Hamthello

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

SCENE 2 - The Royal bedchamber.
DESDEMONA in bed asleep; a light burning; Enter OTHELLO
OTHELLO
Kissing her
Ah balmy breath, that dost almost persuade
Justice to break her sword! One more, one more.
Be thus when thou art dead, and I will kill thee,
And love thee after. One more, and this the last:
All my fond love thus do I blow to heaven.
'Tis gone.
Arise, black vengeance, from thy hollow cell!
Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne
To tyrannous hate! Swell, bosom, with thy fraught,
For 'tis of aspics' tongues!
Forth of my heart those charms, thine eyes, are blotted;
Thy bed, lust-stain'd, shall with lust's blood be spotted.
Look, if my gentle love be not raised up!
DESDEMONA wakes
DESDEMONA
Who's there? Othello?
OTHELLO
How now, sweet queen!
DESDEMONA
My lord, what is your will?
OTHELLO
Let me see your eyes;
Look in my face.
DESDEMONA
What horrible fancy's this?
Alas, why gnaw you so your nether lip?
Some bloody passion shakes your very frame:
These are portents; but yet I hope, I hope,
They do not point on me.
Enter a LORD
LORD
The prince and court and all are coming down.
Exit LORD
DESDEMONA
How! the king in council!
In this time of the night!
OTHELLO
Come, Desdemona: 'tis the soldiers' life
To have their balmy slumbers waked with strife.
Enter HAMLET, OPHELIA, HORATIO, MARCELLUS, Lords and Attendants
The goodness of the night upon you, friends!
Good Hamlet, you are welcome. [To OPHELIA] Welcome, mistress.
OPHELIA
[To DESDEMONA] How do you, madam? how do you, my good lady?
DESDEMONA
'Faith, half asleep.
HAMLET
[To OTHELLO] Give me your pardon, sir: I've done you wrong;
But pardon't, as you are a gentleman.
OTHELLO
Why, 'tis a loving and a fair reply:
Be as ourself in Denmark. Madam, come;
This gentle and unforced accord of Hamlet
Sits smiling to my heart: in grace whereof,
No jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day,
But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell,
And the king's rouse the heavens all bruit again,
Re-speaking earthly thunder.
HAMLET
If virtue no delighted beauty lack,
Your majesty is far more fair than black.
OTHELLO
Ophelia, come, and take this hand from me.
Puts OPHELIA's hand into HAMLET's
If I have any grace or power to move you,
This present reconciliation take;
For if he be not one that truly loves you,
That errs in ignorance and not in cunning,
I have no judgment in an honest face:
HAMLET
This presence knows,
And you must needs have heard, how I am punish'd
With sore distraction. What I have done,
That might your nature, honour and exception
Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness.
OTHELLO
It is the very error of the moon;
She comes more nearer earth than she was wont,
And makes men mad.
HAMLET
I protest, in the sincerity of love and honest kindness.
These bloody accidents must excuse my manners,
But I am much to blame;
I humbly do beseech you of your pardon
For too much loving you.
OPHELIA
I do receive your offer'd love like love,
And will not wrong it.
HAMLET
I embrace it freely;
Give us the foils. Come on.
OPHELIA
Come, one for me.
OTHELLO
You know the wager?
HAMLET
Very well, my lord.
Your grace hath laid the odds o' the weaker side.
OTHELLO
I do not fear it; I have seen you both:
But since she is better'd, we have therefore odds.
OPHELIA
This is too heavy, let me see another.
HAMLET
This likes me well. These foils have all a length?
They prepare to play
MARCELLUS
Ay, my good lord.
OTHELLO
Set me the stoops of wine upon that table.
If Hamlet give the first or second hit,
The king shall drink to Hamlet's better breath;
And let the kettle to the trumpet speak,
'Now the king dunks to Hamlet.' Come, begin:
And you, the judges, bear a wary eye.
OPHELIA
Come, my lord.
They play
HAMLET
One.
OPHELIA
No.
HAMLET
Judgment.
MARCELLUS
A hit, a very palpable hit.
