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. the Tragical History of . H A M L E T . Prince of Denmark .
(In the original language with modernized spelling)
- Scene 16 [~ Baker's Daughter ~] (Act 4 scene 5)
Setting: Inside the Castle;- The Throne Room;
Daytime, the middle of the day.
(Gertrude enters;- Horatio enters, accompanied by a certain Gentleman.)
Gertrude: I will not speak with her.- Gentleman: She is importunate,
- Indeed distract; her mood will needs be pitied.
- Gertrude: What would she have?
- Gentleman: She speaks much of her father, says she hears
- There's tricks in the world, and hems, and beats her heart,
Spurns enviously at straws, speaks things in doubt
That carry but half sense; her speech is nothing,
Yet the unshaped use of it doth move
The hearers to collection; they yawn at it,
And botch the words up fit to their own thoughts,
Which as her winks, and nods, and gestures yield them,
Indeed would make one think there might be thought,
Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily.
(the Gentleman fades from view,- like a ghost in his own Hamlet)
Horatio: 'Twere good she were spoken with, for she may strew- Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds.
(Gertrude nods, and . . . )- both Gertrude and Horatio say, exactly together):
Let her come in.
(Ophelia enters)
Gertrude: `To my sick soul, as sin's true nature is,- `Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss,
`So full of artless jealousy is guilt,
`It spills itself, in fearing to be spilt.
- Ophelia: Where is the beauteous Majesty of Denmark?
- Gert: How now, Ophelia?
- Ophelia (sings):
- How should I your true love know from another one?
By his cockle hat and staff, and his sendal shoon.
Gertrude: Alas, sweet Lady, what imports this song?- Ophelia: Say you? Nay, pray you, mark:
- (sings):
He is dead & gone, Lady, he is dead and gone;
At his head a grassgreen turf, at his heels a stone.
(exclaims): Oh ho!
(Ophelia jumps in the air, and clicks her heels)
Gertrude: Nay, but Ophelia . . .- Ophelia: Pray you, mark!
- (sings):
White his shroud as the mountain snow.
(Claudius enters)
Gertrude: Alas, look here, my Lord.- Ophelia (sings):
- Larded all with sweet flowers,
Which bewept to the ground did not go
With true love showers.
Claudius: How do you, pretty Lady?- Ophelia: Well, good dild you; they say the owl was a baker's daughter;
- Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be.
God be at your table.
- Clau: Conceit upon her father.
- Ophelia: Pray, let's have no words of this, but when they ask you
- what it means, say you this:
(sings):
Tomorrow is Saint Valentine's day,
All in the morning, betime,
And I, a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine.
Then up he rose, and donned his clothes, and 'dupt the chamber door;
Let in the maid, that out a maid, never departed more.
Claudius: Pretty, Ophelia.- Ophelia: Indeed! Without an oath, I'll make an end on it;
- (sings):
By gis and by Saint Charity,
alack, and fie, for shame,
Young men will do't if they come to't,
by cock, they are to blame.
Quoth she: Before you tumbled me, you promised me to wed,
(He answers): So would I a-done by yonder sun
And thou hadst not come to my bed.
Claudius: How long hath she been thus?- Ophelia: I hope all will be well; we must be patient, but I cannot choose
- but weep to think they would lay him in the cold ground; my brother
shall know of it; and so, I thank you for your good counsel. Come
my coach; God night, Ladies, god night.
Sweet Ladies, god night, god night.
(Ophelia exits)
Claudius: Follow her close; give her good watch, I pray you.
(Gertrude's ladies in waiting follow Ophelia)
(Claudius continues):- O this is the poison of deep grief; it springs all from her father's
death, and now behold; O Gertrude, Gertrude,
When sorrows come, they come not single spies,
But in battalions. First her father slain,
Next, your son gone, and he most violent Author
Of his own just remove; the people muddied,
Thick and unwholesome in thoughts, and whispers
For good Polonius' death. And we have done but greenly
In hugger mugger to inter him. Poor Ophelia
Divided from herself, and her fair judgment,
Without the which we are pictures, or mere beasts;
Last, and as much containing as all these:
Her brother is in secret come from France,
Feeds on this wonder, keeps himself in clouds,
And wants not buzzers to infect his ear
With pestilent speechs of his father's death,
Wherein necessity, of matter beggared,
Will nothing stick our person to arraign
In ear and ear. O my dear Gertrude, this
Like to a murdering piece in many places
Gives me superfluous death.
