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Acting, Theater, Film, and Dance

UNIT 5

Film 219 Film 219

Elements of Film Script Organization of the shots as well as the words and phrases spoken by the actors.

Sound and Audio Actual sound captured by the fi lming and sounds added by editing them in.

Camera Angles and Camera Movements The way in which the camera moves in order to capture images to portray mood and show actors’ expressions and emotions.

Acting The actresses and actors portraying characters, making situations believable.

Lighting Use of light, to capture mood, draw attention, and create suspense if needed. This is noticeable especially in black-and-white fi lms’ use of values and shadows.

Costumes and Makeup These add details and information to the story and characterization. The costumes must be authentic in historic fi lms. Makeup can also help in creating believable characters in fi lm.

Editing Placing pieces of fi lm together in a fashion to create a story. This may also be the ar- rangement of scenes to create mood. Editing also helps explain who the characters are and their location in varying scenes. Editing can help create suspense by using intercutting. Editing is also done to add sound and special effects. Before highly technical computerized fi lm editing software, an optical printer was used. For ex- ample, special effects in the scene of the parting of the Red Sea in the fi lm, The Ten Commandments, created believable events in fi lm.

FILM 1

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Elements of Music Melody: single succession of tones

Harmony: two or more tones sounding together

Rhythm: the beat or pulsation rhythm

Tempo: rate of speed

Dynamics: loudness or softness

Timbre: quality of sound used to distinguish between one instrument or voice and another

Texture: one line of melody by itself which is monophonic, or two or more melodies together which is polyphonic, or the sameness of sound like a chord with melody which is homophonic

Film is considered the newest art form. An outgrowth of film is video. Video and film are probably the most accessible and widely experienced art forms for many people. Film is a work of art that communicates through form within a time frame. It is seen in three-dimensional space compressed into a two-dimensional image.

Film is also highly technical. It evolved from the principles of photography and developed into projected images. Many early filmmakers composed their works by add- ing single photographs to each other, frame by frame. The eye’s physiological limita- tions cause the movement in motion pictures. It cannot perceive the black line between frames when the filmstrip is moved. Your eye sees the succession of frames minus the lines that divide them. The image in each frame does not actually move but seems to move. This phenomenon is called persistence of vision.

The theory of persistence of vision means that it takes the eye a fraction of a second to record the image’s impression and then send it to the brain. The eye retains the image for about one-tenth of a second after the actual image has disappeared. Motion picture film is usually projected at a speed of twenty-four frames per second. Images are merged through the theory called persistence of image.

Filmmakers are also designers, and they attempt to create each individual frame as care- fully as they would a still photograph or a painting. A student of film will soon notice that the greatest films make use of detail, individual frame design, and composition. Excellent examples of this artistry are Ingmar Bergman’s Seventh Seal, Jean Renoir’s Grand Illusion, David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia, and Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane.

Film as Art Film consists of many elements. A worthwhile, remarkable film is considered a work of art when the elements all work well together. The film needs to be technically well done, and the camera shots, movements, and angles need to be visually exciting. The film also needs to be presented in an original and imaginative manner.

In watching films be sure to be observant. Narrative films have actors in them and usually there is a plot and a story, which is memorable.

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A narrative can be analyzed by taking time to really examine the way that the direc- tor, the director of photography, the musical director and composer, and the editor put the entire film together.

You may want to view a list of great films by using the website of the American Film Institute and look at the list of the top ten films of all time. Classic films are studied by the great directors piece by piece and dissected when they are in film school. Direc- tors learn from each other and as time goes on more technological advancements help make films seem even more believable.

When you watch a film, try not to just watch it for entertainment purposes. Try to watch it as an individual who is observing the use the film elements such as the use of the sound, lighting, acting, script, camera angles and movements. Ask yourself ques- tions as you watch a film scene and be sure you pay close attention to the details. You must watch the scene several times in order to fully see that the elements were used by the director.

Be sure to pay attention to the camera angles, sound, soundtrack (the music used), and camera movements. Pay attention to the script and the sound as well as the set design, costumes, makeup, any use of special effects, and the acting. You may want to watch the film more than once or even twice. Ask yourself questions about the film such as:

Did the camera move towards the subject or did the actor (subject) walk towards the camera? (Zoom in is going towards theobject; zoom out is going away from the object.)

• Did the sound used by the editor sound natural or were sounds added? Did they use scary music or soft friendly music? What type of music was it? Was it an or- chestra or piano or vocal that was heard in the sound track?

• Was the setting in a city? In a house? On a street? In the rain? Inside or outside? Was it natural light? Low or brightly lit?

Be very observant and watch a scene paying close attention to detail. This helps to understand the way films are made and how much attention goes into lighting, cam- era movements and camera angles, costumes, makeup, set design, musical sound track, actual sounds, acting, and script—the film elements.

Film Elements The elements of film are direction, script, sound and audio, camera angles and move- ments, acting, photography, lighting, sets, costumes, makeup, music, special effects, and editing, to list a few.

The individuals involved in making a film are many. They are the producer, direc- tor, actors, scriptwriters, musicians, audio and camera operators, grips, gaffers, continu- ity person, and makeup artists, among others. These individuals and the film elements are interesting to observe when analyzing films.

Three Types of Film There are basically three types of films that encompass most works: narrative, documentary, and absolute.

Narrative Film A narrative film is a very popular type of film—it tells a story. Popular novels and stories are often transformed into narrative films. Can you think of any narrative films that you

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have seen recently? Narrative films are usually similar to literary construction. As in the theater, the people or characters in the story are portrayed by professional actors under the guidance of a director. Many narrative films are written in styles called genre films. Popular genres are detective, horror, western, mystery, and love stories.

Documentary Film A documentary film is similar to watching a news program that does not use actors. It is shot on location, and many times a reporter will narrate the findings. Events are not staged or reenacted by professional actors. Documentary films record actual events in a journalistic approach. They convey a sense of reality and record the time and place of the camera person.

Absolute Film An absolute film is sometimes called an experimental film. It exists for its own sake. It tells no story, but exists for the purpose of the movement, or the colors and shapes, or the combinations of sound and light. Absolute films may use innovative techniques or special effects and try new ideas. They are considered an artistic expression. Museums sometimes show experimental films, and some are used in the educational market.

Motion Pictures Theatrical vs. Cinematic Style In the first films, the directors thought in terms of theatrical productions they had seen before. The camera sat in front, like the audience, and never moved. The unit of action, as in the theater, was the scene. Gradually, however, filmmakers began to realize the special possibilities of filming. They began to move the camera about as the action seemed to indicate, and the scene was broken down into shots. Thus the film freed itself of the limitations of the theatrical approach. D. W. Griffith, more than any other indi- vidual, was responsible for this.

The Lumiere Brothers In 1895, two Frenchmen named Lumiere shot their first film. They titled it Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory. Their invention, which was both camera and projector, was called the cinematographe. They opened the first movie theater in the basement of a Paris cafe on December 28, 1895. Their films were all composed of single scenes such as a train arriving at a station or the feeding of a baby.

Thomas Edison As early as 1891, Thomas Edison patented a movie camera, the KINETOGRAPH, and a peephole viewer, the KINETOSCOPE, through which his single-scene pictures, such as Fred Ott’s Sneeze, could be viewed. Edison did not have confidence in the future of motion pictures, so he refused to spend $150 to extend his patent rights to England and Europe. His biggest contribution to film was the sprocket holes that permit the film to move through the camera and projector.

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George Melies Melies, a French magician, added interest to fi lms through his skills in camera trickery. Disappearances and transformations play a part in many of his fi lms. The showmanship and humor of his fi lms, such as The Terrible Turkish Executioner and A Trip to the Moon, make them enjoyable even today. Melies contributed the superimposure (one image over- lapping another), the lap dissolve (one scene fades out as another fades in), and the cut (the fi lm is cut apart and spliced together to produce some effect).

Edwin S. Porter As the director of production for Edison’s studio, Edwin S. Porter made several contributions to the development of fi lm. In The Life of an American Fireman, he invented fi lm editing, putting together a series of scenes to tell a story. This fi lm is also the fi rst to present a narrative on location. In The Great Train Robbery, the fi rst western, Porter continued to improve his editing techniques. He also introduced the pan and the elliptical jump forward in time, which is now a common feature of fi lm.

D. W. Griffi th David Wark Griffi th, who got into fi lms more or less accidentally, turned out to be the most important director of the silent era. He was the fi rst fi lmmaker to move the camera about freely, combining a variety of angles and positions to produce a truly cine- matic effect. In his fi lms, such as The Lonedale Operator, Birth of a Nation, and Intolerance, Griffi th introduced some of the fi rst great stars of fi lm: Mary Pickford, Blanch Sweet, Lionel Barrymore, and Lillian and Dorothy Gish.

In the early 1920s, the sound pictures began and the fi rst sound fi lm was entitled The Jazz Singer. Al Jolson was the main star in that fi lm. He sang, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.” Films such as Thirty Nine Steps by Alfred Hitchcock were considered to be a very scary and suspenseful fi lm. Hitchcock became known as the master of suspense. Some fi lms made around the time of World War II composed in Italy are now referred to as the Neo-realists which were fi lms featuring bold and realistic situations dealing with the oppression of people.

