HAMLET
 

ACT V
 
 

SCENE I A churchyard.
 

        [Enter two Clowns, with spades, &c]

First Clown     Is she to be buried in Christian burial that
        wilfully seeks her own salvation?

Second Clown    I tell thee she is: and therefore make her grave
        straight: the crowner hath sat on her, and finds it
        Christian burial.

First Clown     How can that be, unless she drowned herself in her
        own defence?

Second Clown    Why, 'tis found so.

First Clown     It must be 'se offendendo;' it cannot be else. For
        here lies the point:  if I drown myself wittingly,
        it argues an act: and an act hath three branches: it
        is, to act, to do, to perform: argal, she drowned
        herself wittingly.

Second Clown    Nay, but hear you, goodman delver,--

First Clown     Give me leave. Here lies the water; good: here
        stands the man; good; if the man go to this water,
        and drown himself, it is, will he, nill he, he
        goes,--mark you that; but if the water come to him
        and drown him, he drowns not himself: argal, he
        that is not guilty of his own death shortens not his own life.

Second Clown    But is this law?

First Clown     Ay, marry, is't; crowner's quest law.

Second Clown    Will you ha' the truth on't? If this had not been
        a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out o'
        Christian burial.

First Clown     Why, there thou say'st: and the more pity that
        great folk should have countenance in this world to
        drown or hang themselves, more than their even
        Christian. Come, my spade. There is no ancient
        gentleman but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers:
        they hold up Adam's profession.

Second Clown    Was he a gentleman?

First Clown     He was the first that ever bore arms.

Second Clown    Why, he had none.

First Clown     What, art a heathen? How dost thou understand the
        Scripture? The Scripture says 'Adam digged:'
        could he dig without arms? I'll put another
        question to thee: if thou answerest me not to the
        purpose, confess thyself--

Second Clown    Go to.

First Clown     What is he that builds stronger than either the
        mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter?

Second Clown    The gallows-maker; for that frame outlives a
        thousand tenants.

First Clown     I like thy wit well, in good faith: the gallows
        does well; but how does it well? it does well to
        those that do in: now thou dost ill to say the
        gallows is built stronger than the church: argal,
        the gallows may do well to thee. To't again, come.

Second Clown    'Who builds stronger than a mason, a shipwright, or
        a carpenter?'

First Clown     Ay, tell me that, and unyoke.

Second Clown    Marry, now I can tell.

First Clown     To't.

Second Clown    Mass, I cannot tell.

        [Enter HAMLET and HORATIO, at a distance]

First Clown     Cudgel thy brains no more about it, for your dull
        ass will not mend his pace with beating; and, when
        you are asked this question next, say 'a
        grave-maker: 'the houses that he makes last till
        doomsday. Go, get thee to Yaughan: fetch me a
        stoup of liquor.

        [Exit Second Clown]

        [He digs and sings]

        In youth, when I did love, did love,
        Methought it was very sweet,
        To contract, O, the time, for, ah, my behove,
        O, methought, there was nothing meet.

HAMLET  Has this fellow no feeling of his business, that he
        sings at grave-making?

HORATIO Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness.

HAMLET  'Tis e'en so: the hand of little employment hath
        the daintier sense.

First Clown     [Sings]

        But age, with his stealing steps,
        Hath claw'd me in his clutch,
        And hath shipped me intil the land,
        As if I had never been such.

        [Throws up a skull]

HAMLET  That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once:
        how the knave jowls it to the ground, as if it were
        Cain's jaw-bone, that did the first murder! It
        might be the pate of a politician, which this ass
        now o'er-reaches; one that would circumvent God,
        might it not?

HORATIO It might, my lord.

HAMLET  Or of a courtier; which could say 'Good morrow,
        sweet lord! How dost thou, good lord?' This might
        be my lord such-a-one, that praised my lord
        such-a-one's horse, when he meant to beg it; might it not?

HORATIO Ay, my lord.

