Laer. Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, Osric; I'm justly kill'd with mine own treachery.

Hum. How does the queen?

King.

She swoons to see them bleed.

Queen. No, no, the drink, the drink, O my dear

Laer. It is here, Hamlet: Hamlet, thou art slain;
No medicine in the world can do thee good,
In thee there is not half an hour of life;
The treacherous instrument is in thy hand,
Unbated and envenom'd: the foul practice
Hath turn'd itself on me; lo, here I lie,
Never to rise again: thy mother's poison'd: -
I can no more: the king, the king's to blame
Ilam. The point envenom'd too!

--

Then, venom, to thy work.

All.

Treason! treason!

[Stabs the King.

King. O, yet defend me, friends; I am but hurt.

Ham. Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damnèd Dane,

Drink off this potion:

Follow my mother.

Laer.

is thy union here?

He is justly serv'd;

It is a poison temper'd by himself.

Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet:
Mine and my father's death come not upon thee,
Nor thine on me!

[King dies.

Ilam. Heaven make thee free of it! I follow thee.
I am dead, Horatio. Wretched queen, adieu! -
You that look pale and tremble at this chauce,
That are but mutes or audience to this act,

[Dies.

Thou liv'st; report me and my cause aright
To the unsatisfied.

I'm more an antique Roman than a Dane:
Here's yet some liquor left.

Ham.

As thou'rt a man,

Give me the cup: let go; by heaven, I'll have't.

O good Horatio, what a wounded name,

Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me!
If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart,

Absent thee from felicity awhile,

And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,

To tell my story. [March at some distance, and shot within.

What warlike noise is this?

Osr. Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland, To the ambassadors of England gives

The potent poison quite o'er-crows my spirit:
I cannot live to hear the news from England;
But I do prophesy th' election lights

On Fortinbras: he has my dying voice;

So tell him, with th' occurrents, more and less,
Which have solicited - the rest is silence.

prince;

And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!
Why does the drum come hither?

[Dies.

good night, sweet

[March within.

Enter FORTINBRAS, the English Ambassadors, and others.

Fort. Where is this sight?

What is it ye would see?

O proud Death,

Hor
If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search.
Fort. This quarry cries on havoc
What feast is toward in thine eternal cell,
That thou so many princes at a shot
So bloodily hast struck?

First Amb.

The sight is dismal;

And our affairs from England come too late:

The cars are senseless that should give us hearing,
To tell him his commandinent is fulfill'd,

That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead:
Where should we have our thanks?

Ilor.

Not from his mouth,

Had it th' ability of life to thank you:

He never gave commandment for their death.
But since, so jump upon this bloody question,
You from the Polack wars, and you from England,
Are here arriv'd, give order that these bodies
High on a stage be placed to the view;

And let me speak to the yet unknowing world
How these things came about: so shall you hear
Of carual, bloody, and unnatural acts;

Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters;
Of deaths put on by cunning and forc'd cause;
And, in this upshot, purposes mistook

Fall'n on th' inventors' heads: all this can I
Truly deliver.

Fort.

Let us haste to hear it,

And call the noblest to the audience.

For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune:
I have some rights of memory in this kingdom,
Which now to claim my vantage doth invite me.

Hor. Of that I shall have also cause to speak,
And from his mouth whose voice will draw on more:
But let this same be presently perform'd,

Even while men's minds are wild; lest more mischance,
On plots and errors, happen.

Fort.
Let four captains
Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage;
For he was likely, had he been put on,

T' have prov'd most royally: and, for his passage,
The soldiers' music and the rites of war

116

Speak loudly for him.

HAMLET, PR. OF DENM.

[ACT V. SCENE 11.]

such a sight as this

Take up the bodies:

Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss.
Go, bid the soldiers shoot.

[A dead march. Exeunt, bearing off the dead bodies ; after which a peal of ordnance is shot off.

Knights attending on Lear, Officers, Messengers, Soldiers, and

Attendants.

SCENE - Britain.

ACT I.

SCENE I. A room of state in King LEAR's palace.

Enter KENT, GLOSTER, and EDMund.

Kent. I thought the king had more affected the Duke of Albany than Cornwall.

Glo. It did always seem so to us: but now, in the division of the kingdom, it appears not which of the dukes be values most; for equalities are so weighed, that curiosity in neither can make choice of either's moiety.

Kent. Is not this your son, my lord?

Glo. His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge: I have so often blushed to acknowledge him, that now I am brazed to't.