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DISSOLVE
TO:
PHILADELPHIA'S
TERRACE. EXT/SUNSET.
HAMLET, a 29-year old
Colombian-born man is about to commit
suicide,
jumping
from the roof of a Temple University building.
HAMLET
To be, or not to be: that is the
question: wether 'tis nobler in
the mind to suffer The slings and
arrows of outrageous fortune, Or
to take arms against a sea of
troubles, And by opposing end them?
To
die: to sleep; No more;
and by a sleep to say we end The
heart-ache and the thousand
natural shocks That flesh is heir
to, 'tis a consummation Devoutly
to be wish'd.
Hamlet recoils at the
last moment and falls on the floor.
He goes on
remembering images of his life.
HAMLET
To die, to sleep;
To
sleep:
perchance
to dream: ay,
there's the rub; For in that sleep
of death what dreams may come When
I have shuffled off this mortal
coil, Must give me pause: there's
the respect That makes calamity of
so long life; For would I bear the
whips and scorns of time, The
oppressor's wrong, the proud man's
contumely,
The
pangs of despised
love, the law's delay, The
insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy
takes, When I myself might my
quietus make With a single blade?
who would fardels bear, To grunt
and sweat under a weary life, But
that the dread of something after
death,
The
undiscovered country
from whose bourn No traveller
returns, puzzles the will And
makes us rather bear those ills we
have Than fly to others that we
know not of? Thus this conscience
makes a coward of myself.
DISSOLVE
TO:
TITLE
CARD
Philadelphia 1997
Tycoon Hamlet
Elsinor has died, leaving all
his assets to his
Colombian-born adopted son,
Hamlet...
CUT TO:
CLAUDIUS' OFFICE. INT/ DAY.
A dark room. Claudius addresses Hamlet,
who we don't see.
27-year old LAERTES looks at the scene
from the background.
CLAUDIUS
Though yet of Hamlet our dear
brother's death , the memory be
green; and that it us befitted to
bear our hearts in grief and the
entire members of our companies,
to be contracted in one brow of
woe;
yet so far has
discretion
fought with nature that we with
wisest sorrow think on him,
together with remembrance of
ourselves.
Claudius approaches Laertes.
CLAUDIUS
Now
follows,
that--you know,
Fortinbras Investment Company,
they had not
failed
to pester us with message,
importing the surrender of our
profits--those vast countries
gained by all bonds of law by my
dear brother...
(to
Laertes,
whispering)
So much for him... Now our
business
is: Mr. Laertes
has sued
Fortinbras Company unrighteous
strategy, and we shall demand a
fair retribution for their attempt
to take over our investments in
Colombian oil companies and
Bolivian mines of coal.
He gives a paper to the man behind the
camera.
CLAUDIUS
(continuing)
We await for your signature, young
Hamlet.
The camera focusses on the paper...
DISSOLVE TO:
TITLE CARD
Hamlet
signs with
reluctance and leaves town
for
several
weeks.
DISSOLVE
TO:
PHILADELPHIA STREET--WALT
WHITMAN BRIDGE. DAY.
The
same paper, with some
wrinkles, is squeezed by a hand and
thrown on a street near the Delaware
river.
Hamlet, wearing dark clothes, looks at
the piece
of paper rolling on the ground. He
expresses frustration.
He
has
flash-backs of his recent trip to Las Vegas,
and of
smiling GERTRUDE, his adoptive mother.
HAMLET
O, that this too too solid flesh
would melt, thaw, and resolve
itself into a dew! Or that the law
had not fixed his cannon against
self-slaughter! O wealth! wealth!
How weary, stale, flat, and
unprofitable
seem to me all the
uses of this world! Fie on it! O,
fie!
This is an unweeded garden, that
grows to seed; things rank and
gross,
and
only nature
posses
them. That it should come to this!
But two months dead!--nay, not so
much, not two: so excellent a man;
that was to my uncle, what Gandhi
and King to Hitler: so human, so
loving to my mother. Must I
remember? Why? She would hang on
him; and yet within a month, a
little
month...
(pause)
--why she--even she? O, God--
married to my uncle; that beast,
that lacks discourse of reason.
And now the salt of her most
hypocritical tears had left the
flushing in her galled eyes. My
mother married--O, most wicked
speed, to post which such
dexterity
to incestuous sheets.
CUT TO:
PHILADELPHIA STREET--WALT
WHITMAN BRIDGE. DAY.
Hamlet sees several cars, which arrive
and encircle him. Claudius
steps down from one of them. Female
rowdies ROSENCRANTZ and
GUILDENSTERN
escort him.
