And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine,
[Enter a Messenger.]
How now! What news?
Mess.
Letters, my lord, from Hamlet:
This to your majesty; this to the queen.
King.
¿From Hamlet! Who brought them?
Mess.
Sailors, my lord, they say; I saw them not:
They were given me by Claudio:he receiv'd them
Of him that brought them.
King.
Laertes, you shall hear them.
Leave us.
[Exit Messenger.]
[Reads]'High and mighty,You shall know I am set naked on your
kingdom. To-morrow shall I beg leave to see your kingly eyes:
when I shall, first asking your pardon thereunto, recount the
occasions of my sudden and more strange return. HAMLET.'
What should this mean? Are all the rest come back?
Or is it some abuse, and no such thing?
Laer.
Know you the hand?
King.
'Tis Hamlet's character:'Naked!'
And in a postscript here, he says 'alone.'
Can you advise me?
Laer.
I am lost in it, my lord. But let him come;
It warms the very sickness in my heart
That I shall live and tell him to his teeth,
'Thus didest thou.'
King.
If it be so, Laertes,
As how should it be so? how otherwise?
Will you be rul'd by me?
Laer.