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


           SCENE 3 - The Queen's closet.
                  Enter DESDEMONA and OPHELIA
           DESDEMONA
              Lay on my bed my wedding sheets, Ophelia. 
           OPHELIA 
              Good madam, what's the matter with my lord?
           DESDEMONA
              He says he will return incontinent: 
              He hath commanded me to go to bed, 
              And bade me to dismiss you.
           OPHELIA  
              Dismiss me!
           DESDEMONA
              It was his bidding: therefore, good Ophelia,
              Give me my nightly wearing, and adieu: 
              We must not now displease him.
              Prithee, unpin me.
           OPHELIA 
              Shall I go fetch your night-gown?
           DESDEMONA
              No, unpin me here.
              My mother had a maid call'd Barbara: 
              She was in love, and he she loved proved mad 
              And did forsake her: she had a song of 'willow;' 
              An old thing 'twas, but it express'd her fortune, 
              And she died singing it: that song to-night 
              Will not go from my mind; I have much to do, 
              But to go hang my head all at one side, 
              And sing it like poor Barbara. 
              [Singing] The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree, 
              Sing all a green willow: 
           DESDEMONA & OPHELIA
              [Singing] Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee, 
              Sing willow, willow, willow: 
                                         During the following speech, OPHELIA continues
                                                to sing under DESDEMONA's dialogue
           DESDEMONA 
              There is a willow grows aslant a brook, 
              That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream; 
              There with fantastic garlands did she come 
              Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples 
              That liberal shepherds give a grosser name, 
              But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them: 
              There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds 
              Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke; 
              When down her weedy trophies and herself 
              Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide; 
              And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up: 
              Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes; 
              As one incapable of her own distress, 
              Or like a creature native and indued 
              Unto that element: but long it could not be 
              Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, 
              Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay 
              To muddy death.
                                                   Under DESDEMONA'S dialogue:
           OPHELIA 
              [Singing] The fresh streams ran by her, and murmur'd her moans; 
              Sing willow, willow, willow; 
              Her salt tears fell from her, and soften'd the stones; 
              Sing willow, willow, willow; 
              I call'd my love false love; but what said he then?
              Sing willow, willow, willow: 
              If I court moe women, you'll couch with moe men! 
              Sing all a green willow: 
                                                                 Enter IAGO
           DESDEMONA 
              [Singing] Let nobody blame him; his scorn I approve,-- 
           OPHELIA 
              Nay, that's not next.--
           DESDEMONA 
              So, get thee gone; good night 
              Iago tonight watches on the court of guard
           IAGO
              Bestow this place on us a little while. 
              For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither, 
              Prithee, hie thee; he'll come anon:-- 
                                                               Exit OPHELIA
           DESDEMONA 
              What tidings can you tell me of my son?
           IAGO 
              But that he's well and will be shortly here.
              He will come straight. Look you lay home to him: 
              Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear with, 
              And that your grace hath screen'd and stood between 
              Much heat and him. I'll sconce me even here. 
              Pray you, be round with him.
           HAMLET
              [Within] Mother, mother, mother!
           DESDEMONA 
                                   I'll warrant you,
              Fear me not: withdraw, I hear him coming.
                                                       IAGO hides behind the arras
                  Enter HAMLET
           HAMLET
              Now, mother, what's the matter?
           DESDEMONA 
              Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.
           HAMLET
              Mother, you have my father much offended.
           DESDEMONA 
              Nay, then, I'll set those to you that can speak.
           HAMLET 
              Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge; 
              You go not till I set you up a glass 
              Where you may see the inmost part of you.
           DESDEMONA 
              What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder me? Help, help, ho!
           HAMLET 
              Leave wringing of your hands: peace! sit you down, 
              And let me wring your heart; for so I shall, 
              If it be made of penetrable stuff,--
           DESDEMONA
              Hark! who is't that knocks?
           HAMLET 
              It's the wind.
           GHOST 
              [Within] Hamlet, Hamlet!
           HAMLET 
              What noise? who calls on Hamlet? 
                                                       Enter [IAGO as] the GHOST
              Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings,
              You heavenly guards! What would your gracious figure?
           DESDEMONA 
              Thy father, in his habit as he lived! 
           HAMLET 
              He is here even now; he haunts me in every place.
              Do you not come your tardy son to chide, 
              That, lapsed in time and passion, lets go by 
              The important acting of your dread command? 
              O, say! 
           GHOST
                                Do not forget: this visitation
              Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.
              But, look, amazement on thy mother sits:
              O, step between her and her fighting soul:
              Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works:
              Speak to her, Hamlet.
           HAMLET
              How is it with you, lady?             
              Nay, stare not, mother: it is true, indeed.
