The Works of William Shakespeare

Osr. A hit, a very palpable hit. Laer.

King. Stay; give me drink. pearl is thine;

Judgement.

Here's to thy health. [Trumpets sound, and cannon shot off within. 'Give him the cup.

Ham. I'll play this bout first; set it by awhile. Come. [They play.] Another hit; what say you? Laer. A touch, a touch, I do confess. King. Our son shall win. Queen. He's fat, and scant of breath. Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows: The queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet. 300 Ham. Good madam! King.

Gertrude, do not drink.

Queen. I will, my lord; I pray you, pardon me. King. [Aside] It is the poison'd cup: it is too late.

Ham. I dare not drink yet, madam; by and by.
Queen. Come, let me wipe thy face.
Laer. My lord, I'll hit him now.
King.

I do not think 't. Laer. [Aside] And yet 'tis almost 'gainst my conscience.

Ham. Come, for the third, Laertes: you but dally;

310

[They play.

I pray you, pass with your best violence;
I am afeard you make a wanton of me.
Laer. Say you so? come on.
Osr. Nothing, neither way.
Laer. Have at you now!
[Laertes wounds Hamlet; then, in scuffling,
they change rapiers, and Hamlet wounds
Laertes.

King.
Part them; they are incensed.
Ham. Nay, come, again. [The Queen falls.
Osr.
Look to the queen there, ho!
Hor. They bleed on both sides. How is it,
my lord?

Osr. How is't, Laertes?

Laer. Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe,
Osric;

I am justly kill'd with mine own treachery.
Ham. How does the queen?

King.
She swounds to see them bleed.
Queen. No, no, the drink, the drink,-O my
dear Hamlet,-
320

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

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

Drink off this potion. Is thy union here?
Follow my mother.

Laer.

[King dies.

339

He is justly served; 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! [Dies.

Ham. Heaven make thee free of it! I follow thee.

I am dead, Horatio. Wretched queen, adieu!
You that look pale and tremble at this chance,
That are but mutes or audience to this act,
Had I but time-as this fell sergeant, death,
Is strict in his arrest-O, I could tell you-
But let it be. Horatio, I am dead;
Thou livest; report me and my cause aright
To the unsatisfied.
Hor.

351

Never believe it:
I am 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 afar off, and shot within. What warlike noise is this? 360 Osr. Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland,

To the ambassadors of England gives
This warlike volley.

Ham.

O, I die, Horatio;
The potent poison quite o'er-crows my spirit:
I cannot live to hear the news from England;
But I do prophesy the election lights
On Fortinbras: he has my dying voice;
So tell him, with the occurrents, more and less,
Which have solicited. The rest is silence. [Dias.
Hor. Now cracks a noble heart. Good night,
sweet prince;

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

370

[March within. Enter FORTINBRAS, the English Ambassadors, and others.

The drink, the drink! I am poison'd. [Dies.

Fort. Where is this sight?

Hor.

What is it ye would see? | Fall'n on the inventors' heads: all this can I
Truly deliver.

If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search.
Fort. This quarry cries on havoc. O proud
death,

What feast is toward in thine eternal cell,
That thou so many princes at a shot

So bloodily hast struck?

And our affairs from England come too late:
The ears are senseless that should give us hearing,
To tell him his commandment is fulfill'd, 381
That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead:
Where should we have our thanks?
Hor.
Not from his mouth,
Had it the ability of life to thank you:

He never gave commandment for their death.
But since, so jump upon this bloody question,

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

But let this same be presently perform'd,
Even while men's minds are wild; lest more mis-
chance,

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,

You from the Polack wars, and you from Eng-To have proved most royally: and, for his pas land,

389

Are here arrived, 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 carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts,
Of accidental judgements, casual slaughters,
Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause,
And, in this upshot, purposes mistook

sage,

The soldiers' music and the rites of war
Speak loudly for him.

Take up the bodies: such a sight as this
Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss.
Go, bid the soldiers shoot.

