Act V, Scene 1
[Line 257]
[GERTRUDE scatters flowers.]
I hoped thou shouldst have been my Hamlet’s wife;
I thought thy bride-bed to have decked—sweet maid—
And not strewed thy grave.
LAERTES
O treble woe
Fall ten times treble on that curséd head
Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense
Deprived thee of!—Hold off the earth awhile,
‘Til I have caught her once more in my arms!
[LAERTES leaps into OPHELIA’s grave.]
Now pile your dust upon the quick and the dead,
‘Til of this flat a mountain you have made
To o’ertop old Pelion or the skyish head
Of Blue Olympus.
[HAMLET approaches grave.]
HAMLET
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!
[LAERTES rises out of OPHELIA’s grave.]
LAERTES The devil take thy soul!
[HAMLET and LAERTES grapple.]
HAMLET
Thou pray’st not well.
I prithee take thy fingers from my thoat!
For though I am not splenitive and rash,
Yet I have in me something dangerous,
Which let thy wisdom fear! Hold off thy hand!
KING CLAUDIUS
Pluck them asender.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Hamlet! Hamlet!
ALL
Gentlemen!
HORATIO
Good my lord, be quiet.
[HAMLET and LAERTES are separated.]
HAMLET
Why, I 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’t 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!o
And if thou prate of mountains, let them throw
Millions of acres on us, ‘til 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 you use me thus?
I love you ever. But it is no matter!
Let Hercules himself do what he may,
The cat will mew, and the dog will have his day.
[HAMLET exits.]
KING CLAUDIUS
I pray thee, good Horatio, wait upon him.
[HORATIO exits.]
[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 thereby shall we see.
‘Til then in patience our proceeding be.
[ALL exeunt.]