English File Document Assignment Act 4 Robert Beamish
On a ship Rosencrantz and Guildenstern enter recently learning of Hamlets escape, and news of their death to be executed in England.
Rosencrantz: Oh fie, fie of fortune!
Unto what do we owe this most hideous act of murder to?
For we be but loyal servants to Denmark,
Oh fie, fie!
Guildenstern: I pray thee, spend thy final moments not in a fit of anger, but now of all times make thy
Seldom prayer of forgiveness and repentance.
Rosencrantz: I would make a prayer of repentance ‘a there be a thing to confess, but my acts be holy,
And my body pure.
Guildenstern: Thou know’st in thy heart of heart that we did treat Hamlet, a man which we once held in
Close proximity to our hearts we betrayed; also under the order of a king whose soul is
Impervious to joy and tender-heartedness. To one who also inherited a throne by deeds
Unholy and unjust in the eyes of many except to those who share his disposition of
Greed, self-profit and vengeance? For my heart quakes with thoughts of the afterlife, and
To ponder where our souls shall rest for eternity does churn my stomach to such great
Degrees.
Rosencrantz: I pray thee; remember all my sins in thy orisons, for my heart did contend with this foul
Flight of deceit and injustice, but my mind did find pure pleasure, and wanted never to
Stop; my mind did neglect my heart and morphed it from what it was to what it is. Now, I
Feel neither pity nor remorse, and I cannot beg for forgiveness when I do not suffer the
Conviction o’ it.
Guildenstern: This is true?
Rosencrantz: As the night that will soon fall upon us.
Guildenstern: For shame, I know not who I knew, and I know not who I am! I only know what is to come
For us both, for sins are sins, and sins be punished as seen fit by God. Why then do the
Birds never go unpunished for the murder of the worm, o’ the cat for the death of the
Mouse? Is it so befitting that only we be ensnared in such a tangled web. But ‘tis a web of
Our own line; we were raised to dote on our web, and grow it as large as the sky, If but they
Had the knowledge to know the web we weave has many traps set in place for the soul to be
Caught on.
Rosencrantz: But soft, our doom draws near, let our last words be in solitude to the winds and sea, for
They will live on after our passing, and command them with the duty to spread our story, as
Claudius commanded us to tell Hamlet’s. But, alas dear Guildenstern, to be near you so
Wrenches my peace as the ocean does to a ship. For now I must depart, and leave the duty
Of the story o’ my passing to the wind and sea. [Exeunt]
Guildenstern: [kneels and prays]