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


                                 ACT II - The Handkerchief

           SCENE 1 - Before Ophelia's house.
                  Enter HAMLET
           HAMLET
              Hillo, ho, ho, my sweet!  I do beseech you 
              That I may speak with you!  How now, Ophelia!
                  Enter CLOWN
           CLOWN 
              How, sir, how! 
              What, have you lost your wits?
           HAMLET 
              Dost thou hear, my honest friend? 
           CLOWN
              No, I hear not your honest friend; I hear you.
           HAMLET 
              Prithee, keep up thy quillets. There's a poor piece of gold for thee: if the gentlewoman that
              attends the general's wife be stirring, tell her there's one Hamlet entreats her a little favour of
              speech: wilt thou do this?
           CLOWN 
              She is stirring, sir: if she will stir hither, I shall seem to notify unto her.
           HAMLET 
              Do, good my friend.
           CLOWN 
              Before me! look, where she comes.
                  Enter OPHELIA.
           OPHELIA 
              What, are you mad? I charge you, get you home.
           HAMLET 
              Hail to thee, lady! and the grace of heaven,  
              Before, behind thee, and on every hand,  
              Enwheel thee all around! 
           OPHELIA 
                                  The worser welcome:
              I have charged thee not to haunt about my doors: 
              In honest plainness thou hast heard me say 
              That I am not for thee; and now, in madness, 
              Being full of supper and distempering draughts, 
              Upon malicious bravery, dost thou come 
              To start my quiet.
           HAMLET 
              Patience, good maid.
           OPHELIA  
                                But thou must needs be sure 
              My spirit and my place have in them power 
              To make this bitter to thee.
                                                             Draws her rapier
           HAMLET 
              Yet, I beseech you,
              If you think fit, or that it may be done, 
              Give me advantage of some brief discourse 
              With Desdemona alone.
                                                   HAMLET gives her a pair of letters.
              Here's letters seal'd:
              This to her majesty; this to yourself.
                                           OPHELIA takes the letters and thrashes him with
                                                                    them.
           OPHELIA 
              Nay, get thee gone.
              By the mass, 'tis morning; 
              Retire thee; go where thou art billeted: 
              Away, I say!
              [to CLOWN] Come, guard the door without; let him not pass, 
                                                       Exit OPHELIA and CLOWN
                  Enter IAGO 
           HAMLET  
              In happy time, Iago.
           IAGO
              You have not been a-bed, then?
           HAMLET  
              Why, no; the day had broke 
              Before we parted. 
              I have made bold, Iago, 
              To send in to your daughter: my suit to her 
              Is, that she will to virtuous Desdemona 
              Procure me some access.
              There is no other way; 'tis she must do't: 
           IAGO 
              Do you withdraw yourself a little while, 
              I'll send her to you presently:
              She will obey. 
                                                               Exit HAMLET
              Two things are to be done: 
              My daughter must  for Hamlet move her mistress; 
              I'll set her on; 
              Myself the while to draw the Moor apart, 
              And bring him jump when he may Hamlet find 
              Soliciting his wife: ay, that's the way 
              Dull not device by coldness and delay.
                                                                Calls within
              How now, Ophelia! what's the matter?
                  Re-enter OPHELIA
           OPHELIA
              My lord, as I was studying my rapier
              Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced; 
              As if he had been loosèd out of hell 
              To speak of horrors,--he comes before me.
           LORD POLONIUS
              Mad for thy love?
           OPHELIA
                                 My lord, I do not know; 
              But truly, I do fear it.  
                                                            Gives him the letters
                                    Here is a letter; 
              And here another: the one of them imports 
              His noble love in honourable fashion.
           IAGO 
              Ay, fashion you may call it; go to, go to.
              This is the very ecstasy of love, 
              Whose violent property fordoes itself 
              And leads the will to desperate undertakings 
              Come, go with me: I will go seek the king. 
              This must be known; which, being kept close, might move
              More grief to hide than hate to utter love.
              Fetch Desdemona hither.  The affair cries haste, 
              And speed must answer it. 
              Bid her come hither: go. 
           OPHELIA
              I will, my lord.
                                                               Exit OPHELIA
                  IAGO reads over the letters
           IAGO 
              Words, words, words.
              This is too long.
              It shall to the barber's:
                                                           Tears the letter in half
              Now here's another discontented paper:
                                                        Examines the second letter
              I'll tear it all to pieces.
                                                         Tears the letters to pieces
              I confess it is my shame to be so rash; but it is in my virtue to amend it.
                                           Pieces the letter back together again, in a different
                                                                  order.
              Devise a new commission, write it fair: 
                                            The task completed, IAGO admires his creation.
              O, 'tis most sweet, 
              When in one line two crafts directly meet. 
              And this may help to thicken other proofs 
              That do demonstrate thinly.
                                                                     Exit

Forth!