              It is an honest ghost, that let me tell you:
           IAGO 
                                                               Draws a sword
              [Aside] Forth, my sword: he dies; and the impediment most profitably removed, without the
              which there were no expectation of my prosperity.
           HAMLET
              [To DESDEMONA] Alas, how is't with you?
              Your bedded hair, like life in excrements, 
              Starts up, and stands on end.
              Whereon do you look?
           DESDEMONA 
              On him, on him! Look you, how pale he glares! 
                                                      GHOST tries to stab HAMLET
           HAMLET 
              That thrust had been mine enemy indeed, 
              But that my coat is better than thou know'st 
              I will make proof of thine. 
                                                        Draws, and wounds IAGO
           IAGO 
              O, I am slain! 
           HAMLET 
              If that thou be'st a devil, I cannot kill thee. 
           DESDEMONA 
              Why, look you there! look, how it steals away! 
              Look, where he goes, even now, out at the arras!
           HAMLET 
              How now! a rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead! 
                                              Makes a pass through the arras; IAGO falls
           DESDEMONA 
              O me, what hast thou done?
           HAMLET 
              Nay, I know not:
              Is it the king?
           IAGO  
              O, help, ho! light! a surgeon!
           HAMLET 
              What are you here that cry so grievously?
                                          Lifts up the GHOST's disguise and discovers IAGO 
              Iago? O, I am spoil'd, undone by villains! 
           DESDEMONA 
              'Tis he:--O brave Iago, honest and just, 
           HAMLET
              O damn'd Iago! O inhuman dog!
              More fell than anguish, hunger, or the sea! 
              This is thy work: Thou devil! O he deceives me 
              Past thought!  Kill men i' the dark!--O Spartan dog. 
           IAGO
              Demand me nothing: what you know, you know: 
              From this time forth I never will speak word.
           HAMLET 
              The Moor's abused by this most villanous knave, 
              And his reports have set the murder on.
           DESDEMONA
              Talk you of killing?
           HAMLET 
              Ay, I do.
           DESDEMONA
              Then heaven
              Have mercy on us!
           HAMLET 
              Amen, with all my heart!
              [To IAGO] Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell! 
                                                          Stabs him.  IAGO dies.
              I am sorry that I was deceived in him. 
              Mother, good night. Indeed this counsellor 
              Is now most still, most secret and most grave, 
              Who was in life a foolish prating knave. 
              I'll lug the guts into the neighbour room. 
              Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you. 
              Good night, mother.
              I will bestow him, and will answer well
              The death I gave him. So, again, good night.
              I must be cruel, only to be kind:
              Thus bad begins and worse remains behind.
                                                     Exit HAMLET dragging in IAGO
           DESDEMONA 
              O, what a rash and bloody deed is this!
              What, ho! help, help, help! murder! 
                  Enter OTHELLO
           DESDEMONA (cont'd)
              Ah, my good lord, what have I seen to-night!
           OTHELLO 
              What, mistress? How does Hamlet?
           DESDEMONA 
              Mad as the sea and wind, when both contend 
              Which is the mightier: in his lawless fit, 
              Behind the arras seeing something stir, 
              Whips out his rapier, cries, 'A rat, a rat!' 
              And, in this brainish apprehension, kills 
              The unseen good old man.
           OTHELLO 
                                    O heavy deed!
              It had been so with us, had we been there:
              His liberty is full of threats to all;
              To you yourself, to us, to every one.
              Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answer'd?
           GENTLEMAN 
              [Within] My lord, my lord! what, ho! my lord, my lord!
                                                               A noise within
           OTHELLO
              Who's there?
           DESDEMONA 
              Alack, what noise is this?
           OTHELLO 
              Where are my Switzers? Let them guard the door. 
                                                         Enter another Gentleman 
              What is the matter?
           GENTLEMAN
              Save yourself, my lord:
              The ocean, overpeering of his list,
              Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste
              Than young Ophelia, in a riotous head,
              O'erbears your officers.
                                                                Noise within
           OTHELLO 
              The doors are broke.
                  Enter OPHELIA, armed
           OPHELIA 
              O thou vile king, Give me my father!
           DESDEMONA 
              Calmly, good Ophelia.
           OTHELLO 
              Let her go, my queen; do not fear our person: 
              Speak, lass.
           OPHELIA 
              Where is my father?
           OTHELLO 
                              Dead.                                        
           DESDEMONA 
                                   But not by him.
           OPHELIA 
              How came he dead? I'll not be juggled with: 
              To hell, allegiance! vows, to the blackest devil! 
              Let come what comes; only I'll be revenged 
              Most thoroughly for my father.
           OTHELLO 
              That I am guiltless of your father's death,
              And am most sensible in grief for it,
              It shall as level to your judgment pierce
              As day does to your eye; I pray you, go with me.
              And where the offence is let the great axe fall.
                                                                    Exeunt

Forth!