [Exit Messenger. [Reads.] 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 the occasion of my sudden and more strange return. Chains. Hamlet. What should this mean! Are all the rest come back? Or is it some abuse, and no such thing? Laer. Know you the hand? King. 'Tis Hamlet's character. Naked, And, in a postscript here, he says, alone: Laer. I am lost in it, my lord. But let him come; It warms the very sickness in my heart, King. If it be so, Laertes, As how should it be so? how otherwise? be rul'd by me? Will you Laer. Ay, my lord; So you will not o'er-rule me to a peace. King. To thine own peace. If he be now re turn'd, As checking at his voyage, and that he means Under the which he shall not choose but fall: And for his death no wind of blame shall breathe; But even his mother shall uncharge the practice, And call it, accident. Laer. My lord, I will be rul'd; The rather, if you could devise it so, King. It falls right. You have been talk'd of since your travel much, 8 is that, my lord Laer. 7 Objecting to. 8 Seat, place. Yet needful too; for youth no less becomes Here was a gentleman of Normandy, I have seen myself, and serv'd against, the French, Come short of what he did. Laer. King. A Norman. A Norman, was 't? Laer. Upon my life, Lamord. King. The very same Laer. I know him well: he is the brooch 9 deed, And gem of all the nation. King. 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, That he cried out, 't would be a sight indeed, He swore, had neither motion, guard, nor eye, Laer. What out of this, my lord? King. Laertes, was your father dear to you? Or are you like the painting of a sorrow, 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; Dies in his own too-much: That we would do, changes, And hath abatements and delays as many, As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents; Hamlet comes back; What would you undertake, More than in words? Laer. To cut his throat i' the church. King. No place, indeed, should murder sanctua rize; 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 heads: he, being remiss, Most generous, and free from all contriving, Will not peruse the foils; so that, with ease, |