Act IV, Scene 5
QUEEN GERTRUDE
I will not speak with her.
GENTLEMAN
She is importunate,
Indeed distract; her mood will needs be pitied.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
She speaks much of her father, says she hears
There’s tricks in th’ 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 unshapéd use of it doth move
The hearers to collection. They aim at it
And botch the words up fit to their own thoguths;
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.
[GENTLEMAN exits.]
[Aside] 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.
[Enter OPHELIA distracted.]
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.
[Sings] He is dead and gone, lady,
He is dead and gone;
At his head a grass-green turf,
At his heels a stone.
Oh, ho!
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 all with sweet flowers,
Which bewept to the ground did not go
With true-love showers.
KING CLAUDIUS How do you, pretty lady?
OPHELIA Well, God dild 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.
Line 50 of Act IV, Scene 5