LAER.

I am satisfied in nature,

Whose motive, in this case, should stir me most
To my revenge: but in my terms of honour
I stand aloof; and will no reconcilement,
Till by some elder masters, of known honour,
I have a voice and precedent of peace,

To keep my name ungor'd. But till that time,
I do receive your offer'd love like love,

And will not wrong it.

HAM.

I embrace it freely;

And will this brother's wager frankly play.-
Give us the foils.-Come on.

LAER.

Come, one for me.

HAM. I'll be your foil, Laertes: in mine ignorance
Your skill shall, like a star i' the darkest night,
Stick fiery off indeed.

LAER.

HAM. No, by this hand.

You mock me, sir.

KING. Give them the foils, young Osric. -Cousin Hamlet,
You know the wager?

HAM.

Very well, my lord;

Your grace hath laid the odds o' the weaker side. KING. I do not fear it; I have seen you both:

But since he is better'd, we have therefore odds. LAER. This is too heavy, let me see another.

HAM. This likes me well. These foils have all a length?

OSR. Ay, my good lord.

230

240

[They prepare to play.

KING. Set me the stoops of wine upon that table.—

If Hamlet give the first or second hit,

Or quit in answer of the third exchange,

Let all the battlements their ordnance fire;

The king shall drink to Hamlet's better breath;
And in the cup an union shall he throw,
Richer than that which four successive kings

250

In Denmark's crown have worn. Give me the cups;
And let the kettle to the trumpet speak,

The trumpet to the cannoneer without,

The cannons to the heavens, the heavens to earth,

'Now the king drinks to Hamlet.'-Come, begin ;— And you, the judges, bear a wary eye.

HAM. Come on, sir.

LAER.

НАМ.

LAER.

HAM.

OSR. A hit, a very palpable hit.

Come, my lord.

[They play.

One.

No.

Judgment.

LAER.

Well ;-again.

KING. Stay; give me drink.—Hamlet, this pearl is thine;

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. Another hit; what say you? LAER. A touch, a touch, I do confess.

KING. Our son shall win.

QUEEN.

260

[They play.

He's fat, and scant of breath.—

Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows: The queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet. HAM. Good madam !

KING.

Gertrude, do not drink.

QUEEN. I will, my lord; I pray you, pardon me.
KING. 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.
LAER. And yet 'tis almost 'gainst my conscience.
HAM. Come, for the third, Laertes: you but dally;

I

I do not think 't.

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!

KING.

[Aside.

270

[Aside.

[They play.

[LAERTES wounds HAMLET; then, in scuffling, they change rapiers, and HAMLET wounds LAERTES.

HAM. Nay, come, again.

Part them; they are incens'd.

[The QUEEN falls.

280

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 swoons to see them bleed.

QUEEN. No, no, the drink, the drink,—O my dear Hamlet,—
The drink, the drink!-I am poison'd.

HAM. O villany!-Ho! let the door be lock'd :
Treachery! seek it out.

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

[Dies.

290

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. HAM. The point envenom'd too !—

Then, venom, to thy work.

ALL. Treason! treason!

[Stabs the KING.

300

KING. O, yet defend me, friends; I am but hurt.
HAM. Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damnèd Dane,
Drink off this potion :-is thy union here?

Follow

LAER.

mother. my

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!

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

HOR.

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.

[KING dies.

[Dies.

310

320

[March afar off, 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 the election lights

330

On Fortinbras: he has my dying voice;

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

[Dies.

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?

[March within.

Enter FORTINBRAS, the English Ambassadors, and others

FORT. Where is this sight?

HOR.

What is it ye

would see?

340

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?

FIRST AMB.

The sight is dismal;

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,

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,
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
Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts;
Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters;

you

hear

350

Of deaths put on by cunning and forc'd cause;
And, in this upshot, purposes mistook
Fall'n on the inventors' heads: all this can I
Truly deliver.

360

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,

To have prov'd most royally: and, for his passage,

370

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.

380

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

END OF VOL. VIII.

Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to His Majesty
at the Edinburgh University Press