(loud noises are heard inside the Castle)
(a messenger enters)
Claudius: Attend! Where is my Swissers? Let them guard the door!- What is the matter?
- Messenger: Save yourself, my Lord!
- The ocean, over-peering of his list
Eats not the flats with more impiteous 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 word,)
The cry: Choose we! Laertes shall be King!
Caps, hands, and tongues applaud it to the clouds.
Laertes shall be King, Laertes, King!
- Gertrude: How cheerfully on the false trail they cry!
(more loud noises are heard)
(Gertrude continues):- Oh, this is counter, you false Danish dogs!
(Laertes enters, escorted by town ruffians)
Claudius: The doors are broke.- Laertes: Where is this King? Sirs, stand you all, without.
- Ruffians: No, lets come in!
- Laer: I pray you, give me leave.
- Ruffians: We will, we will.
- Laer: I thank you; keep the door; O thou vile King,
- Give me my father.
(Gertrude steps between Laertes and Claudius)
Gertrude: Calmly, good Laertes.- Laertes: That drop of blood that's calm proclaims me bastard,
- Cries cuckold to my father, brands the harlot
Even here between the chaste, unsmirched brow
Of my true mother.
- Claudius: 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 to what it would,
Act's little of his will; tell me, Laertes,
Why thou art thus incensed; let him go Gertraude.
Speak, man.
- Laer: Where is my father?
- Clau: Dead.
- Gert: But not by him!
- Clau: Let him demand his fill.
- Laer: How came he dead? I'll not be juggled 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 revenged
Most throughly for my father.
- Clau: Who shall stay you?
- Laer: My will, not all the world's!
- And for my means, I'll husband them so well,
They shall go far with little.
- Clau: Good Laertes, if you desire to know the certainty
- Of your dear father, is it writ in your revenge,
That soopstake, you will draw both friend and foe
Winner and loser?
- Laer: None but his enemies.
- Clau: Will you know them, then?
- Laer: To his good friends, thus wide I'll ope' my arms,
- And like the kind, life-rendering pelican,
Repast them with my blood.
- Clau: Why, now you speak
- Like a good child, and a true gentleman.
That I am guiltless of your father's death,
And am most sensibly in grief for it,
It shall as level to your judgment 'pear
As day does to your eye.
(a noise is heard at the door;- Ophelia enters)
(both Claudius and Laertes say, exactly together):- Let her come in.
(Laertes continues):- How now, what noise is that?
Oh, heat, dry up my brains, tears seven times salt
Burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye!
By Heaven, thy madness shall be paid with weight
Till our scale turn the beam. O Rose of May!
Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia!
O heavens, is it possible a young maid's wits
Should be as mortal as a poor man's life?
Nature is fine in love, and where 'tis fine,
It sends some precious instance of itself
After the thing it loves.
- Ophelia (sings):
- They bore him bare-faced on the bier,
And in his grave rained many a tear;
(speaks):
Fare you well, my dove!
- Laer: Hadst thou thy wits, and did'st persuade revenge
- It could not move thus.
- Ophelia: You must sing a down, a down,
- And you call him a down a. Oh, how the wheel becomes it,
It is the false Steward that stole his Master's daughter.
- Laer: This nothing's more than matter.
- Ophelia: There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray you love,
- remember; and there is pansies, that's for thoughts.
- Laer: A document in madness, thoughts and remembrance fitted.
- Ophelia: There's fennel for you, and columbines; there's rue for
- you, & here's some for me; we may call it herb a' grace on Sundays;
you may wear your rue with a difference; there's a daisy; I would
give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died;
they say he made a good end.
