Act 2.8
(Claudius and Gertrude enter the King Hamlet’s chamber. King Hamlet has been lying down, and leaps to his feet at the sound)
King:
Where is Hamlet?
Gertrude:
My loving husband and great king is here, still in my beloved presence. Young Hamlet is in far Wittenberg his education in attendance. The old King Hamlet has long since died, and now lives on in memory. You must have dreamed in some wicked scheme to put you in this reverie.
King:
Did I sleep? Do I now? Do I dream of you? Is it you, my love, my queen, oh now my sweet Gertrude?
Gertrude:
(Goes to him and embraces) Yes, my love, I’m here with you and together we can recover the man you are, the man you were, great king and kindest lover. Yes, here you are, and here you’ll stay. I cannot stand this parting. I see your troubled night is ending and not just in its starting.
There are many who have kept me from you, but in me you’ll find your remedy, as Mary came to ease her son’s pain after prayer on bare Gethsemane. I’ll bear your cross if that’s my task and bring you to your ease. I will do most anything to give you back to you your well-deserved peace.
King:
It is no cross I bear outside, but bear this one within. An outer cross would feel no loss, but the inner flays my skin. Even now I feel it cut and slash my inner sense. The pain I gain drives me quite insane and feels full tilt immense.
Gertrude:
In our love I know salvation lives for you and for your restoration. Our love is strong and will not go wrong to take us to our destination. This is what a woman does. She makes place, creates a space, where others might return. To make a home, leave no one alone, for those whose souls might burn. Loneliness is madness, too, and the mad are fearful lonely. I’ve made a home in my heart for you, you are the one, the only.
King:
All you say is true and brave and meant in great sincerity. Between your word and my mind, there is a great disparity. As I speak I also seek some peace from that which haunts me. As I say I love this way, the voice inside me taunts me. I must kill the Hamlet name however manifest. In king of old, of youth so bold, and in the end, myself. “Where is Hamlet” I do cry, and seek him for this reason. The voice inside tells me this, each one commits great treason.
Gertrude:
I’ll make for you and take you to a country beyond such demands: a place of home, where you’re not alone, just your woman and my man.
King:
I am me, as best I be inside the madness storm. I tell you swift while I have this grip and do not take me wrong. From me you must save young Hamlet, and never speak this tale. The horror here would strike too deep, and his mind begin to fail.
Gertrude:
What do you say? In what strange way can I save our son from you? He loves you with a depth so great that it carries beyond words.
King:
The death of me or the death of him, that ending will be served. I love him too, but in all truth, from his death I am un-swerved. I hate this thing and need it too, and what I need is death. It will save him and grant me peace and that will put this thing to rest. Give Claudius leave to poison me in sleep with no pain and no distress. It is a thing so sad to think, but it must be for the best.
Gertrude:
I cannot stand to hear you say that if you live you’ll kill. Death cannot be the only answer no matter how you are deeply ill. Hamlet is our beloved son, and one day he must be king. We must preserve his life for all we’ve done for what our son would bring. We cannot have done what we have done simply to watch him die. I cannot accept that sacrifice an act I would despise.
King:
Where is Hamlet?
(King Hamlet walks away from Gertrude and pulls a sword from a hiding place. He moves back toward Gertrude, and Claudius moves between. The king attacks Claudius who has no weapon but a candlestick he has picked up. Christian comes behind the king and gently as possible disarms the king and brings him back to his bed. King Hamlet rages and breaks into tears. Christian comforts him).
Christian:
I thought we had him well disarmed, but he reserved this prop. I am glad that we with so little harm could gently make him stop. As he kept this in reserve, perhaps it was for him not me if his end you would not serve. He is far-gone, and will shift more anon, but just before that moment he made much sense. When he said was what he does dread but what will happen thence.
Gertrude:
What can he mean of Claudius and poison in his sleep? Is this a plan to end life’s span and leave me thus to weep? You steal my husband; you steal my king; you steal my life withal. How can I stand to live my life when this dear life should fall?
Claudius:
As you know, he has my love, and you have mine as well. What he is to me, all the world can see. He has cast the same spell where I cannot refuse. We sent for you for, in truth, because you must agree to this unless we you abuse. He has a strong poison here which will painless come and take his life and softly off will send him. He fears to do the act himself because of the burden old of sin. As once before, our sin will come if we refuse or act. This is the tale that did not fail before, and that is just a fact.
Gertrude:
You will kill, and I complicit so by my will he’s dead. Is that what you have said? What is it from me that you do care elicit? I will make my thought explicit. If I agree to murder here, or even if I resist, just as one time before, my sin will still persist.
Christian:
You will forgive my common voice to speak to your royal ear, but for many years I have been very close to this man here. King he is and man he is, and by my life, I love him. As a man and as a king he suffers life too dear. I can’t believe that I would grieve his mercy death as sin. Yes this will but cause you both, the actor and accomplice, a pain of which will always last for you twist your moral compass. To leave him in this dreadful state is not a thing imagined. If we do, and he gets through, he’ll kill your son for certain. It’s not a choice I’d want to make, but make that choice you will. Whatever choice you make this day, it means death will follow still.
Claudius:
We will go away, and you will stay. We’ll return when we have answer. Tell the king if he should wake, we will act to his best interest. What that means, and how that means, she and I discuss. We will return and then will act, and that must be enough.