Genre (Films) Themes (of Films)

Mystery Battle of the Sexes Western Love Science Fiction Man and Society Animation Documentary

When artists, writers, lighting directors, choreographers, and musicians work together on a production they may produce an opera which is a combined art or it may be a musical. The types of music used in musicals can vary. Music theater has been around for many years.

“It took many years for the American musical theatre to acquire its own identity. The fi rst musical production in the Colonies was Flora, a performance that took place

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in a court room in Charleston, South Carolina, on February 8, 1735. Flora was a bal- lad opera imported from England. The English ballad opera remained popular in the Colonies for several decades.” (Source: http://www.theatrehistory.com/american/musi- cal030.html)

Special Information/Key Terms Animation Animation consists of a series of individual pictures that are drawn and painted before they are photographed. The animation is done on cels (individual pieces of acetate) and then photographed one by one. When they are run through a projector, they appear to move. Steamboat Willie was the original Mickey Mouse cartoon.

Documentary The documentary is to dramatic film as nonfiction is to fiction. The documentary draws upon fact, presenting actual people, places, and events rather than imaginary ones. The term direct cinema has also been used for this form. Gray Gardens was a television pro- gram by David and Albert Maysles, documentary filmmakers who did documentaries on public television as well as for Jeanne-Claude and Christo documenting their art projects over the years.

Shots A shot is a single unit of filming; what the camera records from the time it is turned on until it is turned off is one shot. There are many types of shots, and new ones are being invented constantly. A master shot is one that records all of the action in a scene from beginning to end. Using the master shot as a cutaway, a shorter shot may be used that records some detail of the scene. This is sometimes done to cover a mistake in the mas- ter shot or simply to add variety and interest.

Shots are also described in terms of the distance between the camera and the sub- ject: a long shot gives a panoramic effect, recording the action at a distance; a medium shot gives a midrange view, as if the camera were a few feet from the subject; a close-up moves in tight to exclude all background distractions. Of course, there are many grada- tions in between: medium close-up, extreme close-up, medium long shot, and so on.

Camera Movements There are several terms that describe camera movements. One is the zoom in. If the camera retreats from the subject, it is a zoom out. If the camera eye moves horizontally without changing its base (as if the viewer’s head is turning), it is called a pan. If the camera moves vertically (as if the viewer is looking up or down), it is called a tilt.

Storyboard The storyboard, which is made as a part of preproduction, resembles a large comic strip. It pictures each of the important shots in the film in the sequence in which they will occur. It is used by the director, the director of photography, and the editor.

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Stripping the Script The scenes in a film are never shot in the sequence in which they finally appear. To save time and money, the director may want to shoot all the scenes in one location on a cer- tain day or all the scenes involving a particular actor. The process of deciding in what order the scenes are to be shot is called stripping the script.

Rushes The rushes are the selected “takes” or shots from which the editor and director choose and arrange the portions to be included in the finished film.

Special Effects A special effect is any alteration or combination of film images in a film. These effects are produced with a machine called an optical printer, and they may be as simple as a freeze-frame or as complicated as the parting of the Red Sea in The Ten Commandments. Other films that are heavy with special effects are Alien, Star Trek, I Am Legend, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Three Phases of Production

Preproduction The idea for a film may come from many sources. It begins to become a film with the writing of the script. After the scriptwriter’s job is done, the director carefully plans the production. The producer is in charge of selecting locations, casting actors, assembling a crew, and renting equipment. Anything that occurs before filming starts is preproduction.

Production The director controls all aspects of the actual production of the film. With the actors, the director works to create the characterizations. With the director of photography, the director plans and executes the visual aspects of the film. With the sound crew, the director arranges the recording of sound for the film. The director of photography communicates ideas to the camera operator who sets up the shots and runs the cameras. The sound crew is assisted by the mike crew, or boom crew, who position the sound equipment. Usually, there is a script or continuity person, who keeps a careful record of the shots and makes sure that the visual details match. There are also grips who do the physical labor on the set. A makeup person is also usually present to keep the actors looking good. The grip carries equipment. A gaffer carries equipment that is connected to an electrical outlet.

Postproduction The editor may be present during production to make sure that the shots will cut together, but his or her job really begins after filming is over. The editor works closely with the director to put the individual shots of the film together into their final form.

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Amadeus The film Amadeus is about the life of the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Throughout the film, the musical sound track utilized music composed by Mozart. As you know, Mozart was the Classical composer who died at age thirty-five.

The film opens when two helpers go to the door of another composer named Sal- ieri, a court composer to the archbishop. They are delivering food to Salieri but he is not answering the door.

However, the film takes the viewer through many series of flashbacks which are explained to the viewer with Salieri’s conversation as he talks to the young priest. The young priest has come to seek a confession from Salieri who has been placed in an asy- lum for the mentally impaired.

Salieri is talking to the priest who is interviewing him because Salieri is being accused of poisoning Mozart who has just died.

The musical soundtrack was recorded in Prague, Czechoslovakia. The main char- acters in Amadeus were played by Tom Hulce as Mozart and Murry Abraham as Salieri. Hulce was convincing when at the piano because he played the piano in the film and practiced for four hours a day in preparation.

In a scene when his father visits him and he and his wife go to a party Hulce actually plays the piano on his back in a scene. Source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086879/ trivia

At the end of Amadeus, Mozart’s coffin is carried out of the church and thrown into a pauper’s grave while the powerful music of the sound track offers a portion of the Requiem titled “Lacrimosa.” The song is sung in Latin and adds to the emotional drama of the scene. The text’s meaning as translated is about asking God to be merciful and spare the guilty man and give them rest.

Another theme of Amadeus that strikes a universal chord is the sad spectacle of a towering genius poorly rewarded by society. No more shocking or dramatic example in all of history can be found than Mozart.

Source: http://www.angelfire.com/film/theamadeus/music/process.html

The cast in Amadeus

F. Murray Abraham....... Antonio Salieri Tom Hulce.................... Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Elizabeth Berridge........ Constanze Mozart Roy Dotrice.................. Leopold Mozart Simon Callow................ Emanuel Schikaneder Christine Ebersole........ Katerina Cavalieri Jeffrey Jones.................. Emperor Joseph II

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Study Guide 1. a. What are three phases in the production of a film?

b. Who are the principle participants in each of these phases? Explain in detail what each one is responsible for and what they do.

2. What are the major problems that can occur in producing a film and marketing it? 3. What is a “shot”? What terms are used to differentiate between shots?

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4. What terms are used to describe camera movements? 5. Describe the roles of the following people:

a. director b. producer c. continuity person d. editor e. sound crew f. director of photography g. grip h. gaffer

6. Defi ne the following terms: a. cutaway b. rushes c. tilt d. pan e. storyboard f. zoom g. master shot h. stripping the script

Film Title Director

Lawrence of Arabia David Lean Annie Hall Woody Allen Citizen Kane Orson Welles Amadeus Milos Foreman

William Shakespeare Hamlet Except for the Bible, Shakespeare’s Hamlet is perhaps the West’s most famous literary work. Hardly a day passes without this play being acted, either on a commercial stage or in a school or college; and many versions of the play, on fi lm and on tape, ensure its universal visibility. Hamlet’s role is usually defi ned as the most diffi cult in the theater, and many actors, and a few actresses, often choose to play Hamlet as a crown to their careers. It is so well known that the world uses the term Hamletlike to describe people unable to make up their minds.

The hectic world in which Hamlet appeared gave no forecast of the play’s future greatness. First staged in 1600, the play was one of a series that William Shakespeare (1564–1616) was turning out for the nearly insatiable demands of the commercial stage. He was fresh to London in 1590 from a middle-class youth in Stratford-upon-Avon. When Shakespeare retired to gentlemanly leisure in Stratford in 1610, he had written thirty-seven dramas—almost two plays a year.

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The London audiences did not want masterpieces; instead, they craved violence, ghosts, and murders galore. They wanted revenge tragedies, the most popular dramatic form in the Age of Elizabeth (1558–1603), England’s golden age. This taste for blood is not surprising, for Elizabethan England made national heroes of pirate patriots like Francis Drake and accepted as normal that Protestants and Catholics should burn her- etics alive. It was for this violence-filled age that Shakespeare wrote Hamlet, based on a bloody revenge tale that had already inspired one play during the 1580s.

Reading the Selection Shakespeare’s Hamlet is set at the royal Danish court. Its revenge theme is activated by the murder of old King Hamlet. Prince Hamlet, depressed by his father’s death, is plunged into a court seething with intrigue, carousing, ghosts, and spies. There are also wandering actors, an oath sworn on swords, a secret letter, a deadly duel, and a hasty funeral. Lest these devices be insufficiently entertaining, Hamlet himself veers from madman to scholar to prince to swordsman before he gets his revenge. At the end, the stage is littered with corpses and the major characters are all dead.

What rescues Hamlet from mere melodrama and pushes it into the stratosphere of great art are Shakespeare’s majestic language and complete mastery of psychology. The theater, reborn in medieval productions like Everyman, with its simple morals and even simpler psychology, now came to maturity in Shakespeare’s hands.

