Tragedy of King Hamlet, Prince Claudius, and Queen Gertrude by Laurence Robert Cohen - HTML preview

Act 2.14

Claudius:

All the world’s at peace with us, but Hamlet stays in grief.

Gertrude:

I fear he shows his hate to me, and he wishes he were leaving.   But he cannot go, as well you know, to make succession clear.   And to give me time to change his mind and to know I hold him dear.

Claudius:

Sure he thinks the worst of us, just as we have feared.  He sees me a usurper here.  I wear this crown, and it weighs me down.  I wish it nothing further.

Gertrude:

But he cannot wear this crown as yet.  He’s too young and too much unstable.   The kingdom cannot praise our son as king until he matures, and he shows that he is able.

Claudius:

I will make it clear; in my heart it’s dear.  He will be my successor.  I want him not to feel I’ve got a sense that I am better.  But if he hates and cannot wait to do some harm or other, what can we do but tell the story true to him and forestall his pain and bother?

Gertrude:

We cannot tell as you know well.  King Hamlet has forbidden.  We did swear and I must forbear.  I will not break the oath that we both have given.  Young Hamlet’s mind, although very fine, seems in balance some precarious.  Can we give leave to tell a mind that grieves—a truth that’s sounds nefarious? 

Claudius:

Do you think as the king did say, that the truth truth will swift unmake him?

Gertrude:

It would serve, in fact, as one more act on the growing stack in the ways that we have sinned. 

Claudius:

Then let us begin to redeem our sins and make fair parents for our son.  In the end, God’s will be done.  That’s a truth I’ll not disparage.  Perhaps its true, if just we two, can make truth out of our marriage. 

Gertrude:

We consummated our marriage state before the ceremony.  That is a truth by which I stand, my honest testimony.   We can love as we have loved, but passion’s just not possible.   It’s scant a month that death did come and has left me inconsolable.   We are still young, and the day will come when I find such love attractive.  Let us for now give the love allowed in a time of deepest sorrow.  What ere we show to the court right now, I know we must look enraptured, but in our case, chaste love we embrace upon our private morrow.  It matters not if what we have got if the court’s attention’s captured.

Claudius:

And of Hamlet though, do we give naught when he will suppose that we are and have been lovers?

Gertrude:

I hope with time and our love for him combined, will ease his pain and he’ll recover.

Claudius:

This is the first time in the court that we meet with Hamlet in full presence.  You touch upon the very thing that we must think in its essence.   How shall he react to the very fact that I am king and we are married?  If he can bear the pain withal, our practice may just carry.  But if he wail and us assail, we will have a struggle great.

Gertrude:

What can be done with the prince our son must, in the end, be fate.

Claudius:

(Reaches out his hand)

Let us make our show of our love’s great glow.   In that show then all will know our union makes our beloved state the strongest place to live.

Gertrude:

(She takes his)

It’s some theater, yes. I will confess. Let us give all we have to give. 

(Gertrude and Claudius walk toward their exit.)