OPHELIA
Well; again.
OTHELLO
Stay; give me drink. My queen, this pearl is thine;
Here's to thy health.
Give her the cup.
The queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet.
DESDEMONA
I'll see this bout first; set it by awhile.
I dare not drink yet, husband; by and by.
HAMLET
Come.
They play
Another hit; what say you?
OPHELIA
A touch, a touch, I do confess.
HAMLET
Fetch me a stoup of liquor.
OPHELIA
[To OTHELLO] My lord, I'll hit him now.
OTHELLO
I do not think't.
OPHELIA
[Aside] And yet 'tis almost 'gainst my conscience.
OTHELLO
Our son shall win.
DESDEMONA
He's fat, and scant of breath.
HAMLET
Drink, ho!
DESDEMONA
Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows;
DESDEMONA wipes his brow with her
handkerchief; HAMLET takes her cup to drink
OTHELLO
Hamlet, do not drink.
HAMLET
I will, my lord; I pray you, pardon me.
HAMLET drinks
OTHELLO
[Aside] It is the poison'd cup: it is too late.
HAMLET
Come, for the third, Ophelia: you but dally; I pray you, pass with your best violence; I am
afeard you make a wanton of me.
OPHELIA
Dost thou mock me?
HAMLET
I mock you! no, by heaven.
OPHELIA
Say you so? come on.
They play
MARCELLUS
Nothing, neither way.
OPHELIA
Have at you now!
OPHELIA lunges at him; in the scuffling, they
change rapiers, and HAMLET wounds OPHELIA;
Enraged, she drops her rapier and grapples with
him
The devil take thy soul!
HAMLET
Thou pray'st not well.
I prithee, take thy fingers from my throat.
OTHELLO
Part them; they are incensed.
ATTENDANTS part them
HAMLET
Nay, come, again.
HAMLET falls
MARCELLUS
Look to the prince there, ho!
OPHELIA falls
HORATIO
They bleed on both sides. How is it, my lord?
MARCELLUS
How is't, Ophelia?
OPHELIA
Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, Marcellus; I am justly kill'd with mine own
treachery.
DESDEMONA tastes the poisoned drink, spits it out
HAMLET
How does the queen?
KING CLAUDIUS
She swounds to see them bleed.
DESDEMONA
No, no, the drink, the drink,--O my dear Hamlet,--
The drink, the drink! it is poison'd.
HAMLET
O villany! Ho! let the door be lock'd: Treachery! Seek it out.
OPHELIA
It is here, Hamlet:
The treacherous instrument is in thy hand,
Unbated and envenom'd: the foul practise
Hath turn'd itself on me, lo, here I lie,
Never to rise again:
I can no more: the king, the king's to blame.
HAMLET
The point!--envenom'd too! Then, venom, to thy work.
Charges at the King; but in HAMLET's weakened
state, OTHELLO easily beats aside the attack
ALL
Treason! treason!
OTHELLO
Wrench his sword from him.
Thy cup is poison'd: Hamlet, thou art slain;
No medicine in the world can do thee good;
In thee there is not half an hour of life;
DESDEMONA
Alas! he is betray'd and I undone.
OTHELLO
Out, strumpet! weep'st thou for him to my face?
Seizes her by the throat
Yet I'll not shed your blood;
Nor scar that whiter skin of yours than snow.
DESDEMONA
O, banish me, my lord, but kill me not!
OTHELLO
Down, strumpet!
DESDEMONA
Kill me to-morrow: let me live to-night!
OTHELLO
Nay, if you strive--
DESDEMONA
But half an hour!
OTHELLO
Being done, there is no pause.
DESDEMONA
But while I say one prayer!
OTHELLO
It is too late.
He stifles her
DESDEMONA
O, falsely, falsely murder'd!
Dies
OPHELIA
Help! help, ho! help! O lady, speak again!
[To OTHELLO] Why, how now, ho! from whence ariseth this?
The Moor hath kill'd my mistress! Murder! murder!
OTHELLO
I know this act shows horrible and grim.