410

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

SCENE I. King Lear's palace.
Enter KENT, GLOUCESTER, and EDMUND.
Kent. I thought the king had more affected
the Duke of Albany than Cornwall.

Glou. It did always seem so to us: but now, in the division of the kingdom, it appears not which of the dukes he 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? Glou. His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge: I have so often blushed to acknowledge him, that now I am brazed to it.

Kent. I cannot conceive you.

Glou. Sir, this young fellow's mother could: whereupon she grew round-wombed, and had, indeed, sir, a son for her cradle ere she had a husband for her bed. Do you smell a fault? Kent. I cannot wish the fault undone, the issue of it being so proper.

Glou. But I have, sir, a son by order of law, some year elder than this, who yet is no dearer in my account: though this knave came something saucily into the world before he was sent for, yet was his mother fair; there was good sport at his making, and the whoreson must be acknowledged. you know this noble gentleman, Edmund? Edm. No, my lord.

Glou. My lord of Kent: remember him hereafter as my honourable friend.

Edm. My services to your lordship.

Kent. I must love you, and sue to know you better.

and away

Lear. Meantime we shall express our darker

purpose.

Give me the map there. Know that we have
divided

In three our kingdom: and 'tis our fast intent
To shake all cares and business from our age; 40
Conferring them on younger strengths, while we
Unburthen'd crawl toward death. Our son of
Cornwall,

And you, our no less loving son of Albany,
We have this hour a constant will to publish
Our daughters' several dowers, that future strife
May be prevented now. The princes, France
and Burgundy,

Great rivals in our youngest daughter's love,
Long in our court have made their amorous
sojourn,

And here are to be answer'd. Tell me, my daughters,

Since now we will divest us, both of rule,
Interest of territory, cares of state,-
Which of you shall we say doth love us most?
That we our largest bounty may extend
Where nature doth with merit challenge. Goneril,
Our eldest-born, speak first.

Gon. Sir, I love you more than words can
wield the matter;

Dearer than eye-sight, space, and liberty;
Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare;
No less than life, with grace, health, beauty,
honour;

As much as child e'er loved, or father found; 60
A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable;
Beyond all manner of so much I love you.
Cor. [Aside] What shall Cordelia do? Love,
and be silent.

Lear.

Of all these bounds, even from this line to this,

Edm. Sir, I shall study deserving.
Glou. He hath been out nine
years,
he shall again. The king is coming.
With shadowy forests and with champains rich'd,
With plenteous rivers and wide-skirted meads,
Sennet. Enter KING LEAR, CORNWALL, ALBANY, We make thee lady: to thine and Albany's issue
GONERIL, REGAN, CORDELIA, and Attendants. Be this perpetual. What says our second daughter,
Lear. Attend the lords of France and Bur-Our dearest Regan, wife to Cornwall? Speak.
gundy, Gloucester.
Reg. Sir, I am made
Glow. I shall, my liege.

Of the self-same metal that my sister is,
[Exeunt Gloucester and Edmund. And prize me at her worth. In my true heart

Lear. Nothing!

Cor. Nothing.

Lear. Nothing will come of nothing: speak again.

Cor. Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty According to my bond; nor more nor less.

Lear. How, how, Cordelia ! mend your speech a little,

Lest it may mar your fortunes.
Cor.
Good my lord,
You have begot me, bred me, loved me: I
Return those duties back as are right fit,
Obey you, love you, and most honour you.
Why have my sisters husbands, if they say
They love you all? Haply, when I shall wed,
That lord whose hand must take my plight shall

carry

100

Half my love with him, half my care and duty: Sure, I shall never marry like my sisters,

To love my father all.

Lear. But goes thy heart with this?

Cor.

Ay, good my lord. Lear. So young, and so untender? Cor. So young, my lord, and true. Lear. Let it be so; thy truth, then, be thy

dower:

For, by the sacred radiance of the sun,
The mysteries of Hecate, and the night;
By all the operation of the orbs

From whom we do exist, and cease to be;
Here I disclaim all my paternal care,
Propinquity and property of blood,
And as a stranger to my heart and me
Hold thee, from this, for ever.

