I will not speak with her.
Queen Gertrude
I won't speak to her.
She is importunate, indeed distract:
Her mood will needs be pitied.
Gentlemen
She's insistent. In fact, she's crazed. You can't help feeling sorry for her.
She speaks much of her father; says she hears
There's tricks i' the world; and hems, and beats her heart;
Spurns enviously at straws; speaks things in doubt,
That carry but half sense:
Gentlemen
She talks about her father a lot, and says she hears there are conspiracies around the world, and coughs, and beats her breast, and gets angry over tiny matters, and talks nonsense.
her speech is nothing,
Yet the unshaped use of it doth move
The hearers to collection; they aim 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 tho
Gentlemen
Her words don't mean anything, but her babbling causes her listeners to draw conclusions. They hear what they want to hear. Her winks and nods and gestures do suggest that she means to convey a message, and not a happy one.
'Twere good she were spoken with; for she may strew
Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds.
Horatio
It's a good idea to speak to her, since she might lead those with evil intentions to dangerous conclusions.
Let her come in.
Exit HORATIO
To my sick soul, as sin's true nature is,
Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss:
Queen Gertrude
Show her in.
(to herself) To my sick soul (since sin is always a sickness), every detail looks like an omen of disaster to come.
He is dead and gone, lady,
He is dead and gone;
At his head a grass-green turf,
At his heels a stone.
Ophelia
He is dead and gone, lady,
He is dead and gone.
At his head is a patch of green grass,
And at his feet there is a tomb stone.
They say the owl was a baker's
daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but know not
what we may be.
Ophelia
They say the baker's daughter was turned into an owl for refusing Jesus' bread. My lord, we know what we are now, but not what we may become. (You may be something today, but that could change tomorrow.)
To-morrow 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 donn'd his clothes,
And dupp'd the chamber-door;
Let in the maid, that out a maid
Never departed more.
Ophelia
Tomorrow is St. Valentine's Day
And early in the morning
I'm a girl below your window
Waiting to be your Valentine.
Then he got up and put on his clothes
And opened the door to his room.
He let in the girl, and when she left
She wasn't a virgin an
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.
So would I ha' done, by yonder sun,
An thou hadst not come to my bed.
Ophelia
By the name of Jesus and Saint Charity,
My goodness, what a shame it is,
Young men will do it if they get a chance:
By God, they're very bad.
She said, "Before you got me into bed,
You promised to marry me."
He answers:
"I would have married you,
but I
cannot choose but weep, to think they should lay him
i' the cold ground. My brother shall know of it:
Ophelia
but I can't help crying when I think of him being laid in the cold ground. My brother will hear about this.
O, this is the poison of deep grief; it springs
All from her father's death.
King Claudius
Oh, her grief has poisoned her mind. Her father died and now look at her
When sorrows come, they come not single spies
But in battalions.
King Claudius
when bad things happen, they don't come one at a time, like enemy spies, but all at once like an army.
. First, her father slain:
Next, your son gone; and he most violent author
Of his own just remove:
King Claudius
First her father was killed, then your son was taken away�because of his own violent actions.
the people muddied,
Thick and unwholesome in their thoughts and whispers,
For good Polonius' death;
King Claudius
The people are confused and spreading nasty rumors about Polonius's death,
. and we have done but greenly,
In hugger-mugger to inter him:
King Claudius
and I was a fool to bury him in a hurry, without a proper state funeral.
poor Ophelia
Divided from herself and her fair judgment,
Without the which we are pictures, or mere beasts:
King Claudius
Poor Ophelia has been robbed of her sanity, without which we're just pictures, or animals.
Last, and as much containing as all these,
Her brother is in secret come from France;
Feeds on his wonder, keeps himself in clouds,
And wants not buzzers to infect his ear
With pestilent speeches of his father's death
King Claudius
Last but not least, her brother has secretly returned from France and is surrounded by gossip-mongers, who fill his ears with wicked stories about his father's death.
Save yourself, my lord:
Gentlemen
You must save yourself.
The ocean, overpeering of his list,
Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste
Than young Laertes, in a riotous head,
O'erbears your officers.
Gentlemen
he young Laertes, like the ocean when it floods the shore and devours the lowlands, is leading a rebellion against your government.
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,
They cry 'Choose we: Laertes shall be king
Gentlemen
the crowd calls him "lord" and shouts, "We want Laertes to be king!" It's as if they were starting the world from scratch right now, throwing out the traditions and ancient customs that are the support of every word we utter.
How cheerfully on the false trail they cry!
