The Director's Cuts:
Act 5, Scene 2
A hall in the castle.
Enter HAMLET and HORATIO
Tab
HAMLET
So much for this, sir: now shall you see the other; You do remember all the circumstance? HORATIO Remember it, my lord? HAMLET Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting, That would not let me sleep: methought I lay Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly, And praised be rashness for it, let us know, Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well, When our deep plots do pall: and that should teach us There's a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will,-- HORATIO That is most certain. HAMLET Finger'd their packet,
and in fine withdrew where I found, Horatio,-- O royal knavery!--an exact command,
Larded with many several sorts of reasons That, on the supervise, no leisure bated, Being thus be-netted round with villanies,--
Ere I could make a prologue
to my brains,
They had begun the play--
I sat me down, Devised a new commission, wrote it fair:
I once did hold it, as our statists do,
A baseness to write fair and labour'd much How to forget that learning, but, sir, now It did me yeoman's service: wilt thou know The effect of what I wrote? HORATIO Ay, good my lord. |
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HAMLET An earnest conjuration from the king,
As England was his faithful tributary, That, on the view and knowing of these contents, Not shriving-time allow'd.
HORATIO
How was this seal'd? HAMLET Why, even in that was heaven ordinant. I had my father's signet in my purse, Which was the model of that Danish seal; Folded the writ up in form of the other, Subscribed it, gave't the impression, placed it safely, The changeling never known. Now, the next day Was our sea-fight; and what to this was sequent Thou know'st already. HORATIO They are not near my conscience;
their defeat
Does by their own insinuation grow: 'Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes Between the pass and fell incensed points Of mighty opposites. HORATIO Why, what a king is this! HAMLET Does it not, think'st thee, stand me now upon-- He that hath kill'd my king and whored my mother, Popp'd in between the election and my hopes, Thrown out his angle for my proper life, And with such cozenage--is't not perfect conscience, To quit him with this arm? and is't not to be damn'd, To let this canker of our nature come In further evil? HORATIO It must be shortly known to him from England What is the issue of the business there. HAMLET It will be short: the interim is mine; And a man's life's no more than to say 'One.' The portraiture of his:
I'll court his favours.
But, sure, the bravery of his grief did put me Into a towering passion. |
HORATIO OSRIC OSRIC me, an absolute gentleman,
full of most excellent HAMLET You are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is--
HAMLET OSRIC and of very liberal conceit.
HAMLET six Barbary horses Yours, yours. Exit OSRIC
He does well to commend it himself; there are no Lord |
HAMLET KING CLAUDIUS HAMLET Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness.
Was't Hamlet wrong'd Laertes? Never Hamlet:
If Hamlet from himself be ta'en away, And when he's not himself does wrong Laertes, Then Hamlet does it not, Hamlet denies it. Who does it, then? His madness: if't be so, Hamlet is of the faction that is wrong'd; His madness is poor Hamlet's enemy. Sir, in this audience, Let my disclaiming from a purposed evil Free me so far in your most generous thoughts, That I have shot mine arrow o'er the house, And hurt my brother. |
LAERTES To keep my name ungored.
But till that time, HAMLET Come, one for me.
HAMLET
I'll be your foil, Laertes: in mine ignorance Your skill shall, like a star i' the darkest night, Stick fiery off indeed. LAERTES You mock me, sir. HAMLET No, by this hand. KING CLAUDIUS Give them the foils, young Osric. Cousin Hamlet, You know the wager? HAMLET Very well, my lord HAMLET Your grace hath laid the odds o' the weaker side. |
KING CLAUDIUS OSRIC If Hamlet give the first or second hit,
Or quit in answer of the third exchange, The king shall drink to Hamlet's better breath; In Denmark's crown have worn.
Give me the cups; Come, begin: HAMLET HAMLET Give him the cup. Another hit; what say you? KING CLAUDIUS OSRIC KING CLAUDIUS OSRIC HAMLET Then, venom, to thy work.Stabs KING CLAUDIUS
All KING CLAUDIUS LAERTES HAMLET I am dead, Horatio.
Wretched queen, adieu! Thou livest; report me and my cause aright HORATIO To tell my story.
March afar off, and shot within What warlike noise is this? HAMLET The potent poison quite o'er-crows my spirit:
Exeunt all but HAMLET I cannot live to hear the news from England;
The rest is silence. HORATIO I will speak daggers to her, but use none; And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!
Why does the drum come hither? Enter FORTINBRAS, the English Ambassadors, and others PRINCE FORTINBRAS |
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