Hamlet
Act IV, Scene 6
Elsinore. Another room in Elsinore castle.
Costume design for Danish sailor
John Miller, George Scharf, 1825
- Enter Horatio and others.
Horatio
1- What are they that would speak with me?
Gentleman
2- Sea-faring men, sir. They say they have letters for you.
Horatio
3 - 5- Let them come in.
- Exit Gentleman.
- I do not know from what part of the world
- I should be greeted, if not from Lord Hamlet.
- Enter Sailors.
First Sailor
6- God bless you, sir.
Horatio
7- Let him bless thee too.
First Sailor
8 - 10- ’A shall, sir, and ’t please him. There’s a letter for you,
- sir—it came from th’ ambassador that was bound for
- England—if your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is.
Horatio
11 - 29- Reads.
- “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
- ail, we put on a compell’d valor, 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
- wouldest 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.
Hamlet at The Haymarket Theatre
John Jellicoe, Herbert Railton, circa 1892