Dramatis Personae CLAUDIUS King of Denmark HAMLET Son to the late, and nephew to the present king POLONIUS Lord Chamberlain HORATIO Friend to Hamlet LAERTES Son to Polonius VOLTIMAND Courtiers CORNELIUS ROSENCRANTZ GUILDENSTERN OSRIC A GENTLEMAN A PRIEST MARCELLUS Officers

BERNARDO FRANCISCO A soldier REYNALDO Servant to Polonius PLAYERS TWO CLOWNS Grave-diggers FORTINBRAS Prince of Norway A CAPTAIN ENGLISH AMBASSADORS GERTRUDE Queen of Denmark, and mother to Hamlet OPHELIA Daughter to Polonius LORDS, LADIES, OFFICERS, SOLDIERS, SAIL- ORS, MESSENGERS, and OTHER ATTENDANTS GHOST of Hamlet’s father

SCENE—DENMARK

ACT IV SCENE I. A room in the castle. Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, ROS- ENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN

KING CLAUDIUS There’s matter in these sighs, these profound heaves: You must translate: ‘tis fit we understand them. Where is your son?

QUEEN GERTRUDE Bestow this place on us a little while. Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN Ah, my good lord, what have I seen to-night!

KING CLAUDIUS What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet?

QUEEN GERTRUDE Mad as the sea and wind, when both contend Which is the mightier: in his lawless fit, Behind the arras hearing something stir,

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Whips out his rapier, cries, ‘A rat, a rat!’ And, in this brainish apprehension, kills The unseen good old man.

KING CLAUDIUS 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 every one. 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 GERTRUDE 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.

KING CLAUDIUS O Gertrude, come away! The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch, But we will ship him hence: and this vile deed We must, with all our majesty and skill, Both countenance and excuse. Ho, Guildenstern! Re-enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN Friends both, go join you with some further aid: Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain, And from his mother’s closet hath he dragg’d him: Go seek him out; speak fair, and bring the body Into the chapel. I pray you, haste in this. Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN Come, Gertrude, we’ll call up our wisest friends; And let them know, both what we mean to do, And what’s untimely done. O, come away! My soul is full of discord and dismay. Exeunt

SCENE II. Another room in the castle. Enter HAMLET

HAMLET Safely stowed.

ROSENCRANTZ: GUILDENSTERN: [Within] Hamlet! Lord Hamlet!

HAMLET What noise? who calls on Hamlet? O, here they come.

Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN

ROSENCRANTZ What have you done, my lord, with the dead body?

HAMLET Compounded it with dust, whereto ‘tis kin.

ROSENCRANTZ Tell us where ‘tis, that we may take it thence And bear it to the chapel.

HAMLET Do not believe it.

ROSENCRANTZ Believe what?

HAMLET That I can keep your counsel and not mine own. Besides, to be demanded of a sponge! what replication should be made by the son of a king?

ROSENCRANTZ Take you me for a sponge, my lord?

HAMLET Ay, sir, that soaks up the king’s countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the king best service in the end: he keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his jaw; first mouthed, to be last swallowed: when he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again.

ROSENCRANTZ I understand you not, my lord.

HAMLET I am glad of it: a knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear.

ROSENCRANTZ My lord, you must tell us where the body is, and go with us to the king.

HAMLET The body is with the king, but the king is not with the body. The king is a thing--

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GUILDENSTERN A thing, my lord!

HAMLET Of nothing: bring me to him. Hide fox, and all after. Exeunt

SCENE III. Another room in the castle. Enter KING CLAUDIUS, attended

KING CLAUDIUS I have sent to seek him, and to find the body. How dangerous is it that this man goes loose! Yet must not we put the strong law on him: He’s loved of the distracted multitude, Who like not in their judgment, but their eyes; And where tis so, the offender’s scourge is weigh’d, But never the offence. To bear all smooth and even, This sudden sending him away must seem Deliberate pause: diseases desperate grown By desperate appliance are relieved, Or not at all. Enter ROSENCRANTZ How now! what hath befall’n?

ROSENCRANTZ Where the dead body is bestow’d, my lord, We cannot get from him.

KING CLAUDIUS But where is he?

ROSENCRANTZ Without, my lord; guarded, to know your pleasure.

KING CLAUDIUS Bring him before us.

ROSENCRANTZ Ho, Guildenstern! bring in my lord. Enter HAMLET and GUILDENSTERN

KING CLAUDIUS Now, Hamlet, where’s Polonius?

HAMLET At supper.

KING CLAUDIUS At supper! where?

HAMLET Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain convocation of politic worms are e’en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service, two dishes, but to one table: that’s the end.

KING CLAUDIUS Alas, alas!

HAMLET A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and cat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.

KING CLAUDIUS What dost you mean by this?

HAMLET Nothing but to show you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar.

KING CLAUDIUS Where is Polonius?

HAMLET In heaven; send hither to see: if your messenger find him not there, seek him i’ the other place yourself. But indeed, if you find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby.

KING CLAUDIUS Go seek him there. To some Attendants

HAMLET He will stay till ye come. Exeunt Attendants

KING CLAUDIUS Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safety,-- Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve For that which thou hast done,--must send thee hence With fiery quickness: therefore prepare thyself; The bark is ready, and the wind at help, The associates tend, and every thing is bent For England.

HAMLET For England!

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KING CLAUDIUS Ay, Hamlet.

HAMLET Good.

KING CLAUDIUS So is it, if thou knew’st our purposes.

HAMLET I see a cherub that sees them. But, come; for England! Farewell, dear mother.

KING CLAUDIUS Thy loving father, Hamlet.

HAMLET My mother: father and mother is man and wife; man and wife is one flesh; and so, my mother. Come, for England! Exit

KING CLAUDIUS Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed aboard; Delay it not; I’ll have him hence to-night: Away! for every thing is seal’d and done That else leans on the affair: pray you, make haste. Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN And, England, if my love thou hold’st at aught-- As my great power thereof may give thee sense, Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red After the Danish sword, and thy free awe Pays homage to us--thou mayst not coldly set Our sovereign process; which imports at full, By letters congruing to that effect, The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England; For like the hectic in my blood he rages, And thou must cure me: till I know ‘tis done, Howe’er my haps, my joys were ne’er begun. Exit

SCENE IV. A plain in Denmark. Enter FORTINBRAS, a Captain, and Soldiers, marching

PRINCE FORTINBRAS Go, captain, from me greet the Danish king; Tell him that, by his licence, Fortinbras Craves the conveyance of a promised march Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous. If that his majesty would aught with us, We shall express our duty in his eye; And let him know so.

Captain I will do’t, my lord.

PRINCE FORTINBRAS Go softly on. Exeunt FORTINBRAS and Soldiers Enter HAMLET, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and others

HAMLET Good sir, whose powers are these?

Captain They are of Norway, sir.

HAMLET How purposed, sir, I pray you?

Captain Against some part of Poland.

HAMLET Who commands them, sir?

Captain The nephews to old Norway, Fortinbras.

HAMLET Goes it against the main of Poland, sir, Or for some frontier?

Captain Truly to speak, and with no addition, We go to gain a little patch of ground That hath in it no profit but the name. To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it; Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee.

HAMLET Why, then the Polack never will defend it.

Captain Yes, it is already garrison’d.

HAMLET Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats Will not debate the question of this straw: This is the imposthume of much wealth and peace, That inward breaks, and shows no cause without Why the man dies. I humbly thank you, sir.

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Captain God be wi’ you, sir. Exit

ROSENCRANTZ Wilt please you go, my lord?

HAMLET I’ll be with you straight go a little before. Exeunt all except HAMLET How all occasions do inform against me, And spur my dull revenge! What is a man, If his chief good and market of his time Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more.

Sure, he that made us with such large discourse, Looking before and after, gave us not That capability and god-like reason To fust in us unused. Now, whether it be Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple Of thinking too precisely on the event,

A thought which, quarter’d, hath but one part wisdom And ever three parts coward, I do not know Why yet I live to say ‘This thing’s to do;’ Sith I have cause and will and strength and means To do’t. Examples gross as earth exhort me: Witness this army of such mass and charge Led by a delicate and tender prince,

Whose spirit with divine ambition puff’d Makes mouths at the invisible event, Exposing what is mortal and unsure To all that fortune, death and danger dare, Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be great Is not to stir without great argument, But greatly to find quarrel in a straw

When honour’s at the stake. How stand I then, That have a father kill’d, a mother stain’d, Excitements of my reason and my blood, And let all sleep? while, to my shame, I see The imminent death of twenty thousand men, That, for a fantasy and trick of fame,

Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause, Which is not tomb enough and continent To hide the slain? O, from this time forth, My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth! Exit

SCENE V. Elsinore. A room in the castle. Enter QUEEN GERTRUDE, HORATIO, and a Gentleman

QUEEN GERTRUDE I will not speak with her.

Gentleman She is importunate, indeed distract: Her mood will needs be pitied.

QUEEN GERTRUDE What would she have?

Gentleman 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: 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 thought, Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily.

HORATIO ‘Twere good she were spoken with; for she may strew Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds.

QUEEN GERTRUDE Let her come in. Exit HORATIO 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. Re-enter HORATIO, with OPHELIA

OPHELIA Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark?

QUEEN GERTRUDE How now, Ophelia!

OPHELIA [Sings] How should I your true love know From another one? By his cockle hat and staff, And his sandal shoon.