CLAUDIUS
And now, Laertes, what's the news
with you? Tell us about your suit.
You
cannot
speak of reason to the
trustees and loose your voice.
POLONIUS arrives accompanied by 45-year
old GERTRUDE.
CLAUDIUS
(continuing)
Why did you ask
us here?
LAERTES
To quit this business, and return
to Bogota, from whence I willingly
came to the United States to
renovate
my
contract under your
company's reorganization.
Now, I
must confess, my duty is done, and
my thoughts and wishes bend again
towards Colombia.
CLAUDIUS
It was not me, but Polonius, who
called you here. What does your
father say?
POLONIUS
I sealed my hard
consent. I do
beseech you,
accept to place
him back in Bogota.
CLAUDIUS
My will is yours, Laertes.
(to Hamlet)
But
now, my cousin
Hamlet, and my
son...
HAMLET
(loud and rude)
A little more than kin, and less
than kind.
Gertrude pads Hamlet's head.
GERTRUDE
(pause; didactic)
Cast thy nighted color off,
and
let your
eye look like a
friend
to
these
employees of our company,
and don't seek with your vailed
lids
for your father's
dust. Like
me, you must accept everyone on
earth must die, passing through
nature to nothing.
HAMLET
Nothingness is our fashion, Mother.
GERTRUDE
If it is, why does it seem so
particular with you?
HAMLET
It doesn't seem, Mother! it is! I
don't know "seems". It's not only
my inky cloak, nor mourning suits
of solemn black, nor windy
suspiring of forced breath. No,
nor the fruitful river in the eye,
nor the dejected behavior of the
visage,
together
with all forms,
moods, shapes of grief, that can
denote me truly: these indeed
seem, for they are actions that a
man might play: But
I have
that
within which has passed is shown;
these but the trappings and the
suits of woe.
CLAUDIUS
It is so sweet and commendable in
your nature, Hamlet, to give these
customary duties to your father:
But, you must know, your father
lost a father; that father lost,
lost
his; and
the survivor bound,
in filial obligation, for some
term to do obsequious sorrow: but
to persevere in obstinate
condolence is a course of impious
stubbornness; it's unmanly grief;
it shows a will most incorrect to
the interests of your relatives
still alive, a heart unfortified,
an
impatient mind; a simple and
childish understanding. Because
death must be, and that is as
common knowledge as to realize
that these words were recorded on
tape. Why should we, in our
peevish opposition, take it to
heart? Fie! This is heaven's
fault, dead's fault, nature's
fault. To reason most absurd;
whose common theme is dead of
fathers. We pray you, throw to
earth this unprevailing woe; and
think of us as of... A father;
for let the company
take
note, without your consent, you
will be replace and our profits will
continue.
Claudius gets into his car.
CLAUDIUS
We beseech you,
bend you
to remain here, in
the cheer and
comfort of
Philadelphia, increasing
our income, your father's
legacy.
Claudius gets into his car.
GERTRUDE
I know what is best for you,
Hamlet. Let not your mother waste
her time, and stay with us.
HAMLET
I shall in all my
best obey you, mother.
DISSOLVE
TO:
TITLE CARD
Hamlet meets high-school friends
Bernardo and Horatio.
DISSOLVE
TO:
PHILADELPHIA STREET. EXT/DAY.
Hamlet is tormented by thoughts about
his new father, his
mother and Polonius while he talks to
Bernardo and
Horatio in front of his family house.
HORATIO
I think I saw him
yesterday night.
HAMLET
Saw? Who?
HORATIO
My lord, Mr. Hamlet, your father.
HAMLET
(sad)
The
president,
my father?
HORATIO
Season your admiration for a while
with an attent ear, till I may
deliver
this marvel to you. HAMLET
Let me hear.
HORATIO
In the dead vast and middle of the
night, two of my friends were
encountered
by a figure
like your
father, wearing at point exactly.
He appears before them, and with
solemn march goes slowly and
stately by them: thrice he walked
by their oppressed and fear-
surprised eyes. Almost to jelly
with the act of fear, my friends
stand dumb and speak not to him.
And I with them the third night
kept the watch; where, as they had
delivered, both in time, form of
the thing, each word made true and
good, the apparition comes: I knew
your father; these hands
are not
more like.
HAMLET
But were was this?
BERNARDO
My lord, upon the platform of the
graves.
HAMLET
Did you not speak to it?
HORATIO
I did; but answer made it none.
