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Hor. Let them come in.

[Exit Attendant.]

I do not know from what part of the world

I should be greeted, if not from Lord Hamlet.

Enter Sailors.

Sailor. God bless you, sir.

Hor. Let him bless thee too.

Sailor. 'A shall, sir, an't please him. There's a letter for you,

sir,- it comes from th' ambassador that was bound for

England- if

your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is.

Hor. (reads the letter) 'Horatio, when thou shalt have overlook'd

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 give 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. Elsinore. Another room in the Castle.

Enter King and Laertes.

King. Now must your conscience my acquittance 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.

Laer. 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. O, for two special reasons,

Which may to you, perhaps, seein 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 gives to graces; so that my arrows,

Too slightly timber'd for so loud a wind,

Would have reverted to my bow again,

And not where I had aim'd them.

Laer. And so have I a noble father lost;

A sister driven into desp'rate 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. 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 lov'd your father, and we love ourself,

And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine-

Enter a Messenger with letters.

How now? What news?

Mess. Letters, my lord, from Hamlet:

This to your Majesty; this to the Queen.

King. From Hamlet? Who brought them?

Mess. Sailors, my lord, they say; I saw them not.

They were given me by Claudio; he receiv'd them

Of him that brought them.

King. 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?

Laer. Know you the hand?

King. 'Tis Hamlet's character. 'Naked!'

And in a postscript here, he says 'alone.'

Can you advise me?

Laer. I am lost in it, my lord. But