HAM/THELLO: the moor of denmark
                                                         copyright © 2006 Jeff Goode


           SCENE 7 - Another part of the platform.
                  Enter GHOST and HAMLET
           HAMLET
              Where wilt thou lead me? speak; I'll go no further. 
           GHOST
              I am thy father's spirit,
              Doom'd 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 nature
              Are burnt and purged away.  List, list, O, list!
              If thou didst ever thy dear father love--
           HAMLET
                                      O God!
           GHOST
              Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.
           HAMLET
              Murder!
           GHOST
              Murder most foul, as in the best it is.
           HAMLET
              Haste me to know't, that I, with wings as swift 
              May sweep to my revenge. 
           GHOST
                                    I find thee apt;
              'Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard,
              A serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark
              Is by a forged process of my death
              Rankly abused: but know, thou noble youth,
              The serpent that did sting thy father's life
              Now wears his crown.
           HAMLET
              O my prophetic soul! Othello! 
           GHOST
              Thus was I, sleeping, by Othello's hand
              Of life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatch'd:
              If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not;
           HAMLET 
              My black and bloody thoughts, with violent pace, 
              Shall ne'er look back, ne'er ebb to humble love, 
              Till that a capable and wide revenge 
              Swallow him up. Now, by yond marble heaven, 
              In the due reverence of a sacred vow I here engage my words.
           GHOST
              Adieu, adieu! Hamlet, remember me.
                                                                     Exit
           HAMLET
              Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat
              In this distracted globe. Remember thee! 
              O most pernicious woman! O villain, villain, smiling, damnèd villain!
                  Enter HORATIO, MARCELLUS and IAGO
           MARCELLUS
              How is't, my noble lord?
           HORATIO
              What news, my lord?
           HAMLET
              O, wonderful!
           HORATIO
              Good my lord, tell it.
           HAMLET
              No; you'll reveal it.
           HORATIO
              Not I, my lord, by heaven.
           MARCELLUS
              Nor I, my lord.
           HAMLET
              Come hither, gentlemen, 
              And lay your hands again upon my sword: 
              Never to speak of this that you have heard, 
              Swear by my sword.
           GHOST
              [Beneath] Swear.
           HAMLET
              Rest, rest, perturbed spirit! 
                                                                 They swear
                                   Let us go in together;
              And still your fingers on your lips, I pray.
                                                    Exit HORATIO and MARCELLUS
              The time is out of joint: O cursed spite,
              That ever I was born to set it right!
           IAGO 
              What's the matter, lieutenant?
           HAMLET 
              Iago,--
           IAGO
              What say'st thou, noble heart?
           HAMLET 
              What will I do, thinkest thou?
           IAGO
              Why, go to bed, and sleep.
           HAMLET 
              I will incontinently drown myself.
           IAGO
              If thou dost, I shall never love thee after. 
              Why, thou silly gentleman!
           HAMLET 
              It is silliness to live when to live is torment; and then have we a prescription to die when
              death is our physician.
           IAGO
              O villainous! 
              Come, be a man. Drown thyself! drown cats and blind puppies. 
           HAMLET 
                                    I do not know 
              Why yet I live to say 'This thing's to do;' 
              Sith I have cause and will and not the means 
              To do't.  The general will not speak with me. 
              I can contrive no means of meeting with him;
              Othello locks himself from my resort, 
              Admits no messengers, receives no tokens. 
           IAGO
              What, man! there are ways to recover the general again. 
           HAMLET 
              I will ask him for my place again; he shall tell me I am a drunkard! 
           IAGO
              You or any man living may be drunk! at a time, man. I'll tell you what you shall do. Our
              general's wife is now the general: confess yourself freely to her; importune her help to put
              you in your place again: this broken joint between you and her husband entreat her to
              splinter; and, my fortunes against any lay worth naming, this crack of your love shall grow
              stronger than it was before.
           HAMLET 
              Then is doomsday near.
           IAGO 
              Wear thy good rapier bare, and put it home.
           HAMLET  
              You advise me well.
              And betimes in the morning I will beseech the virtuous Desdemona to undertake for me: I am
              desperate of my fortunes if they cheque me here.
           IAGO 
              Ply Desdemona well, and you are sure on't. 
                                                               Exit HAMLET
              And what's he then that says I play the villain? 
              When this advice is free I give and honest, 
              Probal to thinking and indeed the course 
              To win the Moor again? 
              How am I then a villain 
              To counsel Hamlet to this parallel course, 
              Directly to his good? Divinity of hell! 
              When devils will the blackest sins put on, 
              They do suggest at first with heavenly shows, 
              As I do now: for whiles this honest fool 
              Plies Desdemona to repair his fortunes 
              And she for him pleads strongly to the Moor, 
              I'll pour this pestilence into his ear, 
              That he is too familiar with his wife. 
              After some time, to abuse Othello's ear: 
              That she repeals him for her body's lust; 
              So will I turn her virtue into pitch, 
              And out of her own goodness make the net 
              That shall enmesh them all. 
                                                                     Exit 

Forth!