Yet once methought it lifted up
its head and did address itself to
motion, like as it would speak;
but even then the morning cock
crew loud, and at the sound it
shrunk in haste away, and vanished
from our sight.
HAMLET
It's very strange.
HORATIO As
I
do live, my honoured lord,
it's true; and we did think it
written down in our duty to let
you know of it.
HAMLET
Indeed,
indeed,
sirs, but this
troubles me. Are you going there
again tonight?
BERNARDO
I warrant I will.
HAMLET
(sad)
Whether that ghost assumes my
noble father's person, I'll speak
to it, though hell itself should
gape, and bid me hold my peace.
(anxious)
I pray you both, if you have
hitherto concealed this sight, let
it be tenable in your silence
still. I will require your love.
CUT TO:
PHILADELPHIA'S TRAIN STATION.
INT/AFTERNOON.
Laertes crosses an empty corridor,
handling a luggage case.
5-month pregnant OPHELIA, awaits him.
LAERTES
My necessaries are embark'd:
farewell: And, sister, as the
winds give benefit and convoy is
assistant, do not sleep, But let
me hear from you.
OPHELIA
Do you doubt that?
LAERTES
(without answering
Ophelia's
question)
For Hamlet, and the trifling of
his favour, hold it a fashion and
a toy in blood, a violet in the
youth of primy nature, forward,
not permanent, sweet, not lasting,
the perfume and suppliance of a
minute; No more.
OPHELIA
You offence is rank, it smells to
heaven.
LAERTES
Our native hue of resolution is
sicklied over with the pale cast
of Hamlet's thought; and the
company's enterprises of great
pith and moment, with his regard,
their currents turn awry, and lose
the name of action.
(pause)
Perhaps he loves you now, and now
no soil nor cautel do besmirch the
virtue of his will: but you and
your offspring must fear him. For
he
himself is subject to
his
birth. He may not, as unvalued
persons do, carve for himself; for
on his choice depends the safety
and increment of his own state. We
are but employees, and if he says
he loves you, it fits your wisdom
so far to believe it. Fear it,
Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister,
your
heart is frail, and
the
canker galls the infants of the
spring, too oft before their
buttons be disclosed. Keep your
love in the rear of your affection.
OPHELIA
(ironic)
I will the effect of this good
lesson keep, as watchman to my
heart. But, good my brother, do
not,
as
some ungracious
republicans do, show me the steep
and thorny way to heaven; whiles,
like a puffed and reckless
libertine, himself the primrose
path of dalliance treads, and
recks not his own red.
Polonius enters.
POLONIUS
A double blessing is a double
grace.
Now you must
go to Bogota,
Laertes. But before your leaving
keep these few precepts in your
memory.
Polonius gives a gift to Laertes.
Laertes opens it and he finds an
edition of the Complete
Works by William Shakespeare.
LAERTES
Most humbly do I make my leave,
my Lord.
CUT
TO:
GARDEN. EXT/NIGHT.
Seated on a bench, Ophelia and Polonius
hold a conversation.
OPHELIA
He had of late made many tenders
of
his
affection to me.
POLONIUS
Affection! pooh!
OPHELIA
I don't speak like a green girl,
unsifted in such perilous
circumstance. I do believe his
tenders.
POLONIUS
I do not know what I should think.
OPHELIA
Father,
we
have decided to marry
in honorable fashion.
POLONIUS
Ay, fashion you may call it; go
to, go to.
OPHELIA
I know, when the blood burns, how
prodigal the soul lends the tongue
vows; these blazes, father, give
more light than heat, indeed. I
haven't
taken
them for fire. From
this time, I will be scanter to
Hamlet in our nigthly parting. His
entreatments will be place at a
higher rate than a command to
parley. For Hamlet, believe
so
much in him, that he is so young,
that desire alone can unfold his
promises. I don't believe his
vows;
for
they are brokers. Mere
beggars of unholy suits. But I
will be better to beguile. This is
for all:
I would not, in
plain,
give more favours to Hamlet, until
the purpose of my memory
be
assured by his demand.
CUT TO:
PHILADELPHIA'S CEMETERY. EXT/NIGHT.
Hamlet, Horatio and Bernardo are seated
on a grave.
HAMLET
The air bites shrewdly; it is very
cold.
HORATIO
It is a nipping and an eager air.
HAMLET
What hour now?
HORATIO
I think it lacks of twelve.
HAMLET
No,
it
is struck.
BERNARDO
Indeed? I heard it not: then it
draws near the season wherein the
spirit holds his wont to walk.