QUEEN GERTRUDE Alas, sweet lady, what imports this song?

OPHELIA Say you? nay, pray you, mark.

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Sings He is dead and gone, lady, He is dead and gone; At his head a grass-green turf, At his heels a stone.

QUEEN GERTRUDE Nay, but, Ophelia,--

OPHELIA Pray you, mark. Sings White his shroud as the mountain snow,-- Enter KING CLAUDIUS

QUEEN GERTRUDE Alas, look here, my lord.

OPHELIA [Sings] Larded with sweet flowers Which bewept to the grave did go With true-love showers.

KING CLAUDIUS How do you, pretty lady?

OPHELIA Well, God ‘ild 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!

KING CLAUDIUS Conceit upon her father.

OPHELIA Pray you, let’s have no words of this; but when they ask you what it means, say you this: Sings 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.

KING CLAUDIUS Pretty Ophelia!

OPHELIA Indeed, la, without an oath, I’ll make an end on’t: 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. So would I ha’ done, by yonder sun, An thou hadst not come to my bed.

KING 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 should lay him i’ 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. Exit

KING CLAUDIUS Follow her close; give her good watch, I pray you. Exit HORATIO O, this is the poison of deep grief; it springs All from her father’s death. 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 their 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 his wonder, keeps himself in clouds, And wants not buzzers to infect his ear With pestilent speeches of his father’s death; Wherein necessity, of matter beggar’d, 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. A noise within

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QUEEN GERTRUDE Alack, what noise is this?

KING CLAUDIUS Where are my Switzers? Let them guard the door. Enter another Gentleman What is the matter?

Gentleman Save yourself, my lord: 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. 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:’ Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds: ‘Laertes shall be king, Laertes king!’

QUEEN GERTRUDE How cheerfully on the false trail they cry! O, this is counter, you false Danish dogs!

KING CLAUDIUS The doors are broke. Noise within Enter LAERTES, armed; Danes following

LAERTES Where is this king? Sirs, stand you all without.

Danes No, let’s come in.

LAERTES I pray you, give me leave.

Danes We will, we will. They retire without the door

LAERTES I thank you: keep the door. O thou vile king, Give me my father!

QUEEN 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.

KING 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, Acts little of his will. Tell me, Laertes, Why thou art thus incensed. Let him go, Gertrude. Speak, man.

LAERTES Where is my father?

KING CLAUDIUS Dead.

QUEEN GERTRUDE But not by him.

KING CLAUDIUS Let him demand his fill.

LAERTES 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 thoroughly for my father.

KING CLAUDIUS Who shall stay you?

LAERTES My will, not all the world: And for my means, I’ll husband them so well, They shall go far with little.

KING CLAUDIUS 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?

LAERTES None but his enemies.

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KING CLAUDIUS Will you know them then?

LAERTES To his good friends thus wide I’ll ope my arms; And like the kind life-rendering pelican, Repast them with my blood.

KING CLAUDIUS 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.

Danes [Within] Let her come in.

LAERTES How now! what noise is that? Re-enter OPHELIA 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, Till our scale turn the beam. O rose of May! Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia! O heavens! is’t possible, a young maid’s wits Should be as moral as an old 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 barefaced on the bier; Hey non nonny, nonny, hey nonny; And in his grave rain’d many a tear:-- Fare you well, my dove!

LAERTES Hadst thou thy wits, and didst persuade revenge, It could not move thus.

OPHELIA [Sings] You must sing a-down a-down, An you call him a-down-a. O, how the wheel becomes it! It is the false steward, that stole his master’s daughter.

LAERTES This nothing’s more than matter.

OPHELIA There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance; pray, love, remember: and there is pansies. that’s for thoughts.

LAERTES A document in madness, thoughts and remembrance fitted.

OPHELIA There’s fennel for you, and columbines: there’s rue for you; and here’s some for me: we may call it herb-grace o’ Sundays: O you must 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.

LAERTES Thought and affliction, passion, hell itself, She turns to favour 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, All flaxen was his poll: He is gone, he is gone, And we cast away moan: God ha’ mercy on his soul! And of all Christian souls, I pray God. God be wi’ ye. Exit

LAERTES Do you see this, O God?

KING 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 touch’d, we will our kingdom give, Our crown, our life, and all that we can ours,

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To you in satisfaction; 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.

LAERTES 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’t in question.

KING CLAUDIUS So you shall; And where the offence is let the great axe fall. I pray you, go with me. Exeunt

SCENE VI. Another room in the castle. Enter HORATIO and a Servant

HORATIO What are they that would speak with me?

Servant Sailors, sir: they say they have letters for you.

HORATIO 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. Enter Sailors

First Sailor God bless you, sir.

HORATIO Let him bless thee too.

First Sailor He shall, sir, an’t please him. There’s a letter for you, sir; it comes from the ambassador that was bound for England; if your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is.

HORATIO [Reads] ‘Horatio, when thou shalt have overlooked this, give these fellows some means to the king: they have letters for him. Ere we were two days old at sea, a pirate of 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 wouldst 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.’ Come, I will make you way for these your letters; And do’t the speedier, that you may direct me To him from whom you brought them. Exeunt

SCENE VII. Another room in the castle. Enter KING CLAUDIUS and LAERTES

KING CLAUDIUS Now must your conscience my acquaintance seal, And you must put me in your heart for friend, Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear, That he which hath your noble father slain Pursued my life.

LAERTES It well appears: but tell me Why you proceeded not against these feats, So crimeful and so capital in nature, As by your safety, wisdom, all things else, You mainly were stirr’d up.

KING CLAUDIUS O, for two special reasons; Which may to you, perhaps, seem much unsinew’d, But yet to me they are strong. The queen his mother Lives almost by his looks; and for myself-- My virtue or my plague, be it either which-- She’s so conjunctive to my life and soul, That, as the star moves not but in his sphere, I could not but by her. The other motive, Why to a public count I might not go, 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, Too slightly timber’d for so loud a wind,

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Would have reverted to my bow again, And not where I had aim’d them.

LAERTES 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 CLAUDIUS Break not your sleeps for that: you must not think That we are made of stuff so flat and dull That we can let our beard be shook with danger And think it pastime. You shortly shall hear more: I loved your father, and we love ourself; And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine-- Enter a Messenger How now! what news?

Messenger Letters, my lord, from Hamlet: This to your majesty; this to the queen.

KING CLAUDIUS From Hamlet! who brought them?

Messenger Sailors, my lord, they say; I saw them not: They were given me by Claudio; he received them Of him that brought them.

KING CLAUDIUS Laertes, you shall hear them. Leave us. Exit Messenger [Reads] ‘High and mighty, You shall know I am set naked on your kingdom. To-morrow shall I beg leave to see your kingly eyes: when I shall, first asking your pardon thereunto, recount the occasion of my sudden and more strange return. ‘HAMLET.’ What should this mean? Are all the rest come back? Or is it some abuse, and no such thing?

LAERTES Know you the hand?

KING CLAUDIUS ‘Tis Hamlets character. ‘Naked! And in a postscript here, he says ‘alone.’ Can you advise me?

LAERTES I’m lost in it, my lord. But let him come; It warms the very sickness in my heart, That I shall live and tell him to his teeth, ‘Thus didest thou.’

KING CLAUDIUS If it be so, Laertes-- As how should it be so? how otherwise?-- Will you be ruled by me?

LAERTES Ay, my lord; So you will not o’errule me to a peace.

KING CLAUDIUS To thine own peace. If he be now return’d, As checking at his voyage, and that he means No more to undertake it, I will work him To an exploit, now ripe in my device, Under the which he shall not choose but fall: And for his death no wind of blame shall breathe, But even his mother shall uncharge the practise And call it accident.

LAERTES My lord, I will be ruled; The rather, if you could devise it so That I might be the organ.

KING CLAUDIUS It falls right. You have been talk’d of since your travel much, And that in Hamlet’s hearing, for a quality Wherein, they say, you shine: your sum of parts Did not together pluck such envy from him As did that one, and that, in my regard, Of the unworthiest siege.

LAERTES What part is that, my lord?

KING CLAUDIUS A very riband in the cap of youth, Yet needful too; for youth no less becomes The light and careless livery that it wears Than settled age his sables and his weeds, Importing health and graveness. Two months since, Here was a gentleman of Normandy:-- I’ve seen myself, and served against, the French, And they can well on horseback: but this gallant Had witchcraft in’t; he grew unto his seat;

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And to such wondrous doing brought his horse, As he had been incorpsed and demi-natured With the brave beast: so far he topp’d my thought, That I, in forgery of shapes and tricks, Come short of what he did.

LAERTES A Norman was’t?

KING CLAUDIUS A Norman.

LAERTES Upon my life, Lamond.

KING CLAUDIUS The very same.

LAERTES I know him well: he is the brooch indeed And gem of all the nation.

KING CLAUDIUS He made confession of you, And gave you such a masterly report For art and exercise in your defence And for your rapier most especially, That he cried out, ‘twould be a sight indeed, If one could match you: the scrimers of their nation, He swore, had had neither motion, guard, nor eye, If you opposed them. Sir, this report of his Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy That he could nothing do but wish and beg Your sudden coming o’er, to play with him. Now, out of this,--

LAERTES What out of this, my lord?

