Good evening. Welcome to the Just Sleep podcast. I'm Tasia, your host.

Every week, I will read you an old story to help you relax, put the stressful day behind you,

and drift off to sleep.

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Tonight, I will be reading two stories from Edith Nesbitt's beautiful stories from Shakespeare,

Hamlet and the Merchant of Venice.

So lie down, close your eyes, and let me read you a story.

Hamlet

Hamlet 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 steady 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 loved his father

so tenderly that 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 mourning for the wedding.

It 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.

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