HAMLET  Why, e'en so: and now my Lady Worm's; chapless, and
        knocked about the mazzard with a sexton's spade:
        here's fine revolution, an we had the trick to
        see't. Did these bones cost no more the breeding,
        but to play at loggats with 'em? mine ache to think on't.

First Clown: [Sings]

        A pick-axe, and a spade, a spade,
        For and a shrouding sheet:
        O, a pit of clay for to be made
        For such a guest is meet.

        [Throws up another skull]

HAMLET  There's another: why may not that be the skull of a
        lawyer? Where be his quiddities now, his quillets,
        his cases, his tenures, and his tricks? why does he
        suffer this rude knave now to knock him about the
        sconce with a dirty shovel, and will not tell him of
        his action of battery? Hum! This fellow might be
        in's time a great buyer of land, with his statutes,
        his recognizances, his fines, his double vouchers,
        his recoveries: is this the fine of his fines, and
        the recovery of his recoveries, to have his fine
        pate full of fine dirt? will his vouchers vouch him
        no more of his purchases, and double ones too, than
        the length and breadth of a pair of indentures? The
        very conveyances of his lands will hardly lie in
        this box; and must the inheritor himself have no more, ha?

HORATIO Not a jot more, my lord.

HAMLET  Is not parchment made of sheepskins?

HORATIO Ay, my lord, and of calf-skins too.

HAMLET  They are sheep and calves which seek out assurance
        in that. I will speak to this fellow. Whose
        grave's this, sirrah?

First Clown     Mine, sir.

        [Sings]

        O, a pit of clay for to be made
        For such a guest is meet.

HAMLET  I think it be thine, indeed; for thou liest in't.

First Clown     You lie out on't, sir, and therefore it is not
        yours: for my part, I do not lie in't, and yet it is mine.

HAMLET  'Thou dost lie in't, to be in't and say it is thine:
        'tis for the dead, not for the quick; therefore thou liest.

First Clown     'Tis a quick lie, sir; 'twill away gain, from me to
        you.

HAMLET  What man dost thou dig it for?

First Clown     For no man, sir.

HAMLET  What woman, then?

First Clown     For none, neither.

HAMLET  Who is to be buried in't?

First Clown     One that was a woman, sir; but, rest her soul, she's dead.

HAMLET  How absolute the knave is! we must speak by the
        card, or equivocation will undo us. By the Lord,
        Horatio, these three years I have taken a note of
        it; the age is grown so picked that the toe of the
        peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier, he
        gaffs his kibe. How long hast thou been a
        grave-maker?

First Clown     Of all the days i' the year, I came to't that day
        that our last king Hamlet overcame Fortinbras.

HAMLET  How long is that since?

First Clown     Cannot you tell that? every fool can tell that: it
        was the very day that young Hamlet was born; he that
        is mad, and sent into England.

HAMLET  Ay, marry, why was he sent into England?

First Clown     Why, because he was mad: he shall recover his wits
        there; or, if he do not, it's no great matter there.

HAMLET  Why?

First Clown     'Twill, a not be seen in him there; there the men
        are as mad as he.

HAMLET  How came he mad?

First Clown     Very strangely, they say.

HAMLET  How strangely?

First Clown     Faith, e'en with losing his wits.

HAMLET  Upon what ground?

First Clown     Why, here in Denmark: I have been sexton here, man
        and boy, thirty years.

HAMLET  How long will a man lie i' the earth ere he rot?

First Clown     I' faith, if he be not rotten before he die--as we
        have many pocky corses now-a-days, that will scarce
        hold the laying in--he will last you some eight year
        or nine year: a tanner will last you nine year.

HAMLET  Why he more than another?

First Clown     Why, sir, his hide is so tanned with his trade, that
        he will keep out water a great while; and your water
        is a sore decayer of your whoreson dead body.
        Here's a skull now; this skull has lain in the earth
        three and twenty years.

HAMLET  Whose was it?

First Clown     A whoreson mad fellow's it was: whose do you think it was?

HAMLET  Nay, I know not.