(sings):
For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy!
- Laer: Thought and afflictions! Passion! Hell itself
- She turns to favor and to prettiness.
- Ophelia (sings):
- And will he not come again?
And will he not come again?
No, no, he is dead; go to thy death bed!
He never will come again.
His beard was as white as snow,
Flaxen was his pall,
He is gone, he is gone, and we cast away moan.
(speaks):
God 'a mercy on his soul, and of all Christian's souls,
God buy you.
(Ophelia exits)
Laertes: Do you this, O God?- Claudius: Laertes, I must commune with your grief,
- Or you deny me right; go but apart,
Make choice of whom your wisest friends you will,
And they shall hear and judge 'twixt you and me;
If by direct, or by collateral hand
They find us touched, we will our kingdom give,
Our crown, our life, and all that we call ours
To you in satisfaction; but if not,
Be you content to lend your patience to us,
And we shall jointly labor with your soul
To give it due content.
- Laer: Let this be so.
- His means of death, his obscure funeral,
No trophy sword, nor hatchment o'er his bones,
No noble rite, nor formal ostentation,
Cry to be heard as 'twere, from Heaven to earth,
That I must call it in question.
- Clau: So you shall,
- And where the offense is, let the great axe fall.
I pray you go with me.
(all exit)
End of Scene 16
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. The Tragedy of . H A M L E T . Prince of Denmark .
(In simplified modern English translation)
- Scene 16 [~ Baker's Daughter ~] (Act 4 scene 5)
Setting: Inside the castle;- The Throne Room;
Daytime, the middle of the day.
(Gertrude enters;- Horatio, and a certain Gentleman enter)
Gertrude: I will not speak with her.- Gentleman: She is insistent for attention,
- Distracted indeed, and her moods need to be pitied.
- Gertrude: What does she want?
- Gentleman: She speaks much of her father, says she hears
- There's tricks in the world, goes "hm," and hits her chest,
She kicks bad-naturedly at dry grass, and speaks things in a suspicious way,
That carry but half sense. Her speech is nothing,
Yet the uninterpreted hearing of it makes her listeners try
To find the meaning in it. They gape in bewilderment,
And they botch the words up to fit their own ideas,
Ideas which, as her winks, and nods, and gestures yield them
Would indeed make one think that thoughts might be there, like yours,
Although nothing for sure, only it's very sad.
(the Gentleman fades from view,- like a ghost in his own Hamlet)
Horatio: It would be good to speak with her, for she might cause- Wrong guesses in minds that jump to conclusions.
(Gertrude nods, and . . . )- both Gertrude and Horatio say, exactly together):
Let her come in.
(Ophelia enters)
Gertrude (aside): To my sick soul, which is the true nature of sin,- Each idea that crosses my mind seems to lead to disaster.
Guilt is so full of natural bad feeling,
It reveals itself more, the more I try to hide it.
- Ophelia: Where is the beauteous Majesty of Denmark?
- Gert: What do you mean, Ophelia?
- Ophelia (sings):
- How should I, your true love, know from another one?
By his cockle hat and staff, and his silk slippers.
Gertrude: Alas, sweet Lady, what does that song mean?- Ophelia: Did you say something? No, please, pay attention.
- (sings):
He is dead and gone, Lady, he is dead and gone,
At his head the grass green turf, at his heels a stone.
(exclaims): Oh ho!
(Ophelia jumps in the air, and clicks her heels)
Gertrude: No, but Ophelia . . .- Ophelia: Please pay attention!
- (sings)
White his shroud as the mountain snow.
(Claudius enters)
Gertrude: Alas, look here, my Lord.- Ophelia (sings):
- Larded all with sweet flowers,
Which bewept to the ground did not go
With true love showers.
Claudius: How are you doing, pretty Lady?- Ophelia: Well, God dildo you! They say the owl was a baker's daughter.
- Lord we know what we are, but know not what we may be.
God be at your table.
- Clau: A flight of fancy about her father.