O, I were damn'd beneath all depth in hell,
But that I did proceed upon just grounds
To this extremity. Thy father knew it all.
'Tis pitiful; but yet Iago knew
That she with Hamlet hath the act of shame
A thousand times committed; Hamlet did top her.
OPHELIA
She false with Hamlet!--did you say with Hamlet?
OTHELLO
With Hamlet, mistress. Go to, charm your tongue.
And she did gratify his amorous works
With that recognizance and pledge of love
Which I first gave her; I saw it in his hand:
It was a handkerchief, an antique token
My father gave my mother.
OPHELIA
O thou dull Moor! that handkerchief thou speak'st of
I found by fortune and did give my father;
For often, with a solemn earnestness,
He begg'd of me to steal it.
OTHELLO
Villanous whore!
OPHELIA
She give it Hamlet! no, alas! I found it,
And I did give't my father.
IAGO
Filth, thou liest!
OPHELIA
By heaven, I do not, I do not, gentlemen.
Poor Desdemona! I am glad my father's dead:
He told a lie, an odious, damnéd lie;
Upon my soul, a lie, a wicked lie.
OTHELLO
Is that true?
How came you, Hamlet, by that handkerchief
That was my wife's?
HAMLET
I found it in my chamber:
That there he dropp'd it for a special purpose
Which wrought to his desire.
OTHELLO
O fool! fool! fool!
OPHELIA
O murderous coxcomb! what should such a fool
Do with so good a woman?
OTHELLO
O! O! O!
OPHELIA
Villain, thou diest!
OPHELIA lunges at OTHELLO; Again, he easily
defends himself against a weakened opponent, but
she knocks him to the ground.
OTHELLO
O, yet defend me, friends; I am but hurt.
HAMLET falls upon him, too, and forces the
poisoned drink down his throat.
HAMLET
Here, thou remorseless, murderous, damnéd Moor,
Drink off this potion. Is thy union here?
Follow my mother.
OPHELIA
He is justly served;
It is a poison temper'd by himself.
Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet:
Mine and my father's death come not upon thee,
Nor thine on me.
HAMLET
Amen to that, sweet powers!
I cannot speak enough of this content;
Kissing her
And this, and this, the greatest discords be
That e'er our hearts shall make!
OPHELIA
Ay, ay: O, lay me by my mistress' side.
HORATIO and MARCELLUS help her to
DESDEMONA's side
What did thy song bode, lady?
Hark, canst thou hear me? I will play the swan.
And die in music.
[Singing] Willow, willow, willow,--
Moor, she was chaste; she loved thee, cruel Moor;
So come my soul to bliss, as I speak true;
So speaking as I think, I die, I die.
Dies
OTHELLO
[To DESDEMONA] Now, how dost thou look now? O ill-starr'd wench!
Pale as thy smock! when we shall meet at compt,
This look of thine will hurl my soul from heaven,
And fiends will snatch at it. Cold, cold, my girl!
O Desdemona! Desdemona! dead! Oh! Oh! Oh!
I kiss'd thee ere I kill'd thee: no way but this;
Killing myself, to die upon a kiss.
Stabs himself, falls on the bed, and dies
HAMLET
I follow thee.
I am dead, Horatio. Wretched queen, adieu!
Tries to stand
HORATIO
I do beseech you, sir, trouble yourself no further.
HAMLET
O, pardon me: 'twill do me good to walk.
Had I but time--as this fell sergeant, death,
Is strict in his arrest--O, I could tell you--
But let it be. Horatio, I am dead;
The potent poison quite o'er-crows my spirit:
The rest is silence.
Dies
HORATIO
Now cracks a noble heart. Good night sweet prince:
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!
You that look pale and tremble at this chance,
That are but mutes or audience to this act,
When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,
Speak of them as they are; nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice: then must you tell
Of those that loved not wisely but too well.
Take up the bodies: such a sight as this
Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss.
Myself will straight abroad: and to the state
This heavy act with heavy heart relate.
Exeunt

Exeunt!

Act One // Act Two // Act Three // Act Four // Act Five