The Complete Works of William Shakespeare · William Shakespeare
SCENE I. A room in the Castle.
Enter King, Queen, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. KING. There’s matter in these sighs. These profound heaves You must translate; ’tis fit we understand them. Where is your son? QUEEN. Bestow this place on us a little while. [_To Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who go out._] Ah, my good lord, what have I seen tonight! KING. What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet? QUEEN. Mad as the sea and wind, when both contend Which is the mightier. In his lawless fit Behind the arras hearing something stir, Whips out his rapier, cries ‘A rat, a rat!’ And in this brainish apprehension kills The unseen good old man. KING. O heavy deed! It had been so with us, had we been there. His liberty is full of threats to all; To you yourself, to us, to everyone. Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answer’d? It will be laid to us, whose providence Should have kept short, restrain’d, and out of haunt This mad young man. But so much was our love We would not understand what was most fit, But like the owner of a foul disease, To keep it from divulging, let it feed Even on the pith of life. Where is he gone? QUEEN. To draw apart the body he hath kill’d, O’er whom his very madness, like some ore Among a mineral of metals base, Shows itself pure. He weeps for what is done.
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