King. Stay, give me drink: Hamlet, 141 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?

Luer. A touch, a touch, I do confess.

King. Our son shall win.

Queen.

[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. [Aside. Ham. I dare not drink yet, madam; by and by. Queen. Come, let me wipe thy face.

I do not think it,

Laer. My lord, I'll hit him now.
King.
Laer. And yet it is almost against my conscience.

[Aside.

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

dally;

I pray you, pass

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.

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,

Osrick;

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 villainy !-Ho! let the door be lock'd:

Treachery! seek it out.

[Dies.

[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. and 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.

[King dies.

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!

[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.

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

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 prophecy, the election lights

On Fortinbras; he has my dying voice;

142

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 FORTIN BRAS, the English Ambassadors, and

Others.

Fort. Where is this sight?

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

What is it, you would see?

search.

Fort. 143

This quarry cries on havock!-O proud death!

144 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 came about: So shall you hear
Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts;
Of accidental judgements, 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;