Page:Hamlet (1917) Yale.djvu/24

12

Why should we in our peevish opposition

Take it to heart? Fie! 'tis a fault to heaven,

A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,

To reason most absurd, whose common theme

Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried,

From the first corse till he that died to-day,

'This must be so.' We pray you, throw to earth

This unprevailing woe, and think of us

As of a father; for let the world take note,

You are the most immediate to our throne;

And with no less nobility of love

Than that which dearest father bears his son

Do I impart toward you. For your intent

In going back to school in Wittenberg,

It is most retrograde to our desire;

And we beseech you, bend you to remain

Here, in the cheer and comfort of our eye,

Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.

Queen. Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet:

I pray thee, stay with us; go not to Wittenberg.

Ham. I shall in all my best obey you, madam.

King. Why, 'tis a loving and a fair reply:

Be as ourself in Denmark. Madam, come;

This gentle and unforc'd accord of Hamlet

Sits smiling to my heart; in grace whereof,

No jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day,

But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell,

And the king's rouse the heavens shall bruit again,

Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come away.

Exeunt [all except Hamlet.]

 105 corse: corpse

107 unprevailing: unavailing

109 immediate: next in succession

112 impart: bestow

113 Wittenberg; cf. n.

114 retrograde: contrary

115 bend: incline

127 rouse: bumper

bruit: echo

