_For the first time is seen to move. She looks stonily and for a long
time at_ OPHELIA
If she can pity me ’twill ease her heart.
_Arises and comes quietly to_ OPHELIA, _then covering her face with her
hands, she kneels and rests her head in_ OPHELIA’S _lap_
OPHELIA. It is Cordelia. Look up. Why, thou art wretched too and yet
thine eye is dry. Come you to me for comfort? If so, I can but hold
thee close and if thou seest tears, translate them as for thee, for
sympathy in words I know not how to give.
CORDELIA. Place thine ear to mine, so,--and we will listen for each
other’s thoughts.
OPHELIA. I would not have thee hear my miseries, for then thou too must
weep.
CORDELIA. To weep is best of all. Could I do so, ingratitude would melt
away, would have no power, I’d feel my father’s presence. O teach me
how to weep.
OPHELIA. Cordelia, why hast thou long been silent, is’t for thy father?
CORDELIA. O precious silence! Ophelia, in a world where little truth
is spoken, silence less evil there obtains. These maidens are all kind,
but should I unstop my pain to them, a scatter of advice unsuited,
would fall like winter’s leaves about mine ears. Each day they chatter
up a house of words and when the day is spent, it leaves no trace
behind. For pastime, they do weave a happy future round some ne’erborn
man of their conceiving. Thy Hamlet is the dearest, sanest man of all,
yet him they do consider to be mad.
OPHELIA. I had a mind to ask their thoughts concerned with Hamlet, but
now thy words dissuade.
CORDELIA. I’ll tell their answer e’er thou ask them. This day their
remedy for troubled love lies these ways. Thou shouldst mask thee
in the habiliments of a man and so engage as Hamlet’s servant, then
learning all his moods, thou mayest wisely soothe him. One will ’vise
thee how to dress, another how demean thyself, a third shall give
thee points at law and preach to thee of modesty. Coaxing, pleading,
baiting, all shall be proposed to bring him out and when their talk is
run, why, a riddle hath been asked thee.
OPHELIA. Cordelia, Prince Hamlet is so vast a man the world can scarce
comprise him, and yet his dear simplicity did link his tastes to mine.
Now, now he is estranged, oh am I so to lose him?
CORDELIA. If I had held thy place and live as near to such a thought as
Hamlet, and then there came a void between our loves, wouldst know my
course?
OPHELIA. O tell it me.
CORDELIA. I’d fill my silence full with love and sitting quiet watch
and wait, not tiring with sad looks, but simply and with hope await my
place, then as some ground for tiny seed and deed of love appear, it
should be sown, until some day he’d turn and find my garden grown, a
place wherein to rest.
_They hold each other close._ OPHELIA _weeps_
CORDELIA. I giv’st thee my best counsel, dear, Hast ought to solve _my_
hardened ache?
PORTIA _enters, looks on_ OPHELIA, _then to her enter_ ROSALIND,
IMOGEN, BEATRICE, DESDEMONA,--_they stand together_
PORTIA. Poor child, see how she clings unto Cordelia.
ROSALIND. Of sorrow she’s too much now, we dare not give her more.
DESDEMONA. How did her father die!
BEATRICE. ’Tis not yet given out.