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HAMLET. 63

 

ordered them to perform a certain play before the King and Queen.
Now, this play was the story of a man who had been murdered in his
garden by a near relation, who afterwards married the dead man’s wife.

You may imagine the feelings of the wicked King, as he sat on his
throne, with the Queen beside him and all his Court around, and saw,
acted on the stage, the very wickedness that he had himself done. And .
when, in the play, the wicked relation poured poison into the ear of the
sleeping man, the wicked Claudius suddenly rose, and staggered from
the room—the Queen and others following.

Then said-Hamlet to his friends—

“Now I am sure the ghost spoke true. For if Claudius had not done
this murder, he could not have been so distressed to see it in a play.”

Now the Queen sent for Hamlet, by the King’s desire, to scold him
for his conduct during the play, and for other matters; and Claudius,
wishing to know exactly what happened,
told old Polonius to hide himself behind
the hangings in the Queen’s room. And
as they talked, the
Queen got frightened
at Hamlet’s rough,
strange words, and
cried for help, and
Polonius, behind the
curtain, cried out too.
Hamlet, thinking it
was the King who
was hidden there,
thrust with his sword
at the hangings, and —
killed, not the King,
but poor old Polonius.

So now Hamlet
had offended his uncle
and his mother, and = <##
by, bad hap killed his
true love’s father.

 

Bef