First Clown     A pestilence on him for a mad rogue! a' poured a
        flagon of Rhenish on my head once. This same skull,
        sir, was Yorick's skull, the king's jester.

HAMLET  This?

First Clown     E'en that.

HAMLET  Let me see.

        [Takes the skull]

        Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow
        of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath
        borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how
        abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rims at
        it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know
        not how oft. Where be your gibes now? your
        gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment,
        that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one
        now, to mock your own grinning? quite chap-fallen?
        Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let
        her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must
        come; make her laugh at that. Prithee, Horatio, tell
        me one thing.

HORATIO What's that, my lord?

HAMLET  Dost thou think Alexander looked o' this fashion i'
        the earth?

HORATIO E'en so.

HAMLET  And smelt so? pah!

        [Puts down the skull]

HORATIO E'en so, my lord.

HAMLET  To what base uses we may return, Horatio! Why may
        not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander,
        till he find it stopping a bung-hole?

HORATIO 'Twere to consider too curiously, to consider so.

HAMLET  No, faith, not a jot; but to follow him thither with
        modesty enough, and likelihood to lead it: as
        thus: Alexander died, Alexander was buried,
        Alexander returneth into dust; the dust is earth; of
        earth we make loam; and why of that loam, whereto he
        was converted, might they not stop a beer-barrel?
        Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay,
        Might stop a hole to keep the wind away:
        O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe,
        Should patch a wall to expel the winter flaw!
        But soft! but soft! aside: here comes the king.

        [Enter Priest, &c. in procession; the Corpse of
        OPHELIA, LAERTES and Mourners following; KING
        CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, their trains, &c]

        The queen, the courtiers: who is this they follow?
        And with such maimed rites? This doth betoken
        The corse they follow did with desperate hand
        Fordo its own life: 'twas of some estate.
        Couch we awhile, and mark.

        [Retiring with HORATIO]

LAERTES What ceremony else?

HAMLET  That is Laertes,
        A very noble youth: mark.

LAERTES What ceremony else?

First Priest    Her obsequies have been as far enlarged
        As we have warrantise: her death was doubtful;
        And, but that great command o'ersways the order,
        She should in ground unsanctified have lodged
        Till the last trumpet: for charitable prayers,
        Shards, flints and pebbles should be thrown on her;
        Yet here she is allow'd her virgin crants,
        Her maiden strewments and the bringing home
        Of bell and burial.

LAERTES Must there no more be done?

First Priest    No more be done:
        We should profane the service of the dead
        To sing a requiem and such rest to her
        As to peace-parted souls.

LAERTES Lay her i' the earth:
        And from her fair and unpolluted flesh
        May violets spring! I tell thee, churlish priest,
        A ministering angel shall my sister be,
        When thou liest howling.

HAMLET  What, the fair Ophelia!

QUEEN GERTRUDE  Sweets to the sweet: farewell!

        [Scattering flowers]

        I hoped thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife;
        I thought thy bride-bed to have deck'd, sweet maid,
        And not have strew'd thy grave.

LAERTES O, treble woe
        Fall ten times treble on that cursed head,
        Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense
        Deprived thee of! Hold off the earth awhile,
        Till I have caught her once more in mine arms:

        [Leaps into the grave]

        Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead,
        Till of this flat a mountain you have made,
        To o'ertop old Pelion, or the skyish head
        Of blue Olympus.

HAMLET  [Advancing]     What is he whose grief
        Bears such an emphasis? whose phrase of sorrow
        Conjures the wandering stars, and makes them stand
        Like wonder-wounded hearers? This is I,
        Hamlet the Dane.

        [Leaps into the grave]

LAERTES                   The devil take thy soul!

        [Grappling with him]

HAMLET  Thou pray'st not well.
        I prithee, take thy fingers from my throat;
        For, though I am not splenitive and rash,
        Yet have I something in me dangerous,
        Which let thy wiseness fear: hold off thy hand.

