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LAERTES How came he dead? I’ll not be juggled with.
105To hell, allegiance! Vows, to the blackest devil!
Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit!
I dare damnation. To this point I stand
That both the worlds I give to negligence.
Let come what comes, only I’ll be revenged
110Most thoroughly for my father.
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LAERTES How did he end up dead? Don’t mess with me. To hell
with my vows of allegiance to you! Vows can go to hell! Conscience,
too! I don’t care if I’m damned. I
don’t care what happens to me in this world or the next.
Whatever happens, happens, but I’ll get revenge for my
father’s murder.
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CLAUDIUS Who shall stay you?
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CLAUDIUS Who’s stopping you?
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LAERTES My will, not all the world.
And for my means, I’ll husband them so well,
They shall go far with little.
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LAERTES Only my free will—nothing else. What little means I
have, I’ll use against you.
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CLAUDIUS Good Laertes,
115If you desire to know the certainty
Of your dear father’s death, is ’t writ in
your revenge,
That, swoopstake, you will draw both friend and foe,
Winner and loser?
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CLAUDIUS My dear Laertes, in your eagerness to know the truth about your
father’s death, are you determined to hurt your
father’s friends and enemies alike?
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LAERTES None but his enemies.
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LAERTES No, only his enemies.
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CLAUDIUS
120Will you know them then?
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CLAUDIUS Do you want to know who they are, then?
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LAERTES To his good friends thus wide I’ll ope my arms
And, like the kind life-rendering pelican,
Repast them with my blood.
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LAERTES I’ll open my arms wide to his true friends, and like a
mother
pelicanPelicans were believed to feed their young with their own blood. pelican with her brood, I’ll even give my life for them. |
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CLAUDIUS Why, now you speak
Like a good child and a true gentleman.
125That I am guiltless of your father’s death
And am most sensible in grief for it,
It shall as level to your judgment pierce
As day does to your eye.
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CLAUDIUS Why, now you’re talking like a good son and a true
gentleman. I’ll prove to you as clearly as daylight that
I’m innocent of your father’s death, and am
struck with grief over it.
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