- Ophelia: Please, let's have no words of this, but when they ask you
- what it means, say this:
(sings):
Tomorrow is Saint Valentine's Day
All in the morning betime
And I a maid at your window
To be your valentine
Then up he rose, put on his clothes, and opened the chamber door,
Let in the maiden, that out a maiden, never departed more.
Claudius: Pretty, Ophelia.- Ophelia: Indeed! Without an oath I'll make an end on it.
- (sings)
By Jesus and by Saint Charity,
alack, and fie for shame,
Young men will do it if they come to it
by Cock they are to blame.
Quoth she, Before you tumbled me, you promised me to wed,
He answers, So would I have done, by yonder sun,
Had you not come to my bed.
Claudius: How long has she been like this?- Ophelia: I hope all will be well, we must be patient, but I cannot choose
- but weep to think they would lay him in the cold ground. My brother
shall know of it, and so I thank you for your good counsel. Come,
my coach, good night, Ladies, good night.
Sweet Ladies, good night, good night.
(Ophelia exits)
Claudius: Follow her close, and watch over her, I pray you.
(Gertrude's ladies in waiting follow Ophelia)
(Claudius continues):- Oh, this is the poison of deep grief, it all springs from her father's
death. And now we see it. Oh Gertrude, Gertrude,
When sorrows come, they don't come one at a time,
But in battalions. First, her father slain,
Next, your son gone - and he himself the violent cause
Of his own justified absence. The people muddled,
Thinking dark and harmful thoughts, and they whisper rumors
About good Polonius's death, and we have
Buried him only recently in secrecy. Poor Ophelia
Torn apart from herself and her good judgment,
Without which we are only images of ourselves, or mere beasts.
Last, and as serious as anything,
Her brother has arrived secretly from France,
He takes in all these strange events, keeps out of sight,
And has no lack of gossipers to poison his ear
With pernicious speeches about his father's death,
In which speeches, since the speakers are ignorant of the facts,
They'll stop at nothing to accuse me
As the word goes from ear to ear. Oh, my dear Gertrude, this,
Like a huge shotgun, hits me in many vital places, and
Kills me over and over.
(an uproar is heard in the castle)
(a messenger enters)
Claudius: Attention! Where are my Swiss guards? Have them guard the door!- What is the matter?
- Messenger: Save yourself, my Lord!
- The ocean, overflowing its proper borders,
Does not flood the flats as quickly
As angry young Laertes, at the head of a mob,
Overwhelms your officers. The rabble call him "Lord,"
And it's as if the world was just now beginning,
Tradition forgotten, civilized customs unknown,
(Those traditional ratifiers and supports for the word of law.)
The cry is heard: "We choose! Laertes shall be King!"
They throw their caps, clap their hands, and shout it to the clouds:
"Laertes shall be King! Laertes, King!"
- Gertrude: How cheerfully they cry, as they follow this false trail!
(more uproar is heard)
(Gertrude continues):- Oh, this is the wrong way, you traitorous Danish dogs!
(Laertes enters, accompanied by town ruffians)
Claudius: The doors are broken.- Laertes: Where is this so-called King? Sirs, wait outside.
- The Ruffians: No, let us come in.
- Laertes: No, please, give me permission to talk to him.
- The Ruffians: Alright, we will.
- Laer: I thank you. Control the doorway. Oh, you vile King,
- Give me my father!
(Gertrude moves to block Laertes from Claudius)
Gertrude: Calmly, good Laertes.- Laertes: My only drop of blood that's calm insults me, calls me bastard,
- Cries "cuckold!" to my father, brands the harlot
Right here between the chaste, pure eyebrows
Of my true mother.
- Claudius: What is the reason, Laertes,
- That the rebellion you lead looks so big?
Let him go, Gertrude, do not fear for my safety.
There is such a divinity that surrounds a King,
That treason can only peek at what it would like to do,
And can do only a little of what it would desire. Tell me, Laertes,
Why are you so enraged? Let him go, Gertrude.
Speak, man.
- Laer: Where is my father?
- Clau: Dead.
- Gert: But not by him!
- Clau: Let him have his fill of answers to his questions.