KING CLAUDIUS   Pluck them asunder.

QUEEN GERTRUDE  Hamlet, Hamlet!

All     Gentlemen,--

HORATIO                   Good my lord, be quiet.

        [The Attendants part them, and they come out of the grave]

HAMLET  Why I will fight with him upon this theme 
        Until my eyelids will no longer wag.

QUEEN GERTRUDE  O my son, what theme?

HAMLET  I loved Ophelia: forty thousand brothers
        Could not, with all their quantity of love,
        Make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her?

KING CLAUDIUS   O, he is mad, Laertes.

QUEEN GERTRUDE  For love of God, forbear him.

HAMLET  'Swounds, show me what thou'lt do:
        Woo't weep? woo't fight? woo't fast? woo't tear thyself?
        Woo't drink up eisel? eat a crocodile?
        I'll do't. Dost thou come here to whine?
        To outface me with leaping in her grave?
        Be buried quick with her, and so will I:
        And, if thou prate of mountains, let them throw
        Millions of acres on us, till our ground,
        Singeing his pate against the burning zone,
        Make Ossa like a wart! Nay, an thou'lt mouth,
        I'll rant as well as thou.

QUEEN GERTRUDE  This is mere madness:
        And thus awhile the fit will work on him;
        Anon, as patient as the female dove,
        When that her golden couplets are disclosed,
        His silence will sit drooping.

HAMLET  Hear you, sir;
        What is the reason that you use me thus?
        I loved you ever: but it is no matter;
        Let Hercules himself do what he may,
        The cat will mew and dog will have his day.

        [Exit]

KING CLAUDIUS   I pray you, good Horatio, wait upon him.

        [Exit HORATIO]

        [To LAERTES]

        Strengthen your patience in our last night's speech;
        We'll put the matter to the present push.
        Good Gertrude, set some watch over your son.
        This grave shall have a living monument:
        An hour of quiet shortly shall we see;
        Till then, in patience our proceeding be.

        [Exeunt]

        HAMLET
 

ACT V
 
 

SCENE II        A hall in the castle.
 

        [Enter HAMLET and HORATIO]

HAMLET  So much for this, sir: now shall you see the other;
        You do remember all the circumstance?

HORATIO Remember it, my lord?

HAMLET  Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting,
        That would not let me sleep: methought I lay
        Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly,
        And praised be rashness for it, let us know,
        Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well,
        When our deep plots do pall: and that should teach us
        There's a divinity that shapes our ends,
        Rough-hew them how we will,--

HORATIO That is most certain.

HAMLET  Up from my cabin,
        My sea-gown scarf'd about me, in the dark
        Groped I to find out them; had my desire.
        Finger'd their packet, and in fine withdrew
        To mine own room again; making so bold,
        My fears forgetting manners, to unseal
        Their grand commission; where I found, Horatio,--
        O royal knavery!--an exact command,
        Larded with many several sorts of reasons
        Importing Denmark's health and England's too,
        With, ho! such bugs and goblins in my life,
        That, on the supervise, no leisure bated,
        No, not to stay the grinding of the axe,
        My head should be struck off.

HORATIO Is't possible?

HAMLET  Here's the commission: read it at more leisure.
        But wilt thou hear me how I did proceed?

HORATIO I beseech you.

HAMLET  Being thus be-netted round with villanies,--
        Ere I could make a prologue to my brains,
        They had begun the play--I sat me down,
        Devised a new commission, wrote it fair:
        I once did hold it, as our statists do,
        A baseness to write fair and labour'd much
        How to forget that learning, but, sir, now
        It did me yeoman's service: wilt thou know
        The effect of what I wrote?

HORATIO Ay, good my lord.

HAMLET  An earnest conjuration from the king,
        As England was his faithful tributary,
        As love between them like the palm might flourish,
        As peace should stiff her wheaten garland wear
        And stand a comma 'tween their amities,
        And many such-like 'As'es of great charge,
        That, on the view and knowing of these contents,
        Without debatement further, more or less,
        He should the bearers put to sudden death,
        Not shriving-time allow'd.

