TEXT:
Enter Horatio and the Queen.
Horatio
Madam, your son is safe arrived in Denmark,
This letter I even now received of him,
Wherein he writes how he escaped the danger
And subtle treason that the king had plotted,
Being crossed by the contention of the windes,
He found the packet sent to the king of England,
Wherein he saw himself betrayed to death,
And at his next conversion with your grace,
He will relate the circumstance at full.
Gertrude
Then I perceive there's treason in his looks
That seemed to sugar o'er his villany:
But I will soothe and please him for a time,
For murderous minds are always jealous.
But know not you Horatio where he is?
Horatio
Yes Madame, and he hath appointed me
To meet him on the east side of the city
Tomorrow morning.
Gertrude
O fail not, good Horatio, and withal, commend me
A mothers care to him, bid him a while
Be wary of his presence, lest that he
Fail in that he goes about.
Horatio
Madam, never make doubt of that: I think by this
The news be come to court: He is arrived,
Observe the king, and you shall quickly find,
Hamlet being here, things fell not to his mind.
Gertrude
But what became of Gilderstone and Rossencraft?
Horatio
He being set ashore, they went for England,
And in the packet there writ down that doom
To be performed on them pointed for him:
And by great chance he had his fathers seal,
So all was done without discovery.
Gertrude
Thanks be to heaven for blessing of the prince,
Horatio once again I take my leave,
With thousand mother’s blessings to my son.
Horatio
Madam adie.
NOTES:
The First Quarto (1603)
As mentioned within the episode, the First Quarto was only (re)discovered in the 1820s. It is substantially shorter than the more familiar versions of the play that we have in the Second Quarto and the First Folio. It’s also substantially different: some of the names are changed, some scenes appear in a different order, and the third soliloquy sounds very different indeed:
To be, or not to be, ay, there's the point,
To Die, to sleepe, is that all? Ay, all:
No, to sleepe, to dreame, I mary there it goes,
For in that dreame of death, when wee awake,
And borne before an euerlasting Iudge,
From whence no passenger euer retur'nd,
The vndiscouered country, at whose sigh
The happy smile, and the accursed damn'd.
But for this, the ioyfull hope of this,
Whol'd beare the scornes and flattery of the world,
Scorned by the right rich, the rich curssed of the poore?
The widow being oppressed, the orphan wrong'd,
The taste of hunger, or a tirants raigne,
And thousand more calamities besides,
To grunt and sweate vnder this weary life,
When that he may his full Quietus make,
With a bare bodkin, who would this indure,
But for a hope of something after death?
Which pusles the braine, and doth confound the sence,
Which makes vs rather beare those euilles we haue,
Than flie to others that we know not of.
I that, O this conscience makes cowardes of vs all,
Lady in thy orizons, be all my sinnes remembred.
(I’ve kept the original spelling to make it even more fun to read!)
For the complete text of the First Quarto, with various other resources, click here.