Cannon
balls are heard.
BERNARDO
(continuing)
What does this mean?
HAMLET
My uncle do wake up to-night, and
takes his rouse, keeps wassail,
and the swaggering up-spring
reels; and, as he drains his
draughts of Rhenish down, the
kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray
out the triumph of his pledge.
HORATIO
Is it a custom?
HAMLET
Ay, marry, it is: but to my mind,
though I am alien here, and not to
the manner born, it is a custom
more honoured in the breach than
the observance. This
heavy-head
spinning
east and west makes us
target and comment of other
nations: they clap us drunkers,
and with swinish phrase they
accuse of drugadiction; and indeed
it takes from our income, though
performed at height, the pith and
marrow of our taxes.
HORATIO
Look, my lord, it comes!
Actor 1 is seen over a grave.
HAMLET
Angels and ministers of grace
defend us! Be thou a spirit of
health or goblin damned, be thy
intents
wicked
or charitable, thou
comest in such a questionable
shape that I will speak to thee:
I'll call thee Hamlet, the man,
the father, the trustee, answer
me! Let me not burst in ignorance;
but tell why thy canonized bones
have burst their cerements; why
the sepulchre, wherein we saw thee
quietly
inurn'd,
had oped his
ponderous and marble jaws, to cast
thee up again. What may this mean,
that thou, dead corpse, again in
complete cotton, revisits thus the
glimses of the moon, making night
hideous; and we fools of nature so
horridly to shake our disposition
with thoughts beyond the reaches
of our minds? Say, why is
this?
Wherefore? What should we do?
Actor 1 beckons Hamlet
HORATIO
It beckons you to go away--to you
alone.
BERNARDO
Look, with what courteous action
it waves you to a more removed
ground: but do not go with it.
HORATIO
No, by no means.
HAMLET
It will not speak; then I will
follow it.
HORATIO
Do
not,
my lord
HAMLET
Why? What should be the fear? I do
not set my life in a pin's fee;
and for my soul, what can it do to
that,
being
a thing immortal as
itself? It waves me forth again:
I'll follow it.
BERNARDO
What if it tempt you toward the
flood,
my
lord, or to the dreadful
summit of the cliff that beetles
over his face into the sea, and
there assume some other horrible
form, which might deprive your
sovereignty of reason and draw you
into madness? think of it: the
very place puts toys of
desperation, without more motive,
into
every brain that
looks so
many fathoms to the sea, and hears
it roar beneath.
HAMLET
It waves me still. Go on; I'll
follow
thee.
Hamlet disappears into the graveyard.
CUT TO:
CEMETERY. EXT/NIGHT.
Actor 1 moves. Hamlet follows him.
HAMLET
Where wilt thou lead me? speak;
I'll go no further.
ACTOR 1
Mark me.
HAMLET
I will.
ACTOR 1
My hour is almost come, when I to
sulphurous and tormenting flames
must render up myself.
HAMLET
Alas, poor ghost!
ACTOR 1
Pity me not, but lend thy serious
hearing to what I shall unfold.
HAMLET
Speak;
I'm
bound to hear.
ACTOR 1
So art thou to revenge, when thou
shalt hear.
HAMLET
What?
ACTOR
1
I am thy father's spirit, doomed
for a certain term to walk the
night, and for the day confined to
fast in fires, till the foul
crimes done in my days of
exploitation are burnt and purged
away. But that I am forbid
to
tell the secrets of my prison-
house, I could a tale unfold whose
lightest word would harrow up thy
soul, freeze thy young blood, make
thy two eyes, like stars, start
from their spheres and each
particular
hair
to stand on end,
like quills upon the fretful
porpentine: but this eternal
blazon must not be to ears of
flesh and blood. List,list, O,
list! If thou didst ever thy dear
father love--
HAMLET
O God!
ACTOR 1
Revenge this foul and most
unnatural murder.
HAMLET
Murder?
ACTOR 1
Murder most foul, as in the best
it
is;
but this most foul, strange
and unnatural.
HAMLET
Haste me to know it, that I, with
wings as swift as meditation or
the
thoughts of
love, may sweep to
my revenge.
ACTOR 1
I find thee apt; and duller
shoulds thou be than the fat weed
that roots itself in ease on lethe
wharf, wouldst thou not stir in
this.
Now, Hamlet, hear: It's
given
out
that, sleeping in my orchard, a
serpent
stung me; so
the whole ear
of the company is by a forged
process of my death rankly abused.
The serpent that did sting thy
father's life now seats on his
throne.