HORATIO How was this seal'd?

HAMLET  Why, even in that was heaven ordinant.
        I had my father's signet in my purse,
        Which was the model of that Danish seal;
        Folded the writ up in form of the other,
        Subscribed it, gave't the impression, placed it safely,
        The changeling never known. Now, the next day
        Was our sea-fight; and what to this was sequent
        Thou know'st already.

HORATIO So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to't.

HAMLET  Why, man, they did make love to this employment;
        They are not near my conscience; their defeat
        Does by their own insinuation grow:
        'Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes
        Between the pass and fell incensed points
        Of mighty opposites.

HORATIO Why, what a king is this!

HAMLET  Does it not, think'st thee, stand me now upon--
        He that hath kill'd my king and whored my mother,
        Popp'd in between the election and my hopes,
        Thrown out his angle for my proper life,
        And with such cozenage--is't not perfect conscience,
        To quit him with this arm? and is't not to be damn'd,
        To let this canker of our nature come
        In further evil?

HORATIO It must be shortly known to him from England
        What is the issue of the business there.

HAMLET  It will be short: the interim is mine;
        And a man's life's no more than to say 'One.'
        But I am very sorry, good Horatio,
        That to Laertes I forgot myself;
        For, by the image of my cause, I see
        The portraiture of his: I'll court his favours.
        But, sure, the bravery of his grief did put me
        Into a towering passion.

HORATIO Peace! who comes here?

        [Enter OSRIC]

OSRIC   Your lordship is right welcome back to Denmark.

HAMLET  I humbly thank you, sir. Dost know this water-fly?

HORATIO No, my good lord.

HAMLET  Thy state is the more gracious; for 'tis a vice to
        know him. He hath much land, and fertile: let a
        beast be lord of beasts, and his crib shall stand at
        the king's mess: 'tis a chough; but, as I say,
        spacious in the possession of dirt.

OSRIC   Sweet lord, if your lordship were at leisure, I
        should impart a thing to you from his majesty.

HAMLET  I will receive it, sir, with all diligence of
        spirit. Put your bonnet to his right use; 'tis for the head.

OSRIC   I thank your lordship, it is very hot.

HAMLET  No, believe me, 'tis very cold; the wind is
        northerly.

OSRIC   It is indifferent cold, my lord, indeed.

HAMLET  But yet methinks it is very sultry and hot for my
        complexion.

OSRIC   Exceedingly, my lord; it is very sultry,--as
        'twere,--I cannot tell how. But, my lord, his
        majesty bade me signify to you that he has laid a
        great wager on your head: sir, this is the matter,--

HAMLET  I beseech you, remember--

        [HAMLET moves him to put on his hat]

OSRIC   Nay, good my lord; for mine ease, in good faith.
        Sir, here is newly come to court Laertes; believe
        me, an absolute gentleman, full of most excellent
        differences, of very soft society and great showing:
        indeed, to speak feelingly of him, he is the card or
        calendar of gentry, for you shall find in him the
        continent of what part a gentleman would see.

HAMLET  Sir, his definement suffers no perdition in you;
        though, I know, to divide him inventorially would
        dizzy the arithmetic of memory, and yet but yaw
        neither, in respect of his quick sail. But, in the
        verity of extolment, I take him to be a soul of
        great article; and his infusion of such dearth and
        rareness, as, to make true diction of him, his
        semblable is his mirror; and who else would trace
        him, his umbrage, nothing more.

OSRIC   Your lordship speaks most infallibly of him.

HAMLET  The concernancy, sir? why do we wrap the gentleman
        in our more rawer breath?

OSRIC   Sir?

HORATIO Is't not possible to understand in another tongue?
        You will do't, sir, really.

HAMLET  What imports the nomination of this gentleman?

OSRIC   Of Laertes?

HORATIO His purse is empty already; all's golden words are spent.

HAMLET  Of him, sir.

