With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts—
O wicked wit and gifts, that have the power
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So to seduce!—won to his shameful lust
The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen.
O Hamlet, what a falling off was there!
From me, whose love was of that dignity
That it went hand in hand even with the vow
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I made to her in marriage, and to decline
Upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor
To those of mine.
But virtue, as it never will be moved,
Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven,
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So lust, though to a radiant angel linked,
Will sate itself in a celestial bed
And prey on garbage.
But soft! Methinks I scent the morning air.
Brief let me be. Sleeping within my orchard,
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My custom always of the afternoon,
Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole
With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial,
And in the porches of my ears did pour
The leperous distilment, whose effect
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Holds such an enmity with blood of man
That swift as quicksilver it courses through
The natural gates and alleys of the body
And with a sudden vigor doth posset
And curd, like eager droppings into milk,
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The thin and wholesome blood. So did it mine.
And a most instant tetter barked about,
Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust
All my smooth body.
Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand
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Of life, of crown, of queen at once dispatched,
Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin,
GHOST
Yes, that incestuous, adulterous animal. With his clever words and
fancy gifts, he seduced my seemingly virtuous queen, persuading her
to give in to his lust. They were evil words and gifts to seduce her
like that! Oh, Hamlet, how far she fell! She went from me, who loved
her with the dignity and devotion that suits a legitimate marriage,
to a wretch whose natural gifts were poor compared to mine. But just
as you can't corrupt a truly virtuous person no matter
how you try, the opposite is also true: a lustful person like her
can satisfy herself in a heavenly union and then move on to garbage.
But hang on, I think I smell the morning air. So let me be brief
here. Your uncle snuck up to me while I was sleeping in the orchard,
as I always used to do in the afternoon, and poured a vial of
henbane poison into my ear—that poison that moves like
quicksilver through the veins and curdles the blood, which is just
what it did to me. I broke out in a scaly rash that covered my
smooth body with a revolting crust. And that's how my
brother robbed me of my life, my crown, and my queen all at once. He
cut me off in the middle of a sinful life.