KING CLAUDIUS Laertes, was your father dear to you? Or are you like the painting of a sorrow, A face without a heart?

LAERTES Why ask you this?

KING CLAUDIUS Not that I think you did not love your father; But that I know love is begun by time; And that I see, in passages of proof, Time qualifies the spark and fire of it.

There lives within the very flame of love A kind of wick or snuff that will abate it; And nothing is at a like goodness still; For goodness, growing to a plurisy, Dies in his own too much: that we would do We should do when we would; for this ‘would’ changes And hath abatements and delays as many As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents; And then this ‘should’ is like a spendthrift sigh, That hurts by easing. But, to the quick o’ the ulcer:-- Hamlet comes back: what would you undertake, To show yourself your father’s son in deed More than in words?

LAERTES To cut his throat i’ the church.

KING CLAUDIUS No place, indeed, should murder sanctuarize; Revenge should have no bounds. But, good Laertes, Will you do this, keep close within your chamber. Hamlet return’d shall know you are come home: We’ll put on those shall praise your excellence And set a double varnish on the fame The Frenchman gave you, bring you in fine together And wager on your heads: he, being remiss, Most generous and free from all contriving, Will not peruse the foils; so that, with ease, Or with a little shuffling, you may choose A sword unbated, and in a pass of practise Requite him for your father.

LAERTES I will do’t: And, for that purpose, I’ll anoint my sword. I bought an unction of a mountebank, So mortal that, but dip a knife in it, Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare, Collected from all simples that have virtue Under the moon, can save the thing from death That is but scratch’d withal: I’ll touch my point With this contagion, that, if I gall him slightly, It may be death.

KING CLAUDIUS Let’s further think of this; Weigh what convenience both of time and means May fit us to our shape: if this should fail, And that our drift look through our bad performance, ‘Twere better not assay’d: therefore this project Should have a back or second, that might hold, If this should blast in proof. Soft! let me see:

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We’ll make a solemn wager on your cunnings: I ha’t. When in your motion you are hot and dry-- As make your bouts more violent to that end-- And that he calls for drink, I’ll have prepared him A chalice for the nonce, whereon but sipping, If he by chance escape your venom’d stuck, Our purpose may hold there. Enter QUEEN GERTRUDE How now, sweet queen!

QUEEN GERTRUDE One woe doth tread upon another’s heel, So fast they follow; your sister’s drown’d, Laertes.

LAERTES Drown’d! O, where?

QUEEN GERTRUDE There is a willow grows aslant a brook, That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream; There with fantastic garlands did she come Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples That liberal shepherds give a grosser name, But our cold maids do dead men’s fingers call them: There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke; When down her weedy trophies and herself Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide; And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up: Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes; As one incapable of her own distress, Or like a creature native and indued Unto that element: but long it could not be Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, Pull’d the poor wretch from her melodious lay To muddy death.

LAERTES Alas, then, she is drown’d?

QUEEN GERTRUDE Drown’d, drown’d.

LAERTES Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia, And therefore I forbid my tears: but yet It is our trick; nature her custom holds, Let shame say what it will: when these are gone, The woman will be out. Adieu, my lord: I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze, But that this folly douts it. Exit

KING CLAUDIUS Let’s follow, Gertrude: How much I had to do to calm his rage! Now fear I this will give it start again; Therefore let’s follow. Exeunt

ACT V SCENE I. A churchyard. Enter two Clowns, with spades, & c

First Clown Is she to be buried in Christian burial that wilfully seeks her own salvation?

Second Clown I tell thee she is: and therefore make her grave straight: the crowner hath sat on her, and finds it Christian burial.

First Clown How can that be, unless she drowned herself in her own defence?

Second Clown Why, ‘tis found so.

First Clown It must be ‘se offendendo;’ it cannot be else. For here lies the point: if I drown myself wittingly, it argues an act: and an act hath three branches: it is, to act, to do, to perform: argal, she drowned herself wittingly.

Second Clown Nay, but hear you, goodman delver,--

First Clown Give me leave. Here lies the water; good: here stands the man; good; if the man go to this water, and drown himself, it is, will he, nill he, he goes,--mark you that; but if the water come to him and drown him, he drowns not himself: argal, he that is not guilty of his own death shortens not his own life.

Second Clown But is this law?

First Clown Ay, marry, is’t; crowner’s quest law.

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Second Clown Will you ha’ the truth on’t? If this had not been a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out o’ Christian burial.

First Clown Why, there thou say’st: and the more pity that great folk should have countenance in this world to drown or hang themselves, more than their even Christian. Come, my spade. There is no ancient gentleman but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers: they hold up Adam’s profession.

Second Clown Was he a gentleman?

First Clown He was the first that ever bore arms.

Second Clown Why, he had none.

First Clown What, art a heathen? How dost thou understand the Scripture? The Scripture says ‘Adam digged:’ could he dig without arms? I’ll put another question to thee: if thou answerest me not to the purpose, confess thyself--

Second Clown Go to.

First Clown What is he that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter?

Second Clown The gallows-maker; for that frame outlives a thousand tenants.

First Clown I like thy wit well, in good faith: the gallows does well; but how does it well? it does well to those that do in: now thou dost ill to say the gallows is built stronger than the church: argal, the gallows may do well to thee. To’t again, come.

Second Clown ‘Who builds stronger than a mason, a shipwright, or a carpenter?’

First Clown Ay, tell me that, and unyoke.

Second Clown Marry, now I can tell.

First Clown To’t.

Second Clown Mass, I cannot tell. Enter HAMLET and HORATIO, at a distance

First Clown Cudgel thy brains no more about it, for your dull ass will not mend his pace with beating; and, when you are asked this question next, say ‘a grave-maker: ‘the houses that he makes last till doomsday. Go, get thee to Yaughan: fetch me a stoup of liquor. Exit Second Clown He digs and sings In youth, when I did love, did love, Methought it was very sweet, To contract, O, the time, for, ah, my behove, O, methought, there was nothing meet.

HAMLET Has this fellow no feeling of his business, that he sings at grave-making?

HORATIO Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness.

HAMLET ‘Tis e’en so: the hand of little employment hath the daintier sense.

First Clown [Sings] But age, with his stealing steps, Hath claw’d me in his clutch, And hath shipped me intil the land, As if I had never been such. Throws up a skull

HAMLET That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once: how the knave jowls it to the ground, as if it were Cain’s jaw-bone, that did the first murder! It might be the pate of a politician, which this ass now o’er-reaches; one that would circumvent God, might it not?

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HORATIO It might, my lord.

HAMLET Or of a courtier; which could say ‘Good morrow, sweet lord! How dost thou, good lord?’ This might be my lord such-a-one, that praised my lord such-a-one’s horse, when he meant to beg it; might it not?

HORATIO Ay, my lord.

HAMLET Why, e’en so: and now my Lady Worm’s; chapless, and knocked about the mazzard with a sexton’s spade: here’s fine revolution, an we had the trick to see’t. Did these bones cost no more the breeding, but to play at loggats with ‘em? mine ache to think on’t.

First Clown [Sings] A pick-axe, and a spade, a spade, For and a shrouding sheet: O, a pit of clay for to be made For such a guest is meet. Throws up another skull

HAMLET There’s another: why may not that be the skull of a lawyer? Where be his quiddities now, his quillets, his cases, his tenures, and his tricks? why does he suffer this rude knave now to knock him about the sconce with a dirty shovel, and will not tell him of his action of battery? Hum! This fellow might be in’s time a great buyer of land, with his statutes, his recognizances, his fines, his double vouchers, his recoveries: is this the fine of his fines, and the recovery of his recoveries, to have his fine pate full of fine dirt? will his vouchers vouch him no more of his purchases, and double ones too, than the length and breadth of a pair of indentures? The very conveyances of his lands will hardly lie in this box; and must the inheritor himself have no more, ha?

HORATIO Not a jot more, my lord.

HAMLET Is not parchment made of sheepskins?

HORATIO Ay, my lord, and of calf-skins too.

HAMLET They are sheep and calves which seek out assurance in that. I will speak to this fellow. Whose grave’s this, sirrah?

First Clown Mine, sir. [Sings] O, a pit of clay for to be made For such a guest is meet.

HAMLET I think it be thine, indeed; for thou liest in’t.

First Clown You lie out on’t, sir, and therefore it is not yours: for my part, I do not lie in’t, and yet it is mine.

HAMLET ‘Thou dost lie in’t, to be in’t and say it is thine: ‘tis for the dead, not for the quick; therefore thou liest.

First Clown ‘Tis a quick lie, sir; ‘twill away gain, from me to you.

HAMLET What man dost thou dig it for?

First Clown For no man, sir.

HAMLET What woman, then?

First Clown For none, neither.

HAMLET Who is to be buried in’t?

First Clown One that was a woman, sir; but, rest her soul, she’s dead.

HAMLET How absolute the knave is! we must speak by the card, or equivocation will undo us. By the Lord, Horatio, these three years I have taken a note of

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it; the age is grown so picked that the toe of the peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier, he gaffs his kibe. How long hast thou been a grave-maker?

