Hamnet

A beloved Mr. Ed Brown once had me perform Act 1, Scene 5 of Hamlet. "I am thy father’s spirit, Doomed for a certain term to walk the night And for the day confined to fast in fires My hour is almost come When I to sulf’rous and tormenting flames Must render up myself. Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing To what I shall unfold. List, list, O list! If thou didst ever thy dear father love— But soft, methinks I scent the morning air. Brief let me be. Sleeping within my orchard, Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole With juice of cursèd hebona in a vial And in the porches of my ears did pour The leprous distilment, whose effect Holds such an enmity with blood of man That swift as quicksilver it courses through The natural gates and alleys of the body, And with a sudden vigor it doth posset And curd, like eager droppings into milk, The thin and wholesome blood. So did it mine, And a most instant tetter barked about, Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust All my smooth body. O horrible, O horrible, most horrible! If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not. The glowworm shows the matin to be near And ’gins to pale his uneffectual fire. Adieu, adieu, adieu. Remember me." This was a moving read of Hamlet.