This presence knows, and you must needs have heard, How I am punish'd with a sore distraction.

What I have done,

That might your nature, honour, and exception,
Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness."
Was't Hamlet wrong'd Laertes? Never, Hamlet :
If Hamlet from himself be ta'en away,

And, when he's not himself, does wrong Laertes,
Then Hamlet does it not, Hamlet denies it.
Who does it then? His madness: If't be so,
Hamlet is of the faction that is wrong'd;
His madness is poor Hamlet's enemy.

Sir, in this audience,

Let my disclaiming from a purpos'd evil

Free me so far in your most generous thoughts,
That I have shot my arrow o'er the house,
And hurt my brother.

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 ungorg'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. You mock me, sir.

Ham. No, by this hand.

King. Give them- the foils, young Osric.

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 :---

-Cousin

[5] I wish Hamlet bad made some other defence; it is unsuitable to the character of a good or a brave man to shelter himself in falsehood. JOHNSON.

[6] This was a piece of satire on fantastical honour. Though nature is satisfied, yet he will ask advice of older men of the sword, whether artificial honour ought to be contented with Hamlet's submission. STEEVENS.

But, since he's 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?
[They prepare to play.

Osr. Ay, my good lord.

King. Set me the stoups 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

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 heaven to earth,

Now the king drinks to Hamlet.-Come, begin ;—

And you, the judges, bear a wary eye.

Ham. Come on, sir.

Laer. Come, my lord.

Ham. One,

Laer. No.

Ham. Judgment.

Osr. A hit, a very palpable hit.

Laer. Well,-again.

[They play.

King. Stay, give me drink: Hamlet, this pearl is thine ;

Here's to thy health.-Give him the cup.

[Trumpets sound; and cannon shot off within.

Ham. I'll play this bout first, set it by a while.

Come.-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.-

[They play.

Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows:

[7] Stoup is a common word in Scotland at this day, and denotes a pewter vessel, resembling our wine measure; but of no determinate quantity, that being ascertained by an adjunct, as gallon-stoup, pint-stoup, mutchkin-stoup, &c. The vessel in which they fetch or keep water is also called the water-stoup. A stoup of wine is therefore equivalent to a pitcher of wine. RITSON.

[8] An union is the finest sort of pearl, and has its place in all crowns and coronets. THEOBALD.----To swallow a pearl in a draught seems to have been equally common to royal and mercantile prodigality. It may be observed, likewise, that pearls were supposed to possess an exhilarating quality. STEEVENS.

[9] Under pretence of throwing a pearl into the cup, the King may be supposed to drop some poisonous drug into the wine. Hamlet seems to suspect this, when he afterwards discovers the effects of the poison, and tauntingly asks him,---“ Is_the union here?" STEEVENS.

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.

[Aside.

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 it.

Laer. And yet it is almost against my conscience.

[Aside.

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

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.

[They play.

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

King. Part them, they are incens'd.

Ham. Nay, come again.

Osr. Look to the queen there, ho!

[The Queen falls.

Hor. They bleed on both sides :-How is it, my lord?

Osr. How is't, Laertes?

Laer. Why, as a woodcock to my 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,

Hamlet!

The drink, the drink ;-I am poison'd!

Ham. O villany!-Ho! let the door be lock'd:

Treachery! seek it out.

[LAERTES falls.

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's 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.
Ham. The point
Envenom'd too!-

Then, venom, to thy work.

Osr.& Lords. Treason! treason!

[Stabs the King.

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

Ham. Here, thou incestuous, murd’rous, damned Dane,

Drink off this potion :-Is the union here?

Follow my mother.

Laer. He is justly serv'd;

It is a poison temper'd by himself.

[King dies.

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 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 it.

O God!-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 a while,

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?

Osr. Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Po

land,

To the ambassadors of England gives

This warlike volley.

Ham. O, I die, Horatio ;

The potent poison quite o'ercrows my spirit ;

I cannot live to hear the news from England:

But I do prophecy the election lights
On Fortinbras; he has my dying voice;

So tell him, with the occurrents, more or 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, you would see ?

If aught of woe, or wonder, cease your search.

Fort. This quarry cries on havock !-O proud death! What feast is toward in thine eternal cell,

That thou so many princes, at a shot,

So bloodily hast struck?

1 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 come about: so shall you hear
Of carnal, 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 the 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 :

See Illustrations.

[2] To cry on was to exclaim against. I suppose, when unfair sportsmen destroyed more quarry or game than was reasonable, the censure was to cry, Havock.

JOHNSON.