HAMLET
O my prophetic soul! My uncle!
ACTOR 1
Ay, that incestuous, that
adulterate beast, with witchcraft
of his wit, with traitorous
gifts,--O wicked wit and gifts,
that have the power so to seduce!--
won to his shameful lust the will
of my most seeming-virtuous queen:
O Hamlet, what a falling-off was
there! From me, whose love was of
that dignity that it went hand in
hand even with the vow I made to
her in marriage; and to decline
upon a wretch, whose masculine
gifts were poorer than those of
mine! But virtue, as it never will
be moved, though lewdness court it
in a shape of heaven, so lust,
though to a radiant angel link'd,
will sate itself in a celestial
bed, and prey on garbage. But,
soft! methinks I scent the morning
air; brief let me be...
DISSOLVE
TO:
TITLE CARD
In his next psychiatric appointment
Hamlet
feigns
to
be mad.
DISSOLVE
TO:
PHILADELPHIA'S RESTAURANT. EXT/NIGHT.
Ophelia, seated on a chair, waits
alone. Hamlet arrives with
ironic
face
and sits down. He has a three-day bear and
wears
dirty clothing.
HAMLET
Ophelia, in thy pleasures be all
my lacks remembered.
(pause;
Hamlet
laughs)
When can I lie again in your lap?
OPHELIA
Your head upon my lap?
HAMLET
I
don't
mean country matters. My
fair thought is to lie between
your legs.
People look at them. Ophelia stands up
offended.
OPHELIA
What
is
this? You are too merry
today, Hamlet.
HAMLET
Who, I? Your only jig-maker? What
should a man do, but be merry?
Ophelia looks at him. His voice over
continues over the image
of Hamlet taking her face; changing
from surprise to shame
and pity.
OPHELIA (V.O.)
With his doublet all unbraced; his
stockings foul'd, ungarter'd, and
down-gyved to his ancle; pale as
his shirt; his knees knocking each
other; and with a look so piteous
in
purport,
as if he had been
loosed out of hell to speak of
horrors...
CUT TO:
PHILADELPHIA'S PUBLIC PARK. EXT/DAY.
Ophelia
and Polonius meet in front
of Philadelphia's
sunset skyline.
POLONIUS
Mad for thy love?
OPHELIA
I do not know; but truly, I do
fear it.
POLONIUS
What said he?
OPHELIA
He took me by the wrist and held
me hard; then goes he to the
length of all his arm; and, with
his other hand thus o'er his brow,
he falls to such perusal of my
face
as he would draw it.
Long
stay'd
he
so; at last, a little
and thrice his head thus waving up
and down, he raised a sigh so
piteous and profound as it did
seem to shatter all his bulk and
end his being: that done, he lets
me go: and, with his head over his
shoulder turn'd, he seem'd to find
his way without his eyes; for on
the
street
he went without their
help, and, to the last, bended
their light on me.
POLONIUS
I am glad you gave
him hard words
of late.
OPHELIA
I only repelled his messages and
denied
his access to me. Could
the denial of love make so mad a
man?
POLONIUS
It is as proper to our age to cast
beyond ourselves in our opinions
as it is common for the younger
sort to lack discretion.
OPHELIA
This must be known by the
trustees; which, being kept close,
might move more grief to hide than
hate to utter love.
CUT
TO:
CLAUDIUS OFFICE. INT/DAY.
Gertrude signs a pile of checks.
Meanwhile, Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern enter into Claudius'
chamber. Polonius keeps guard
at
the entrance of the hall.
CLAUDIUS
Dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern!
Moreover that we much did long to
see you,
the need we have
to use
you
did
provoke our hasty sending.
Gertrude handles a check to
Guilderstern.
GERTRUDE
Something... have you heard... of
Hamlet's... transformation?
ROSENCRANTZ
So call it, since nor the exterior
nor the inward man resembles what
it was.
GERTRUDE What
it
should be, more than his
father's death, that thus has put
him so much from the understanding
of himself, I cannot dream of: I
entreat you both, that, being of
so young days brought up with him,
and sit so neighborhood to his
youth and behavior, that you
vouchsafe your rest here in
Philadelphia
some
little time: so
by your companies to draw him on
to pleasures, and to gather, so
much as from occasion you may
glean,
whether aught, to us
unknown, afflicts him thus, that,
opened, lies within our remedy.
CLAUDIUS
Good ladies, he has much talked of
you; and sure I am, two women
there are not living to whom he
more adheres. If it will please
you
to show us so much
gentry and
good will as to expend your time
with us awhile, for the supply and
profit of our company.
