King. So you shall; And where the offence is let the great axe fall. [Exeunt. Scene VI. Another room in the castle. Enter Horatio and a Servant. Hor. What are they that would speak with me? you. Hor. Let them come in. [Exit Servant. I do not know from what part of the world I should be greeted, if not from Lord Hamlet. Hor. Let him bless thee too. First Sail. He shall, sir, an 't please him. There's your IO two days old at sea, a pirate of Hor. [Reads] Horatio, when thou shalt have overlooked this, give these fellows some means to the king: they have letters for him. Ere we were very warlike appointment gave us chase. Finding ourselves too slow of sail, we put on a compelled valour, 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. Let the king have the letters I have sent; and repair thou to me with as much speed as thou wouldest fly death. I have words to speak in thine ear will make thee dumb; yet are they much too light for the bore of the matter. These good fellows will bring thee where I am. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern hold their course for England: of them I have much to tell thee. Farewell. 'He that thou knowest thine, Hamlet.' 20 30 Come, I will make you way for these your letters; Scene VII. Another room in the castle. Enter King and Laertes. King. Now must your conscience my acquittance seal, Laer. King. It well appears: but tell me O, for two special reasons, Is the great love the general gender bear him; Who, dipping all his faults in their affection, Would, like the spring that turneth wood to stone, Convert his gyves to graces; so that my arrows, 21 Too slightly timber'd 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, Whose worth, 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 Mess. That we can let our beard be shook with danger 31 And think it pastime. You shortly shall hear more : And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine Enter a Messenger, with letters. How now! what news? 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: 39 King. They were given me by Claudio; he received them 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 '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'm lost in it, my lord. But let him come ; King. That I shall live and tell him to his teeth, If it be so, Laertes, As how should it be so? how otherwise?- you be ruled by me? 51 |