OPHELIA
My lord is naughty. I'll watch the play now.
PROLOGUE
For us and for our tragedy, we beg you'll hear us patiently.
(Prologue exits.)
HAMLET
What was that? A prologue or an inscription on a ring?
OPHELIA
It was brief my lord.
HAMLET
As brief as a woman's love.
(The Player King and Queen enter.)
PLAYER KING
The waves of the ocean, and the mountains of the land have
now completed a circle around the sun thirty times. And as
many times, a dozen moons have cast their light into the
night since we fell in love and pledged ourselves to one
another.
PLAYER QUEEN
And may the sun, earth and moon continue on for as long
before our love is done. But woe is me, your health hasn't
been itself lately. Loves and fears are set side by side.
Where little fears can become great, a great love grows
there.
PLAYER KING
My powers appear to be on the wane--my honoured, my beloved-
and I may leave you alone in the world. But with luck you'll
find another husband with whom--
PLAYER QUEEN
Oh say no more! Such an idea is treason to my breast! If I
remarried I would be accursed. I'd be killing a man already
dead if I kissed a second husband in my bed.
PLAYER KING
I believe you think and feel what you speak, but we often
part later with what we've determined now. Sincerity and
resolve can be like fruit on a tree. It can mellow and fall.
And just as love and fear are set side by side, so too are
joy and grief. As you said, where one grows great, the other
does just as well. But nothing in the world stays in tune
forever, so it's not strange that love can change. Just as
something discordant can one day come into perfect pitch.
But it's a question left for us to prove: does love
determine fate, or fate our love? Someone in decline will
lose friends, while someone on the rise will gain the same.
And thus, it would seem that love depends on fate. Oh my
love, how different are our thoughts from their ends? Our
schemes and plots are often overthrown; our thoughts may be
ours, but their outcome never ours alone. You think you'll
never wed again, but it's alright if you change your mind
after your husband is dead.
PLAYER QUEEN
May the earth take away its food, and the heaven its light;
sport and repose lock from me day and night. To desperation
turn my trust and hope, and anchor's cheer in prison be my
scope, each opposite, that blanks the face of joy, meet what
I would have well and it destroy, both here and hence pursue
me lasting strife, if, once a widow, ever again I be a wife.
PLAYER KING
You are so sweet, my love. And your vow treats my heart, but
leave me for awhile now, so I may beguile the day with sleep.
PLAYER QUEEN
May sleep come to you, and may fate never separate our love.
(Player Queen exits, Player King
sleeps.)
My lord is naughty. I'll watch the play now.
PROLOGUE
For us and for our tragedy, we beg you'll hear us patiently.
(Prologue exits.)
HAMLET
What was that? A prologue or an inscription on a ring?
It was brief my lord.
HAMLET
As brief as a woman's love.
(The Player King and Queen enter.)
PLAYER KING
The waves of the ocean, and the mountains of the land have
now completed a circle around the sun thirty times. And as
many times, a dozen moons have cast their light into the
night since we fell in love and pledged ourselves to one
another.
PLAYER QUEEN
And may the sun, earth and moon continue on for as long
before our love is done. But woe is me, your health hasn't
been itself lately. Loves and fears are set side by side.
Where little fears can become great, a great love grows
there.
PLAYER KING
My powers appear to be on the wane--my honoured, my beloved-
and I may leave you alone in the world. But with luck you'll
find another husband with whom--
PLAYER QUEEN
Oh say no more! Such an idea is treason to my breast! If I
remarried I would be accursed. I'd be killing a man already
dead if I kissed a second husband in my bed.
PLAYER KING
I believe you think and feel what you speak, but we often
part later with what we've determined now. Sincerity and
resolve can be like fruit on a tree. It can mellow and fall.
And just as love and fear are set side by side, so too are
joy and grief. As you said, where one grows great, the other
does just as well. But nothing in the world stays in tune
forever, so it's not strange that love can change. Just as
something discordant can one day come into perfect pitch.
But it's a question left for us to prove: does love
determine fate, or fate our love? Someone in decline will
lose friends, while someone on the rise will gain the same.
And thus, it would seem that love depends on fate. Oh my
love, how different are our thoughts from their ends? Our
schemes and plots are often overthrown; our thoughts may be
ours, but their outcome never ours alone. You think you'll
never wed again, but it's alright if you change your mind
after your husband is dead.
PLAYER QUEEN
May the earth take away its food, and the heaven its light;
sport and repose lock from me day and night. To desperation
turn my trust and hope, and anchor's cheer in prison be my
scope, each opposite, that blanks the face of joy, meet what
I would have well and it destroy, both here and hence pursue
me lasting strife, if, once a widow, ever again I be a wife.
PLAYER KING
You are so sweet, my love. And your vow treats my heart, but
leave me for awhile now, so I may beguile the day with sleep.
PLAYER QUEEN
May sleep come to you, and may fate never separate our love.
(Player Queen exits, Player King
sleeps.)
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