Click in the field, then press CTRL+C to copy the HTML code
<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=358754" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>King Claudius</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">My mind now moves to distant places.<br>I'm walking the streets of Elsinore,<br>through its squares, and I recall<br>the very sad story-<br>that unfortunate king<br>killed by his nephew<br>because of some fanciful suspicions.<br>In all the homes of the poor<br>he was mourned secretly<br>(they were afraid of Fortinbras).<br>A quiet, gentle man,<br>a man who loved peace<br>(his country had suffered much<br>from the wars of his predecessor),<br>he behaved graciously toward everyone,<br>humble and great alike.<br>Never high-handed, he always sought advice<br>in the kingdom's affairs<br>from serious, experienced people.<br>Just why his nephew killed him<br>was never actually explained.<br>The prince suspected him of murder,<br>and the basis of his suspicion was this:<br>walking one night along an ancient battlement<br>he thought he saw a ghost<br>and he had a conversation with this ghost;<br>what he supposedly heard from the ghost<br>were certain accusations against the king.<br>It must have been a fit of fancy,<br>an optical illusion<br>(the prince was nervous in the extreme;<br>while he was studying at Wittenberg,<br>many of his fellow students thought him a maniac).<br>A few days later he went<br>to his mother's room to discuss<br>certain family affairs. And suddenly,<br>while he was talking, he lost his self-control,<br>started shouting, screaming<br>that the ghost was there in front of him.<br>But his mother saw nothing at all.<br>And that same day, for no apparent reason,<br>he killed an old gentleman of the court.<br>Since the prince was due to sail for England<br>in a day or two,<br>the king hustled him off post-haste<br>in order to save him.<br>But the people were so outraged<br>by the monstrous murder<br>that rebels rose up<br>and tried to storm the palace gates,<br>led by the dead man's son,<br>the noble lord Laertes<br>(a brave young man, also ambitious;<br>in the confusion, some of his friends called out:<br>'Long live King Laertes!').<br>Later, once the kingdom had calmed down<br>and the king was lying in his grave-<br>he was killed by his nephew, the prince,<br>who never went to England<br>but escaped from the ship on his way there-<br>a certain Horatio came forward<br>and tried to exonerate the prince<br>by telling some stories of his own.<br>He said that the voyage to England<br>had been a secret plot, and orders<br>had been given to kill the prince there<br>(but this was never clearly ascertained).<br>He also spoke of poisoned wine-<br>wine poisoned by the king.<br>It's true that Laertes spoke of this too.<br>But couldn't he have been lying?<br>Couldn't he have been mistaken?<br>And when did he say all this?<br>While dying of his wounds, his mind reeling,<br>his talk seemingly delirious.<br>As for the poisoned weapons,<br>it was shown later that the poisoning<br>hadn't been done by the king at all:<br>Laertes himself had done it.<br>But Horatio, whenever pressed,<br>would produce even the ghost as a witness:<br>the ghost said this and that,<br>the ghost did this and that!<br>Because of all this, though letting Horatio talk,<br>most people in their hearts<br>pitied the poor king,<br>who, with all these ghosts and fairy tales,<br>was unjustly killed and disposed of.<br>Yet Fortinbras, who profited<br>by winning the throne so easily,<br>gave full attention and weight<br>to every word Horatio said.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Constantine+P.+Cavafy">Constantine P. Cavafy</a><div class=q>
<img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share">
<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=358754" data-title="King Claudius de Constantine P. Cavafy" data-description="My mind now moves to distant places.
I'm walking the streets of Elsinore,
through its squares, and I recall
the very sad story-
that unfortunate king
killed by his nephew
because of some fanciful suspicions.
In all the homes of the poor
he was mou..."></div>
</div>
</div>