First Clown Of all the days i’ the year, I came to’t that day that our last king Hamlet overcame Fortinbras.

HAMLET How long is that since?

First Clown Cannot you tell that? every fool can tell that: it was the very day that young Hamlet was born; he that is mad, and sent into England.

HAMLET Ay, marry, why was he sent into England?

First Clown Why, because he was mad: he shall recover his wits there; or, if he do not, it’s no great matter there.

HAMLET Why?

First Clown ‘Twill, a not be seen in him there; there the men are as mad as he.

HAMLET How came he mad?

First Clown Very strangely, they say.

HAMLET How strangely?

First Clown Faith, e’en with losing his wits.

HAMLET Upon what ground?

First Clown Why, here in Denmark: I have been sexton here, man and boy, thirty years.

HAMLET How long will a man lie i’ the earth ere he rot?

First Clown I’ faith, if he be not rotten before he die--as we have many pocky corses now-a-days, that will scarce hold the laying in--he will last you some eight year or nine year: a tanner will last you nine year.

HAMLET Why he more than another?

First Clown Why, sir, his hide is so tanned with his trade, that he will keep out water a great while; and your water is a sore decayer of your whoreson dead body. Here’s a skull now; this skull has lain in the earth three and twenty years.

HAMLET Whose was it?

First Clown A whoreson mad fellow’s it was: whose do you think it was?

HAMLET Nay, I know not.

First Clown A pestilence on him for a mad rogue! a’ poured a flagon of Rhenish on my head once. This same skull, sir, was Yorick’s skull, the king’s jester.

HAMLET This?

First Clown E’en that.

HAMLET Let me see. Takes the skull Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rims at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now, to mock your own grinning? quite chap-fallen? Now get you to my lady’s chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come; make her laugh at that. Prithee, Horatio, tell me one thing.

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HORATIO What’s that, my lord?

HAMLET Dost thou think Alexander looked o’ this fashion i’ the earth?

HORATIO E’en so.

HAMLET And smelt so? pah! Puts down the skull

HORATIO E’en so, my lord.

HAMLET To what base uses we may return, Horatio! Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander, till he find it stopping a bung-hole?

HORATIO ‘Twere to consider too curiously, to consider so.

HAMLET No, faith, not a jot; but to follow him thither with modesty enough, and likelihood to lead it: as thus: Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth into dust; the dust is earth; of earth we make loam; and why of that loam, whereto he was converted, might they not stop a beer-barrel? Imperious Caesar, dead and turn’d to clay, Might stop a hole to keep the wind away: O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe, Should patch a wall to expel the winter flaw! But soft! but soft! aside: here comes the king. Enter Priest, & c. in procession; the Corpse of OPHELIA, LAERTES and Mourners following; KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, their trains, & The queen, the courtiers: Who is this they follow? And with such maimed rites? This doth betoken The corse they follow did with desperate hand Fordo its own life: ‘twas of some estate. Couch we awhile, and mark. Retiring with HORATIO

LAERTES What ceremony else?

HAMLET That is Laertes, A very noble youth: mark.

LAERTES What ceremony else?

First Priest Her obsequies have been as far enlarged As we have warrantise: her death was doubtful; And, but that great command o’ersways the order, She should in ground unsanctified have lodged Till the last trumpet: for charitable prayers, Shards, flints and pebbles should be thrown on her; Yet here she is allow’d her virgin crants, Her maiden strewments and the bringing home Of bell and burial.

LAERTES Must there no more be done?

First Priest No more be done: We should profane the service of the dead To sing a requiem and such rest to her As to peace-parted souls.

LAERTES Lay her i’ the earth: And from her fair and unpolluted flesh May violets spring! I tell thee, churlish priest, A ministering angel shall my sister be, When thou liest howling.

HAMLET What, the fair Ophelia!

QUEEN GERTRUDE Sweets to the sweet: farewell! Scattering flowers I hoped thou shouldst have been my Hamlet’s wife; I thought thy bride-bed to have deck’d, sweet maid, And not have strew’d thy grave.

LAERTES O, treble woe Fall ten times treble on that cursed head, Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense Deprived thee of! Hold off the earth awhile, Till I have caught her once more in mine arms: Leaps into the grave Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead, Till of this flat a mountain you have made, To o’ertop old Pelion, or the skyish head Of blue Olympus.

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HAMLET [Advancing] What is he whose grief Bears such an emphasis? whose phrase of sorrow Conjures the wandering stars, and makes them stand Like wonder-wounded hearers? This is I, Hamlet the Dane. Leaps into the grave

LAERTES The devil take thy soul! Grappling with him

HAMLET Thou pray’st not well. I prithee, take thy fingers from my throat; For, though I am not splenitive and rash, Yet have I something in me dangerous, Which let thy wiseness fear: hold off thy hand.

KING CLAUDIUS Pluck them asunder.

QUEEN GERTRUDE Hamlet, Hamlet!

All Gentlemen,--

HORATIO Good my lord, be quiet. The Attendants part them, and they come out of the grave

HAMLET Why I will fight with him upon this theme Until my eyelids will no longer wag.

QUEEN GERTRUDE O my son, what theme?

HAMLET I loved Ophelia: forty thousand brothers Could not, with all their quantity of love, Make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her?

KING CLAUDIUS O, he is mad, Laertes.

QUEEN GERTRUDE For love of God, forbear him.

HAMLET ‘Swounds, show me what thou’lt do: Woo’t weep? woo’t fight? woo’t fast? woo’t tear thyself? Woo’t drink up eisel? eat a crocodile? I’ll do’t. Dost thou come here to whine? To outface me with leaping in her grave? Be buried quick with her, and so will I: And, if thou prate of mountains, let them throw Millions of acres on us, till our ground, Singeing his pate against the burning zone, Make Ossa like a wart! Nay, an thou’lt mouth, I’ll rant as well as thou.

QUEEN GERTRUDE This is mere madness: And thus awhile the fit will work on him; Anon, as patient as the female dove, When that her golden couplets are disclosed, His silence will sit drooping.

HAMLET Hear you, sir; What is the reason that you use me thus? I loved you ever: but it is no matter; Let Hercules himself do what he may, The cat will mew and dog will have his day. Exit

KING CLAUDIUS I pray you, good Horatio, wait upon him. Exit HORATIO To LAERTES Strengthen your patience in our last night’s speech; We’ll put the matter to the present push. Good Gertrude, set some watch over your son. This grave shall have a living monument: An hour of quiet shortly shall we see; Till then, in patience our proceeding be. Exeunt

SCENE II. A hall in the castle. Enter HAMLET and HORATIO

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,

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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 Up from my cabin, My sea-gown scarf’d about me, in the dark Groped I to find out them; had my desire. Finger’d their packet, and in fine withdrew To mine own room again; making so bold, My fears forgetting manners, to unseal Their grand commission; where I found, Horatio,-- O royal knavery!--an exact command, Larded with many several sorts of reasons Importing Denmark’s health and England’s too, With, ho! such bugs and goblins in my life, That, on the supervise, no leisure bated, No, not to stay the grinding of the axe, My head should be struck off.

HORATIO Is’t possible?

HAMLET Here’s the commission: read it at more leisure. But wilt thou hear me how I did proceed?

HORATIO I beseech you.

HAMLET 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.

HAMLET An earnest conjuration from the king, As England was his faithful tributary, As love between them like the palm might flourish, As peace should stiff her wheaten garland wear And stand a comma ‘tween their amities, And many such-like ‘As’es of great charge, That, on the view and knowing of these contents, Without debatement further, more or less, He should the bearers put to sudden death, 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 So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to’t.

HAMLET Why, man, they did make love to this employment; 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.

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HAMLET It will be short: the interim is mine; And a man’s life’s no more than to say ‘One.’ But I am very sorry, good Horatio, That to Laertes I forgot myself; For, by the image of my cause, I see The portraiture of his: I’ll court his favours. But, sure, the bravery of his grief did put me Into a towering passion.

HORATIO Peace! who comes here? Enter OSRIC

OSRIC Your lordship is right welcome back to Denmark.

HAMLET I humbly thank you, sir. Dost know this water-fly?

HORATIO No, my good lord.

HAMLET Thy state is the more gracious; for ‘tis a vice to know him. He hath much land, and fertile: let a beast be lord of beasts, and his crib shall stand at the king’s mess: ‘tis a chough; but, as I say, spacious in the possession of dirt.

OSRIC Sweet lord, if your lordship were at leisure, I should impart a thing to you from his majesty.

HAMLET I will receive it, sir, with all diligence of spirit. Put your bonnet to his right use; ‘tis for the head.

OSRIC I thank your lordship, it is very hot.

HAMLET No, believe me, ‘tis very cold; the wind is northerly.

OSRIC It is indifferent cold, my lord, indeed.

HAMLET But yet methinks it is very sultry and hot for my complexion.

OSRIC Exceedingly, my lord; it is very sultry,--as ‘twere,--I cannot tell how. But, my lord, his majesty bade me signify to you that he has laid a great wager on your head: sir, this is the matter,--

HAMLET I beseech you, remember-- HAMLET moves him to put on his hat

OSRIC Nay, good my lord; for mine ease, in good faith. Sir, here is newly come to court Laertes; believe me, an absolute gentleman, full of most excellent differences, of very soft society and great showing: indeed, to speak feelingly of him, he is the card or calendar of gentry, for you shall find in him the continent of what part a gentleman would see.