Scythian,

110

The barbarous

course,

I do invest you jointly with my power,
Pre-eminence, and all the large effects
That troop with majesty. Ourself, by monthly
With reservation of an hundred knights,
By you to be sustain'd, shall our abode
Make with you by due turns. Only we still retain
The name, and all the additions to a king;
The sway, revenue, execution of the rest,
Beloved sons, be yours: which to confirm,
This coronet part betwixt you. [Giving the crown.
Kent.
Royal Lear,
Whom I have ever honour'd as my king,
Loved as my father, as my master follow'd,
As my great patron thought on in my prayers,-
Lear. The bow is bent and drawn, make from
the shaft.

140

Kent. Let it fall rather, though the fork invade The region of my heart: be Kent unmannerly, When Lear is mad. What wilt thou do, old man? Think'st thou that duty shall have dread to speak, When power to flattery bows? To plainness honour's bound,

150

pride

To come between our sentence and our power,
Which nor our nature nor our place can bear,
Our potency made good, take thy reward.
Five days we do allot thee, for provision
To shield thee from diseases of the world;
And on the sixth to turn thy hated back
Upon our kingdom: if, on the tenth day following,
Thy banish'd trunk be found in our dominions,
The moment is thy death. Away! by Jupiter,
This shall not be revoked.

Kent. Fare thee well, king: sith thus thou wilt appear,

Freedom lives hence, and banishment is here. [To Cordelia] The gods to their dear shelter take thee, maid,

That justly think'st, and hast most rightly said!
[To Regan and Goneril] And your large speeches
may your deeds approve,

That good effects may spring from words of love.
Thus Kent, O princes, bids you all adieu;
He'll shape his old course in a country new. [Exit.
Flourish. Re-enter GLOUCESTER, with FRANCE,
BURGUNDY, and Attendants.

Glou. Here's France and Burgundy, my noble lord. 191

Lear. My lord of Burgundy,

We first address towards you, who with this king

Hath rivall'd for our daughter: what, in the least,
Will you require in present dower with her,
Or cease your quest of love?

Bur.

Most royal majesty,

I crave no more than hath your highness offer'd,
Nor will you tender less.
Lear.
Right noble Burgundy,
When she was dear to us, we did hold her so;
But now her price is fall'n. Sir, there she stands:
If aught within that little seeming substance, 201
Or all of it, with our displeasure pieced,
And nothing more, may fitly like your grace,
She's there, and she is yours.

Bur.

I know no answer.

Lear. Will you, with those infirmities she

Royal Lear,

Give but that portion which yourself proposed, And here I take Cordelia by the hand, Duchess of Burgundy.

Lear. Nothing: I have sworn; I am firm. Bur. I am sorry, then, you have so lost a father

That you must lose a husband.
Cor.

Peace be with Burgundy! 250
Since that respects of fortune are his love,
I shall not be his wife.
France. Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich,
being poor;

Most choice, forsaken; and most loved, despised!
Thee and thy virtues here I seize upon:
Be it lawful I take up what's cast away.
Gods, gods! 'tis strange that from their cold'st
neglect

My love should kindle to inflamed respect.
Thy dowerless daughter, king, thrown to my
chance,

Is queen of us, of ours, and our fair France: 260
Not all the dukes of waterish Burgundy
Can buy this unprized precious maid of me.
Bid them farewell, Cordelia, though unkind:
Thou losest here, a better where to find.

Lear. Thou hast her, France: let her be thine; for we

Have no such daughter, nor shall ever. see
That face of hers again. Therefore be gone
Without our grace, our love, our benison.
Come, noble Burgundy.

[Flourish. Exeunt all but France,
Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia.
France. Bid farewell to your sisters.
Cor. The jewels of our father, with wash'd

eyes

270

Cordelia leaves you: I know you what you are;
And like a sister am most loath to call
Your faults as they are named. Use well our

father:

« Zurück Weiter »

Books