Guildenstern approaches Claudius and
shows the check to him.
GUILDENSTERN
I
hope our visitation
will receive
such thanks as fits a tycoon's
remembrance.
GERTRUDE
(handling another
check to Rosencrantz)
Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle
Guildenstern.
CLAUDIUS
I beseech you instantly to visit
my too-much changed son.
Rosencrantz and Guilderstern leave.
Claudius lies his head on his hand.
Gertrude approaches him
and kisses him. Both are very sad and
worry.
GERTRUDE
(almost
crying)
Where love is great, the littlest
doubts are fear; where little
fears grow great, great love grows
there.
They hold each other.
CUT TO:
PHILADELPHIA'S ACADEMY OF MUSIC.
EXT/NIGHT.
People leave the Academy of Music.
Amongst them Claudius and
Gertrude.
Polonius
is seen amongst the
crowd. He handles a tape
recorder. He follows them.
CUT TO:
PHILADELPHIA'S STREET. EXT/NIGHT.
Gertrude and Claudius are reached by
Polonius.
POLONIUS
(breathless)
I do think, or else this brain of
mine
hunts not the trail of
policy so sure as it has used to
do, that I have found the
very
cause of Hamlet's lunacy.
GERTRUDE
You are still the father of good
news.
CLAUDIUS
O, speak of that; that do I long
to hear.
POLONIUS
First, let me inform you of our
suit
against Fortinbras
Investments. Hamlet's news shall
be the fruit to that great feast.
GERTRUDE
(to Claudius)
How
has he
found the head and
source of all my son's distemper?
CLAUDIUS
I doubt it is no other but the
main; his father's death, and our
o'erhasty
marriage.
POLONIUS
The government has suppressed
Fortinbras Co.'s interests
in
Bolivia and Colombia; which to our
minister
of
businesses appeared to
be a preparation against Greek
multinational companies. But,
better looked into, he truly found
it was against Elsinor
Investments. Fortinbras trustees,
in brief, received an order to pay
us 800,000,000.00 dollars in
fines, and to make a bow before
the
court
never more to attempt
undermine our interests in those
lucrative countries by suborning
their variable lawyers.
CLAUDIUS
It
likes
us well.
POLONIUS
A well ended business, indeed.
My
liege, and madam, to expostulate
what majesty should be, what duty
is,
why
day is day, night night
and time is time, were nothing but
to waste night, day and time.
Therefore, since brevity is the
soul of wit, and
tediousness the
limbs and outward flourishes, I
will be brief: your noble son is
mad.
GERTRUDE
More matter, with less art.
POLONIUS
That he is mad, it's true: it's
true it's pity; And
pity
it's
it's true: a foolish figure;
But
farewell it for I will use no art.
Mad let us grant him, then: and
now remains that we find out the
cause of this effect, or rather
say, the cause of this defect, for
this
effect
defective comes by
cause: thus it remains, and the
remainder thus. Perpend. I have a
daughter--a psychologist of this
enterprise, who, in her duty has
given me this:
He raises his recorder.
His finger pushes the "play" button.
HAMLET (V.O.)
To the celestial and my soul's
idol, the most
beautified
Ophelia,'
POLONIUS
That's an ill phrase, a vile
phrase; 'beautified' is a
vile
phrase:
but you should
hear. Thus:
HAMLET (V.O.)
In her excellent white bosom,
these, &c.
GERTRUDE
Came this from Hamlet to her?
POLONIUS
Good madam, stay awhile; machines
are faithful.
He plays the tape.
HAMLET (V.O.)
'Doubt
thou
the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun do move; Do But
never doubt I love, O dear
Ophelia, I'm ill at this numbers;
I have no art to reckon my groans:
but that I love thee best, O most
best, believe it. Adieu. Thine
evermore, most dear lady, whilst
this machine is to him, HAMLET.
POLONIUS
This has my daughter shown me,
according to her professional
duty. And she has more tapes of
his soliciting, as they fell out
by psychiatric appointments, all
given to her ear.
CLAUDIUS
But how she had received his love?
POLONIUS
What
do
you think of me? I would
fain prove I'm your more faithful
and constant laborer.
GERTRUDE
But what can we think, when you
have seen this hot love on the
wing-- As I perceived it, I must
tell you that.
POLONIUS
What might you, or my dear
Claudius
here,
think, if
I had
giving my heart a winking, mute
and dumb, Or look'd upon this love
with idle sight; what might you
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