Claudius is an excerpt from “Hamlet’s Obsession” (2014) by Jon Pescevich.
King Claudius:
O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven.
It hath the primal eldest curse upon’t,
a brother’s murder.
I stand in pause.
Where shall I begin?
What shall I neglect?
What if this cursed hand were thicker than itself with brother’s blood,
is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens to wash it white as snow?
And what’s in prayer but force to forestall falling,
or force to pardon being down?
But O,
what form of prayer can serve my turn?
I am still possess’d of those effects for which I did the murder–
my crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.
(…Claudius bends down in prayer…)