- Laer: How did he die? I'll not be toyed with!
- To Hell with allegiance, I cast my vows to the blackest devil,
And my conscience and salvation into the deepest pit.
I dare damnation. On this point I make my stand,
That both this world, and the world beyond my life, I negligently discard.
Let whatever happens, happen - only that I will be revenged
Completely, for my father.
- Clau: Who will stop you?
- Laer: Only my own will can stop me, not all the world!
- And for my means of revenge, I'll manage them so well
That I'll go far on very little.
- Clau: Good Laertes, if you desire to know the truth
- Of your dear father, is it written in your revenge
That, like a sweepstake, you will take everything from both friend and foe,
From both winner and loser?
- Laer: None but his enemies.
- Clau: Will you know his enemies?
- Laer: To his good friends I'll open my arms wide,
- And like the proverbial pelican
I'll nourish them with my own blood.
- Clau: Why, now you speak
- Like a good child, and a true gentleman.
That I am guiltless in your father's death,
And am most sensibly in grief over it,
This shall show as clearly to your judgment
As day does to your eyes.
(a disturbance is heard at the doorway)- (Ophelia appears at the doorway, and enters)
(both Claudius and Laertes say, exactly together):- Let her come in.
(Laertes continues):- How now, what noise is that?
Oh, heat, dry up my brains, tears seven times as salty as normal
Burn out the sense and goodness of my eyes!
By Heaven, your madness will be repaid with weight
Until the beam of the scales of justice bends. Oh, Rose of May!
Dear maiden, kind sister, sweet Ophelia!
Oh, heavens, is it possible a young maiden's wits
Should be as mortal as a poor man's life?
Nature is delicate in love, and where it's delicate,
It sends a valuable part of itself
After the one it loves.
- Ophelia (sings):
- They carried him bare-faced on the bier,
And in his grave rained many a tear.
(speaks):
Fare you well, my dove!
- Laer: If you had your wits, and persuaded me with reason to take revenge,
- It could not move me so much.
- Ophelia: You must sing a down, a down,
- And you call him a down a. Oh, how the wheel becomes it!
It is the false steward that stole his master's daughter.
- Laer: This nothingness tells me more than an explanation would.
- Ophelia: There's rosemary, that's for remembrance, (pray you love,
- remember,) and there is pansies, that's for thoughts.
- Laer: A document in madness, thoughts and remembrance tangled in a fit.
- Ophelia: There's fennel for you, and columbines. There's rue for
- you, and here's some for me. We may call it herb of grace on Sundays.
You may wear your rue with a difference. There's a daisy. I would
give you some violets but they all withered when my father died.
They say he made a good end.
(sings):
For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy!
- Laer: Afflictions of thought! Passion! She makes Hell itself
- Look like a favor, and something pretty.
- Ophelia (sings):
- And will he not come again?
And will he not come again?
No, no, he is dead. Go to thy death bed!
He never will come again.
His beard was as white as snow,
Linen was his pall,
He is gone, he is gone, and we cast away moan.
(speaks):
God have mercy on his soul, and on all Christians' souls.
Goodbye to you.
(Ophelia exits)
Laertes: Have you done this, oh God?- Claudius: Laertes, I must share your grief,
- Or you deny me my right. But go your own way,
Choose from among your wisest friends whomever you wish,
And they shall hear and judge, between you and me.
And if in any direct or indirect way
They find me responsible for your father's death, I'll give up my kingdom,
My crown, my life, and all that I call mine,
To you in satisfaction of my debt to you. But if not,
Be content to give me time,
And I will work together with you
To make you contented in your desire for revenge.
- Laer: Let this be so.
- The way he was killed, his secret funeral,
No trophy sword to honor him, nor coat of arms above his bones,
No noble privilege, nor formal ceremony, it's so wrong, it
Cries to be heard, as it were, from Heaven to earth,
So that I must call it all into question.
- Clau: So you shall,
- And where the offense is, let the great axe fall on him.
Please go with me.
(all exit)
End of Scene 16
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(Regained)