OSRIC   I know you are not ignorant--

HAMLET  I would you did, sir; yet, in faith, if you did,
        it would not much approve me. Well, sir?

OSRIC   You are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is--

HAMLET  I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with
        him in excellence; but, to know a man well, were to
        know himself.

OSRIC   I mean, sir, for his weapon; but in the imputation
        laid on him by them, in his meed he's unfellowed.

HAMLET  What's his weapon?

OSRIC   Rapier and dagger.

HAMLET  That's two of his weapons: but, well.

OSRIC   The king, sir, hath wagered with him six Barbary
        horses: against the which he has imponed, as I take
        it, six French rapiers and poniards, with their
        assigns, as girdle, hangers, and so: three of the
        carriages, in faith, are very dear to fancy, very
        responsive to the hilts, most delicate carriages,
        and of very liberal conceit.

HAMLET  What call you the carriages?

HORATIO I knew you must be edified by the margent ere you had done.

OSRIC   The carriages, sir, are the hangers.

HAMLET  The phrase would be more german to the matter, if we
        could carry cannon by our sides: I would it might
        be hangers till then. But, on: six Barbary horses
        against six French swords, their assigns, and three
        liberal-conceited carriages; that's the French bet
        against the Danish. Why is this 'imponed,' as you call it?

OSRIC   The king, sir, hath laid, that in a dozen passes
        between yourself and him, he shall not exceed you
        three hits: he hath laid on twelve for nine; and it
        would come to immediate trial, if your lordship
        would vouchsafe the answer.

HAMLET  How if I answer 'no'?

OSRIC   I mean, my lord, the opposition of your person in trial.

HAMLET  Sir, I will walk here in the hall: if it please his
        majesty, 'tis the breathing time of day with me; let
        the foils be brought, the gentleman willing, and the
        king hold his purpose, I will win for him an I can;
        if not, I will gain nothing but my shame and the odd hits.

OSRIC   Shall I re-deliver you e'en so?

HAMLET  To this effect, sir; after what flourish your nature will.

OSRIC   I commend my duty to your lordship.

HAMLET  Yours, yours.

        [Exit OSRIC]

        He does well to commend it himself; there are no
        tongues else for's turn.

HORATIO This lapwing runs away with the shell on his head.

HAMLET  He did comply with his dug, before he sucked it.
        Thus has he--and many more of the same bevy that I
        know the dressy age dotes on--only got the tune of
        the time and outward habit of encounter; a kind of
        yesty collection, which carries them through and
        through the most fond and winnowed opinions; and do
        but blow them to their trial, the bubbles are out.

        [Enter a Lord]

Lord    My lord, his majesty commended him to you by young
        Osric, who brings back to him that you attend him in
        the hall: he sends to know if your pleasure hold to
        play with Laertes, or that you will take longer time.

HAMLET  I am constant to my purpose; they follow the king's
        pleasure: if his fitness speaks, mine is ready; now
        or whensoever, provided I be so able as now.

Lord    The king and queen and all are coming down.

HAMLET  In happy time.

Lord    The queen desires you to use some gentle
        entertainment to Laertes before you fall to play.

HAMLET  She well instructs me.

        [Exit Lord]

HORATIO You will lose this wager, my lord.

HAMLET  I do not think so: since he went into France, I
        have been in continual practise: I shall win at the
        odds. But thou wouldst not think how ill all's here
        about my heart: but it is no matter.

HORATIO Nay, good my lord,--

HAMLET  It is but foolery; but it is such a kind of
        gain-giving, as would perhaps trouble a woman.

HORATIO If your mind dislike any thing, obey it: I will
        forestall their repair hither, and say you are not
        fit.

HAMLET  Not a whit, we defy augury: there's a special
        providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now,
        'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be
        now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the
        readiness is all: since no man has aught of what he
        leaves, what is't to leave betimes?

        [Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, LAERTES,
        Lords, OSRIC, and Attendants with foils, &c]

KING CLAUDIUS   Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me.