O, this is counter, you false Danish dogs!
Queen Gertrude
They sound so cheerful as they hunt down the wrong prey! Oh, you're on the wrong track, you disloyal Danish dogs! (Shows disrespect for people of her Kingdom - rightfully so, they are wrong)
O thou vile king,
Give me my father!
Laertes
Oh, you vile king, give me my father!
Calmly, good Laertes.
Queen Gertrude
Calm down, good 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.
Laertes
I've got exactly one calm drop of blood in my body, and it proclaims that I'm a bastard (since he hasn't punished murderer of his father, he must not be his real son) , says my father was betrayed, and stamps the label "whore" on the pure forehead
Let him go, Gertrude; do not fear our person:
King Claudius
Let him go, Gertrude. Don't worry about my getting hurt.
There's such divinity doth hedge a king,
That treason can but peep to what it would,
Acts little of his will.
King Claudius
God protects the king, so traitors can't hurt him.
Tell me, Laertes,
Why thou art thus incensed. Let him go, Gertrude.
Speak, man.
King Claudius
Tell me, Laertes, why you're so angry.�Gertrude, let him go.�Tell me, man.
Where is my father?
Laertes
Where is my father?
Dead.
King Claudius
He's dead.
But not by him.
Queen Gertrude.
But not killed by the King.
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 thoroughly for my father.
Laertes
How did he end up dead? Don't mess with me. To hell with my vows of allegiance to you! Vows can go to hell! Conscience, too! I don't care if I'm damned. I don't care what happens to me in this world or the next. Whatever happens, happens, but I'll
Good Laertes,
If you desire to know the certainty
Of your dear father's death, is't writ in your revenge,
That, swoopstake, you will draw both friend and foe,
Winner and loser?
King Claudius
My dear Laertes, in your eagerness to know the truth about your father's death, are you determined to hurt your father's friends and enemies alike?
None but his enemies.
Laertes
No, only his enemies. (person who killed him)
Will you know them then?
King Claudius
Do you want to know who they are, then?
To his good friends thus wide I'll open my arms;
And like the kind life-rendering pelican,
Repast them with my blood.
Laertes
I'll open my arms wide to his true friends, and like a mother pelican (pelicans were believed to have fed their young with their own blood) with her brood, I'll even give my life for them. (I'll shed blood for my father's friends)
Why, now you speak
Like a good child and a true gentleman.
That I am guiltless of your father's death,
And am most sensible in grief for it,
It shall as level to your judgment pierce
As day does to your eye.
King Claudius
Why, now you're talking like a good son and a true gentleman. I'll prove to you as clearly as daylight that I'm innocent of your father's death, and am struck with grief over it.
O 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 by weight,
.....! is't possible, a young maid's wits
Should be as mortal as an old man's life?
Nature is fine in love, and wh
Laertes
Oh, heat, dry up my brains! Salty tears, burn my eyes! By heaven, I'll get revenge for your madness! Oh, you springtime rose, dear maiden, kind sister, sweet Ophelia! Is it possible that a young woman's mind could fade away as easily as an old man
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,--
Ophelia
And here's a daisy, for unhappy love. I'd give you some violets, flowers of faithfulness, but they all dried up when my father died.
Thought and affliction, passion, hell itself,
She turns to favour and to prettiness.
Laertes
Sadness and torment, suffering, hell itself�she makes them almost pretty.
Laertes, I must commune with your grief,
Or you deny me right.
King Claudius
Laertes, I have a right to share your grief. (We need to talk about why you are sad.)
Go but apart,
Make choice of whom your wisest friends you will.
And they shall hear and judge 'twixt you and me:
King Claudius
Go choose your wisest friends, and have them listen to both of us and decide which of us is right
. If by direct or by collateral hand
They find us touch'd, we will our kingdom give,
Our crown, our life, and all that we can ours,
To you in satisfaction;
King Claudius
If directly or indirectly they find me implicated in your father's murder, I'll give up my kingdom, my crown, my life, and everything I call my own to you as restitution.
but if not,
Be you content to lend your patience to us,
And we shall jointly labour with your soul
To give it due content.
King Claudius
But if they find me innocent, then be patient and I'll work to satisfy to the fullest extent your deepest need for revenge.
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't in question.
Laertes
The way he died, his secret funeral, no funeral rites or military display, no noble rites or formal ceremony�shout out from heaven and earth that I must call the way he died into question.
So you shall;
And where the offence is let the great axe fall.
I pray you, go with me.
King Claudius
And you're right to do so. May the guilty party be punished by death. Please, come with me.