HAMLET Sir, his definement suffers no perdition in you; though, I know, to divide him inventorially would dizzy the arithmetic of memory, and yet but yaw neither, in respect of his quick sail. But, in the verity of extolment, I take him to be a soul of great article; and his infusion of such dearth and rareness, as, to make true diction of him, his semblable is his mirror; and who else would trace him, his umbrage, nothing more.

OSRIC Your lordship speaks most infallibly of him.

HAMLET The concernancy, sir? why do we wrap the gentleman in our more rawer breath?

OSRIC Sir?

HORATIO Is’t not possible to understand in another tongue? You will do’t, sir, really.

HAMLET What imports the nomination of this gentleman?

OSRIC Of Laertes?

HORATIO His purse is empty already; all’s golden words are spent.

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HAMLET Of him, sir.

OSRIC I know you are not ignorant--

HAMLET I would you did, sir; yet, in faith, if you did, it would not much approve me. Well, sir?

OSRIC You are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is--

HAMLET I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with him in excellence; but, to know a man well, were to know himself.

OSRIC I mean, sir, for his weapon; but in the imputation laid on him by them, in his meed he’s unfellowed.

HAMLET What’s his weapon?

OSRIC Rapier and dagger.

HAMLET That’s two of his weapons: but, well.

OSRIC The king, sir, hath wagered with him six Barbary horses: against the which he has imponed, as I take it, six French rapiers and poniards, with their assigns, as girdle, hangers, and so: three of the carriages, in faith, are very dear to fancy, very responsive to the hilts, most delicate carriages, and of very liberal conceit.

HAMLET What call you the carriages?

HORATIO I knew you must be edified by the margent ere you had done.

OSRIC The carriages, sir, are the hangers.

HAMLET The phrase would be more german to the matter, if we

could carry cannon by our sides: I would it might be hangers till then. But, on: six Barbary horses against six French swords, their assigns, and three liberal-conceited carriages; that’s the French bet against the Danish. Why is this ‘imponed,’ as you call it?

OSRIC The king, sir, hath laid, that in a dozen passes between yourself and him, he shall not exceed you three hits: he hath laid on twelve for nine; and it would come to immediate trial, if your lordship would vouchsafe the answer.

HAMLET How if I answer ‘no’?

OSRIC I mean, my lord, the opposition of your person in trial.

HAMLET Sir, I will walk here in the hall: if it please his majesty, ‘tis the breathing time of day with me; let the foils be brought, the gentleman willing, and the king hold his purpose, I will win for him an I can; if not, I will gain nothing but my shame and the odd hits.

OSRIC Shall I re-deliver you e’en so?

HAMLET To this effect, sir; after what flourish your nature will.

OSRIC I commend my duty to your lordship.

HAMLET Yours, yours. Exit OSRIC He does well to commend it himself; there are no tongues else for’s turn.

HORATIO This lapwing runs away with the shell on his head.

HAMLET He did comply with his dug, before he sucked it. Thus has he--and many more of the same bevy that I know the dressy age dotes on--only got the tune of the time and outward habit of encounter; a kind of yesty collection, which carries them through and

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through the most fond and winnowed opinions; and do but blow them to their trial, the bubbles are out. Enter a Lord

Lord My lord, his majesty commended him to you by young Osric, who brings back to him that you attend him in the hall: he sends to know if your pleasure hold to play with Laertes, or that you will take longer time.

HAMLET I am constant to my purpose; they follow the king’s pleasure: if his fitness speaks, mine is ready; now or whensoever, provided I be so able as now.

Lord The king and queen and all are coming down.

HAMLET In happy time.

Lord The queen desires you to use some gentle entertainment to Laertes before you fall to play.

HAMLET She well instructs me. Exit Lord

HORATIO You will lose this wager, my lord.

HAMLET I do not think so: since he went into France, I have been in continual practise: I shall win at the odds. But thou wouldst not think how ill all’s here about my heart: but it is no matter.

HORATIO Nay, good my lord,--

HAMLET It is but foolery; but it is such a kind of gain-giving, as would perhaps trouble a woman.

HORATIO If your mind dislike any thing, obey it: I will forestall their repair hither, and say you are not fit.

HAMLET Not a whit, we defy augury: there’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now,

‘tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all: since no man has aught of what he leaves, what is’t to leave betimes? Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, LAERTES, Lords, OSRIC, and Attendants with foils, & c

KING CLAUDIUS Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me. KING CLAUDIUS puts LAERTES’ hand into HAMLET’s

HAMLET Give me your pardon, sir: I’ve done you wrong; But pardon’t, as you are a gentleman. This presence knows, And you must needs have heard, how I am punish’d With sore distraction. What I have done, That might your nature, honour and exception 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 I am satisfied in nature, Whose motive, in this case, should stir me most To my revenge: but in my terms of honour I stand aloof; and will no reconcilement, Till by some elder masters, of known honour, I have a voice and precedent of peace, To keep my name ungored. But till that time, I do receive your offer’d love like love, And will not wrong it.

HAMLET I embrace it freely; And will this brother’s wager frankly play. Give us the foils. Come on.

LAERTES Come, one for me.

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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 Your grace hath laid the odds o’ the weaker side.

KING CLAUDIUS I do not fear it; I have seen you both: But since he is better’d, we have therefore odds.

LAERTES This is too heavy, let me see another.

HAMLET This likes me well. These foils have all a length? They prepare to play

OSRIC Ay, my good lord.

KING CLAUDIUS Set me the stoops of wine upon that table. If Hamlet give the first or second hit, Or quit in answer of the third exchange, Let all the battlements their ordnance fire: The king shall drink to Hamlet’s better breath; And in the cup an union shall he throw, Richer than that which four successive kings In Denmark’s crown have worn. Give me the cups; And let the kettle to the trumpet speak, The trumpet to the cannoneer without, The cannons to the heavens, the heavens to earth, ‘Now the king dunks to Hamlet.’ Come, begin: And you, the judges, bear a wary eye.

HAMLET Come on, sir.

LAERTES Come, my lord. They play

HAMLET One.

LAERTES No.

HAMLET Judgment.

OSRIC A hit, a very palpable hit.

LAERTES Well; again.

KING CLAUDIUS Stay; give me drink. Hamlet, this pearl is thine; Here’s to thy health. Trumpets sound, and cannon shot off within Give him the cup.

HAMLET I’ll play this bout first; set it by awhile. Come. They play Another hit; what say you?

LAERTES A touch, a touch, I do confess.

KING CLAUDIUS Our son shall win.

QUEEN GERTRUDE He’s fat, and scant of breath. Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows; The queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet.

HAMLET Good madam!

KING CLAUDIUS Gertrude, do not drink.

QUEEN GERTRUDE I will, my lord; I pray you, pardon me.

KING CLAUDIUS [Aside] It is the poison’d cup: it is too late.

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HAMLET I dare not drink yet, madam; by and by.

QUEEN GERTRUDE Come, let me wipe thy face.

LAERTES My lord, I’ll hit him now.

KING CLAUDIUS I do not think’t.

LAERTES [Aside] And yet ‘tis almost ‘gainst my conscience.

HAMLET Come, for the third, Laertes: you but dally; I pray you, pass with your best violence; I am afeard you make a wanton of me.

LAERTES Say you so? come on. They play

OSRIC Nothing, neither way.

LAERTES Have at you now! LAERTES wounds HAMLET; then in scuffling, they change rapiers, and HAMLET wounds LAERTES

KING CLAUDIUS Part them; they are incensed.

HAMLET Nay, come, again. QUEEN GERTRUDE falls

OSRIC Look to the queen there, ho!

HORATIO They bleed on both sides. How is it, my lord?

OSRIC How is’t, Laertes?

LAERTES Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, Osric; I am justly kill’d with mine own treachery.

HAMLET How does the queen?

KING CLAUDIUS She swounds to see them bleed.

QUEEN GERTRUDE No, no, the drink, the drink,--O my dear Hamlet,-- The drink, the drink! I am poison’d. [Dies]

HAMLET O villany! Ho! let the door be lock’d: Treachery! Seek it out.

LAERTES It is here, Hamlet: Hamlet, thou art slain; No medicine in the world can do thee good; In thee there is not half an hour of life; The treacherous instrument is in thy hand, Unbated and envenom’d: the foul practise Hath turn’d itself on me lo, here I lie, Never to rise again: thy mother’s poison’d: I can no more: the king, the king’s to blame.

HAMLET The point!--envenom’d too! Then, venom, to thy work. Stabs KING CLAUDIUS

All Treason! treason!

KING CLAUDIUS O, yet defend me, friends; I am but hurt.

HAMLET Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane, Drink off this potion. Is thy union here? Follow my mother. KING CLAUDIUS dies

LAERTES He is justly served; It is a poison temper’d by himself. Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet: Mine and my father’s death come not upon thee, Nor thine on me. [Dies]

HAMLET Heaven make thee free of it! I follow thee.

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I am dead, Horatio. Wretched queen, adieu! You that look pale and tremble at this chance, That are but mutes or audience to this act, Had I but time--as this fell sergeant, death, Is strict in his arrest--O, I could tell you-- But let it be. Horatio, I am dead; Thou livest; report me and my cause aright To the unsatisfied.

