Shakespeare's Stories for Young Readers by E. Nesbit Read Free Book Online Page A

“and love, and quiet life.”
    â€œWell,” said Baptista, “you have won the wager, and I will add another twenty thousand crowns to her dowry—another dowry for another daughter—for she is as changed as if she were some one else.”
    So Petruchio won his wager, and had in Katharine always a loving wife and a true, and now he had broken her proud and angry spirit he loved her well, and there was nothing ever but love between those two. And so they lived happy ever afterwards.

HAMLET
    H AMLET was the only son of the King of Denmark. He loved his father and mother dearly—and was happy in the love of a sweet lady named Ophelia. Her father, Polonius, was the King’s Chamberlain.
    While Hamlet was away studying at Wittenberg, his father died. Young Hamlet hastened home in great grief to hear that a serpent had stung the King, and that he was dead. The young Prince had loved his father tenderly—so you may judge what he felt when he found that the Queen, before yet the King had been laid in the ground a month, had determined to marry again—and to marry the dead King’s brother.
    Hamlet refused to put off his mourning for the wedding.
    â€œIt is not only the black I wear on my body,” he said, “that proves my loss. I wear mourning in my heart for my dead father. His son at least remembers him, and grieves still.”
    Then said Claudius, the King’s brother, “This grief is unreasonable. Of course you must sorrow at the loss of your father, but—”
    â€œAh,” said Hamlet, bitterly, “I cannot in one little month forget those I love.”
    With that the Queen and Claudius left him, to make merry over their wedding, forgetting the poor good King who had been so kind to them both.
    And Hamlet, left alone, began to wonder and to question as to what he ought to do. For he could not believe the story about the snake-bite. It seemed to him all too plain that the wicked Claudius had killed the King, so as to get the crown and marry the Queen. Yet he had no proof, and could not accuse Claudius.
    And while he was thus thinking came Horatio, a fellow student of his, from Wittenberg.
    â€œWhat brought you here?” asked Hamlet, when he had greeted his friend kindly.
    â€œI came, my lord, to see your father’s funeral.”
    â€œI think it was to see my mother’s wedding,” said Hamlet, bitterly. “My father! We shall not look upon his like again.”
    â€œMy lord,” answered Horatio, “I think I saw him yesternight.”
    Then, while Hamlet listened in surprise, Horatio told how he, with two gentlemen of the guard, had seen the King’s ghost on the battlements. Hamlet went that night, and true enough, at midnight, the ghost of the King, in the armor he had been wont to wear, appeared on the battlements in the chill moonlight. Hamlet was a brave youth. Instead of running away from the ghost he spoke to it—and when it beckoned him he followed it to a quiet place, and there the ghost told him that what he had suspected was true. The wicked Claudius had indeed killed his good brother the King, by dropping poison into his ear as he slept in his orchard in the afternoon.
    â€œAnd you,” said the ghost, “must avenge this cruel murder—on my wicked brother. But do nothing against the Queen—for I have loved her, and she is thy mother. Remember me.”
    Then seeing the morning approach, the ghost vanished.
    â€œNow,” said Hamlet, “there is nothing left but revenge. Remember thee—I will remember nothing else—books, pleasure, youth—let all go—and your commands alone live on my brain.”
    So when his friends came back he made them swear to keep the secret of the ghost, and then went in from the battlements, now grey with mingled dawn and moonlight, to think how he might best avenge his murdered father.
    The shock of seeing and hearing his father’s ghost made