Act Four
Act
Four Scene Seven
Sub
Scene Two
He
lives
“Who
interrupts?” Claudius was agitated. He then looked to Laertes. “Please stay.
Our conversation has not concluded.”
“Letters,
my lord, from Hamlet. These to your Majesty, this to the Queen.” The
servant handed the letters.
“From
Hamlet? Who brought them?”
“Horatio.
He got them from some gentlemen from…. England.” The servant stood there. “I
saw them not. They were given by Horatio to Bernard who received them from…I
guess of him that brought them.”
“It’s
okay. Leave us now.” Claudius dismissed the servant. He then told Laertes to
hear the letter while he read.
"High
and mighty, you shall know I am set naked on your kingdom. Tomorrow shall I beg
to leave to see your kingly eyes when I shall (first ask your pardon)
thereunto recount the occasion of my sudden and more strange return.
Hamlet."
“What
does he mean? Has his madness overtaken him?” Claudius was upset. He had sent
Hamlet with a specific handler with specific instructions. Yet he is returning.
“What
should this mean? Are all the rest coming back? What of Rosencrantz, and
Guildenstern? Or is it some abuse and no such thing?” Claudius was upset. “I am
an Emperor with no idea of what is happening?”
“Is
it from Hamlet? Did he write it?” Laertes asked.
“I believe so. It looked like his handwriting. Your
father will know better but I believed it so.” Claudius replied. “How I wished
Polonius was still here? Perhaps you could. ’Tis Hamlet’s character. “Naked”— And
in a postscript here, he says “alone.”
“Can you advise me?” Claudius looked to Laertes. He
was feeding questions toward Laertes to read the other’s mind. It was a
technique of acting to gauge their diverse acting capability, but then,
Claudius was looking for emotional avenues. He found none; Laertes was good, but
when the subject of the father, Laertes did react emotionally.
Or the mention of young Hamlet.
“I
am lost in it, my lord. But let him come.” Claudius saw the clenched fists of
Laertes. “It warms the very sickness in my heart that I shall live and tell him
to his teeth, ‘Thus didst thou.’ Before his last breath.”
“If
it is so, Laertes”, Claudius saw his ace in the pack of cards. “Will you be
ruled by me?”
Claudius
looked at Laertes for the reaction. It was a testy moment for the other was
vengeful, and may go his way.
“Ay,
my lord,” Laertes nodded before looking at Claudius. “So you will not o’errule
me to a peace?”
“To
thine own peace. If he is now returned, as checking at his voyage, and that he
means. No more to undertake it, I will work him to an exploit, now ripe in my
device, under which he shall not choose but fall.” Claudius had signed the
‘non-intervention’ clause.
“And
for his death, no wind of blame shall breathe, but even his mother shall
uncharge the practice and call it an accident,” Claudius spoke on behalf
of the other.
“My
lord, I will be ruled by you, the rather if you could devise it so that I might
be the organ.” Laertes was willing to be the tool that Claudius could make use
of.”
Claudius
breathe ina relief. His audience was for him. He felt the ovation for his act.
A good act deserves it, but the actor must be humble. There were always the
returning acts that he needed them.
“You
have been talked of since your travel much,” Claudius pushed to change the
subject matter. “And that in Hamlet’s hearing, for a quality wherein they say
you shine. Your sum of parts did not together pluck such envy from him as did
that one, and that, in my regard, of the unworthiest siege.”
A
little prodding to the younger man despite his feats, he still yield less of
one compared to Hamlet.
“What
part is that, my lord? We have our plays and audiences. We never met or perform
in the same town or city.”
“Narry
of that. I heard of yours, and my salutations to your performances.” Claudius
was careful in his praise. “So young and talented. A very ribbon in the cap of
youth— I had wished when I was of your age. Yet needful too, for youth no less
becomes the light and careless livery that it wears Than settled age his
sables and his weeds, importing health and graveness.”
“Two
months since here was a gentleman of Normandy. I have seen myself, and served
against, the French,
And they can well on horseback, but this gallant had witchcraft in ’t. He
grew unto his seat, nd to such wondrous doing brought his horse as had he been
endorsed and demi-natured with the brave beast. So far he topped my thought that
I am in forgery of shapes and tricks. Come short of what he did.”
“A
Norman was ’t?” Laertes asked. He was taken in by the mention of another.
“A
Norman indeed.”
“Upon
my life, Lampard is his name.” Laertes knew the man. “I know him well. He is
the brooch indeed
And gem of all the nation.”
“He
confessed to me. He gave you such a masterly report for art and exercise in
your defense, and your foil most especially in the age yours; a rarity of
the youth to hold a foil when a pistol was the gem.” Claudius took the trail to lay the trap.
“He
cried out ’ would be a sight indeed if one could match you. The ’scrimers of
their nation he swore had neither motion, guard, nor eye if you opposed them.
Sir, this was his report.” Claudius waited for the applaud then.
“He
overly praised me there, my Emperor.” Laertes humbly declined.
“It
did on Hamlet so envenom with his envy that he could nothing do,” Claudius told
the other. “He has you your eyes, speed, and strength.” Claudius bow his head
and sighed. “Now out of this—”
“What out of this, my lord?: Laertes asked.
“Laertes,
was your father dear to you? Or are you like the painting of sorrow, a face
without a heart?” Claudius wants to know if the other was genuine in his grief.
“Why
ask you this?”
“Not that I think you did not love your father,
Claudius picked at his words. “You were away most times. But I know love is
begun by time. And that I see, in passages of proof, time qualifies the spark
and fire of it.”
“There lives within the very flame of love.” Claudius
smiled. “I had not a son of my own, but I had seen that in you. A kind of wick
or snuff that will abate it, And nothing is at a like goodness still; we should
do when we would; for this “would” changes.”
“You are an actor. Recall these lines from Macbeth. Life's
but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the
stage, and then is heard no more. Act 5 Scene 5.”
“I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but
only vaulting ambition, Act 1 Scene 7.” Laertes hit back. “My ambition now is
for my father’s honor/”
“Good on your soul. Hamlet comes back; what would you
undertake to show yourself indeed your father’s son more than in words?”
Claudius struck the nail into the coffin there.
“If that was to be done, I will cut his throat in the
church,” Laertes affirmed his vow of vengeance. Unknown to many, Laertes
despised the young Hamlet. He was the son of the King, and held the wealth of
Norway, a rival of his acting fame, and his unrequited love for Ophelia, the
one whom he felt was undeserving. If Hamlet was gone, his path would be paved
with success.
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