HORATIO Never believe it: I am more an antique Roman than a Dane: Here’s yet some liquor left.

HAMLET As thou’rt a man, Give me the cup: let go; by heaven, I’ll have’t. O good Horatio, what a wounded name, Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me! If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart Absent thee from felicity awhile, And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain, To tell my story. March afar off, and shot within What warlike noise is this?

OSRIC Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland, To the ambassadors of England gives This warlike volley.

HAMLET O, I die, Horatio; The potent poison quite o’er-crows my spirit: I cannot live to hear the news from England; But I do prophesy the election lights On Fortinbras: he has my dying voice; So tell him, with the occurrents, more and less, Which have solicited. The rest is silence. [Dies]

HORATIO Now cracks a noble heart. Good night sweet prince: And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest! Why does the drum come hither? March within Enter FORTINBRAS, the English Ambassadors, and others

PRINCE FORTINBRAS Where is this sight?

HORATIO What is it ye would see? If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search.

PRINCE FORTINBRAS This quarry cries on havoc. O proud death, What feast is toward in thine eternal cell, That thou so many princes at a shot So bloodily hast struck?

First Ambassador The sight is dismal; And our affairs from England come too late: The ears are senseless that should give us hearing, To tell him his commandment is fulfill’d, That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead: Where should we have our thanks?

HORATIO Not from his mouth, Had it the ability of life to thank you: He never gave commandment for their death. But since, so jump upon this bloody question, You from the Polack wars, and you from England, Are here arrived give order that these bodies High on a stage be placed to the view; And let me speak to the yet unknowing world How these things came about: so shall you hear Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts, Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters, Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause, And, in this upshot, purposes mistook Fall’n on the inventors’ reads: all this can I Truly deliver.

PRINCE FORTINBRAS Let us haste to hear it, And call the noblest to the audience. For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune: I have some rights of memory in this kingdom, Which now to claim my vantage doth invite me.

HORATIO Of that I shall have also cause to speak, And from his mouth whose voice will draw on more; But let this same be presently perform’d, Even while men’s minds are wild; lest more mischance On plots and errors, happen.

PRINCE FORTINBRAS Let four captains Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage;

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For he was likely, had he been put on, To have proved most royally: and, for his passage, The soldiers’ music and the rites of war Speak loudly for him. Take up the bodies: such a sight as this Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss. Go, bid the soldiers shoot. A dead march. Exeunt, bearing off the dead bodies; after which a peal of ordnance is shot off

Dance For dancers in the mid-twentieth century, it was eventful. Names such as Jerome Rob- bins and Merce Cunningham and Agnes De Mille, dancer and choreographer, became well known.

“Agnes de Mille, in full Agnes George de Mille, de Mille also spelled DeMi- lle (born Sept. 18, 1905, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Oct. 7, 1993, New York City) American dancer and choreographer who further developed the narrative aspect of dance and made innovative use of American themes, folk dances, and physical idioms in her choreography of musical plays and ballets.” Source: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Agnes-de-Mille

“Jerome Robbins, original surname Rabinowitz (born Oct. 11, 1918, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died July 29, 1998, New York City) one of the most popular and imagi- native American choreographers of the 20th century. Robbins was first known for his skillful use of contemporary American themes in ballets and Broadway and Hollywood musicals. He won acclaim for highly innovative ballets structured within the traditional framework of classical dance movements.” Source: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jerome-Robbins

“Merce Cunningham was born on April 16, 1919 in Centralia, Washington. He later joined Martha Graham’s dance company and choreographed his own works using music from composer John Cage, who became his partner. In 1953, Cunningham formed his own company and garnered wide acclaim over the decades for his innova- tions while also collaborating with other artistic visionaries. He died on July 26, 2009.” Source: http://www.biography.com/people/merce-cunningham-9263457#early-life

Agnes De Mille began her career with the America Ballet Theater in 1939. At that time, the ballet company was called the Ballet Theatre. Her most significant works in her early career were Rodeo (music of Aaron Copland) and her choreography of the musical, Oklahoma. Her choreography added the emotional feelings in addition to their technical skills. The ballet dancers’ movements, done with emotional charm and appeal, made her choreography an innovation. George Ballenchine was in great demand as a choreographer, creating over 450 works. Some of the familiar names are Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky’s Firebird. In 1957, Jerome Robbins choreographed Leon- ard Bernstein’s West Side Story. Robbins was a great dancer and choreographer. He was

Film 253

known for his Broadway musicals such as Cats, Funny Girl, and Phantom of the Opera. Source: Janetta Rebold Benton and Rober DiYanni, Handbook for the Humanities (Boston and Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2014), 300-301. ISBN 100-205-16161-8

TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY According to authors Janetta Rebold Benton and Robet DiYanni, professors from New York, in their recent text they stated, “the signature events of the early twenty-first cen- tury so far have been a combination of positive developments and catastrophes, natural and man-made” (311).

Source: Janetta Rebold Benton and Rober DiYanni, Handbook for the Humanities (Boston and Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2014), 300-301. ISBN 100-205-16161-8

Rapid developments occurred in technology and the majority of the populace found the necessity for phones. Many competing products such as the iPad created a competi- tive market. A number of women became appointed to the Supreme Court and Presi- dent Barack Obama became the first African-American to be elected as a President of the United States.

China became an economic power and the Olympic Games in 2004 returned to its birthplace, Athens, Greece. Miraculously, the Chilean miners buried underground for days were safely rescued. The hurricane Katrina devastated portions of New Orleans and many people lost their lives in that catastrophe. Another devastating event occurred on September 11, 2001, when nearly 3,000 people were killed in the World Trade Cen- ter by terrorists.

The future trend since the late 1990s is globalization, “the unprecedented move- ment of information, technology, and goods and services across national borders.” The agreements between countries to trade is a critical component to it success. Communi- cation is a key necessity to globalization. Many corporations have become global corpo- rations: “The integration of world trade and the globalization of companies have been augmented by the rise of Asian economies, including those of India, Singapore, and South Korea, as well as that of China.”

Source: Janetta Rebold Benton and Rober DiYanni, Handbook for the Humanities (Bos- ton and Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2014), 311. ISBN 100-205-16161-8

Another development in the first part of the twenty-first century is that of cross- cultural exchanges in ideas and new invention. The twenty-first century has had growth in the development of the fine arts, new forms of architecture, and a broader availability to the internet and methods of communication.

Presently, with so many electronic devices available, countless people can access the internet and have the ability to find out in seconds information simultaneously with others in all parts of the world. With access to the internet, the use of email, Facebook, Twitter, Google and the use of smartphones, mores changes will continue.

Source: Janetta Rebold Benton and Rober DiYanni, Handbook for the Humanities (Bos- ton and Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2014), 311. ISBN 100-205-16161-8

In our own time, as our civilization continues to progress and move forward, think about our discussion in unit 1, where people began to organize, congregate around rivers, develop trade and commerce, and communicate. They formed communities and became “civilizations.” We discussed various groups of people and how they were at that time and what they needed to do in order to survive or thrive and establish community living. Just as those early writers and artists tried to make sense of their world and create forms of art, artists still represent their time and place and create emotional images and representations expressing universal feelings such as happiness, sadness, despair, and elation. The Fine Arts reach the soul and have helped to mold the minds of many.

254 Acting, Theater, Film, and Dance

Remember how we mentioned that trade and commerce and communication were major achievements of early civilizations? For them to flourish as people living together in communities and among each other, they eventually developed methods of commu- nication and trade and commerce. How have we as humans changed and how have we not changed? Even today, knowing how to communicate and trade with other areas of the world are important challenges for us. What have we learned from studying history? Why do we take the time to study history and read about the journey of people who have gone before us? We study those individuals with the hope that they will inspire us to live our lives with the will to go on and do something great. We study those individu- als to learn to overcome our barriers and become resilient. We study so we can under- stand someone else who may not look like us. We study our past in order to improve our future. We study in order to know what we can do to help make our communities stronger. We study so that we know how to communicate better when we are speaking. We study so we understand the progression of how humankind has developed. We want to understand what they had to do and what they went through in order to create their art. We study in order to understand why artists create and why artists make our world a better place.

First sentence source: Janetta Rebold Benton and Rober DiYanni, Handbook for the Humanities (Boston and Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2014). ISBN 100-205- 16161-8

  • Structure Bookmarks
    • UNIT5
    • Acting, Theater, Film, and Dance
    • FILM1
    • Elements of Film
    • Elements of Music
      • Film as Art
      • Film Elements
      • Three Types of Film
    • Motion Pictures
      • Theatrical vs. Cinematic Style
      • The Lumiere Brothers
      • Thomas Edison
      • George Melies
      • Edwin S. Porter
      • D. W. Griffi th
    • Special Information/Key Terms
      • Animation
      • Documentary
      • Shots
      • Camera Movements
      • Storyboard
      • Stripping the Script
      • Rushes
      • Special Effects
    • Three Phases of Production
      • Preproduction
      • Production
      • Postproduction
    • Amadeus
    • William Shakespeare
      • Hamlet
      • Reading the Selection
    • Dance
      • TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY