Of your dear father's death, is't writ in your revenge,
That, sweepstake, you will draw149 both friend and foe, Winner and loser?
LAERTES None but his enemies.
KING Will you know them then?
LAERTES To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my arms, And like the kind life-rend'ring pelican154, Repast155 them with my blood.
KING Why, now you speak
Like a good child and a true gentleman.
That I am guiltless of your father's death,
And am most sensible159 in grief for it, It shall as level160 to your judgement pierce As day does to your eye.
A noise within
ALL FOLLOWERS Let her come in!
Enter Ophelia
LAERTES How now? What noise is that?
Sees Ophelia
O, heat dry up my brains, tears seven times salt
Burn out the sense and virtue165 of mine eye!
By heaven, thy madness shall be paid by weight,
Till our scale turns the beam167. O rose of May, Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia!
O heavens, is't possible a young maid's wits
Should be as mortal as an old man's life?
Nature is fine in171 love, and where 'tis fine, It sends some precious instance172 of itself After the thing it loves173.
Sings
OPHELIA They bore him barefaced on the bier174,
Hey non nonny, nonny, hey nonny175, And on his grave rains many a tear--
Fare you well, my dove.
LAERTES Hadst thou thy wits and didst persuade revenge, It could not move179 thus.
OPHELIA You180 must sing 'a-down a-down', and you call him 'a-down-a'. O, how the wheel becomes it! It is the false181
steward that stole his master's daughter.
LAERTES This nothing's more than matter183.
OPHELIA There's rosemary184, that's for remembrance: pray,