Enter KING, QUEEN, LAERTES, LORDS, OSRIC, and Attendants, with Foils, &c. King. Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me. This presence knows, and you must needs have heard, What I have done, That might your nature, honour, and exception, And, when he's not himself, does wrong Laertes, Sir, in this audience, Let my disclaiming from a purposed evil Laer. I am satisfied in nature, Whose motive, in this case, should stir me most 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. You mock me, Sir. Ham. No, by this hand. 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's better'd, we have therefore odds. Ham. This likes me well: These foils have all a length? Osr. Ay, my good lord. King. Set me the stoups of wine upon that table : If Hamlet gives the first or second hit, Or quit in answer of the third exchange, In Denmark's crown have worn; Give me the cups; The trumpet to the cannoneer without, The cannons to the heavens, the heaven to earth, Now the king drinks to Hamlet.-Come, begin ;— 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 awhile. 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 o' breath. Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, † rub thy brows: The queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet. Ham. Good madam, [They play. 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; [They play. I pray you, pass with your best violence; I am afeard, you make a wanton of me. 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. 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? * A pearl. † Handkerchief. + Boy. 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,-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. [Dies. [LAERTES falls. Laer. It is here, Hamlet: Hamlet, thou art slain; Envenom'd too!-Then venom, to thy work. [Stabs the KING. Osr. and Lords. Treason, treason! 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 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; Ham. Heaven make thee free of it! I follow thee. Thou livest; report me and my cause aright Hor. Never believe it; I am more an antique Roman than a Dane, 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, [KING dies. 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. What warlike noise is this? [Dies. [March afar off, and shot within. Osr. Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland, * Without a button and poisoned. + Mixed. †The pearl the king spoke of. Sheriff's officer. To the ambassadors of England gives Ham. O, I die, Horatio; The potent poison quite o'er-crows my spirit; I cannot live to hear the news from England: On Fortinbras; he has my dying voice; So tell him, with the occurrents,* more or less, Which have solicited,t-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 havoc ! §-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: That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead: Hor. Not from his mouth, Had it the ability of life to thank you; He never gave commandment for their death. Fallen on the inventors' heads: all this can I Fort. Let us haste to hear it, And call the noblest to the audience. For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune; And from his mouth whose voice will draw on more: Heap of dead game. *Incidents. A word of censure when more game was destroyed than was reason able. + Incited. Exactly. Polish. But let this same be presently perform❜d, Even when 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 proved most royally; and, for his passage, Speak loudly for him. Take up the bodies:-Such a sight as this [A dead march. [Exeunt, bearing off the dead bodies; after which, a peal of ordnance is shot off. |