        [KING CLAUDIUS puts LAERTES' hand into HAMLET's]

HAMLET  Give me your pardon, sir: I've done you wrong;
        But pardon't, as you are a gentleman.
        This presence knows,
        And you must needs have heard, how I am punish'd
        With 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 purposed evil
        Free me so far in your most generous thoughts,
        That I have shot mine arrow o'er the house,
        And hurt my brother.

LAERTES 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 ungored. But till that time,
        I do receive your offer'd love like love,
        And will not wrong it.

HAMLET  I embrace it freely;
        And will this brother's wager frankly play.
        Give us the foils. Come on.

LAERTES Come, one for me.

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

LAERTES You mock me, sir.

HAMLET  No, by this hand.

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

HAMLET  Very well, my lord
        Your grace hath laid the odds o' the weaker side.

KING CLAUDIUS   I do not fear it; I have seen you both:
        But since he is better'd, we have therefore odds.

LAERTES This is too heavy, let me see another.

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

        [They prepare to play]

OSRIC   Ay, my good lord.

KING CLAUDIUS   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
        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 dunks to Hamlet.' Come, begin:
        And you, the judges, bear a wary eye.

HAMLET  Come on, sir.

LAERTES                   Come, my lord.

        [They play]

HAMLET  One.

LAERTES No.

HAMLET  Judgment.

OSRIC   A hit, a very palpable hit.

LAERTES Well; again.

KING CLAUDIUS   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.

HAMLET  I'll play this bout first; set it by awhile. Come.

        [They play]

        Another hit; what say you?

LAERTES A touch, a touch, I do confess.

KING CLAUDIUS   Our son shall win.

QUEEN GERTRUDE                    He's fat, and scant of breath.
        Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows;
        The queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet.

HAMLET  Good madam!

KING CLAUDIUS             Gertrude, do not drink.

QUEEN GERTRUDE  I will, my lord; I pray you, pardon me.

KING CLAUDIUS   [Aside]  It is the poison'd cup: it is too late.

HAMLET  I dare not drink yet, madam; by and by.

QUEEN GERTRUDE  Come, let me wipe thy face.

LAERTES My lord, I'll hit him now.

KING CLAUDIUS   I do not think't.

LAERTES [Aside]  And yet 'tis almost 'gainst my conscience.

HAMLET  Come, for the third, Laertes: you but dally;
        I pray you, pass with your best violence;
        I am afeard you make a wanton of me.

LAERTES Say you so? come on.

        [They play]

OSRIC   Nothing, neither way.

LAERTES Have at you now!

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

KING CLAUDIUS   Part them; they are incensed.

HAMLET  Nay, come, again.

        [QUEEN GERTRUDE falls]

OSRIC                     Look to the queen there, ho!

HORATIO They bleed on both sides. How is it, my lord?

OSRIC   How is't, Laertes?

LAERTES Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, Osric;
        I am justly kill'd with mine own treachery.

HAMLET  How does the queen?

KING CLAUDIUS   She swounds to see them bleed.

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

        [Dies]

HAMLET  O villany! Ho! let the door be lock'd:
        Treachery! Seek it out.

LAERTES 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 practise
        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.

HAMLET  The point!--envenom'd too!
        Then, venom, to thy work.

        [Stabs KING CLAUDIUS]

All     Treason! treason!

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

HAMLET  Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane,
        Drink off this potion. Is thy union here?
        Follow my mother.

        [KING CLAUDIUS dies]

LAERTES                   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]

HAMLET  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.

HORATIO Never believe it:
        I am more an antique Roman than a Dane:
        Here's yet some liquor left.

HAMLET  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?

OSRIC   Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland,
        To the ambassadors of England gives
        This warlike volley.

HAMLET  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.

        [Dies]

HORATIO 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]

PRINCE FORTINBRAS       Where is this sight?

HORATIO What is it ye would see?
        If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search.

PRINCE FORTINBRAS       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 Ambassador        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?

HORATIO 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 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 judgments, casual slaughters,
        Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause,
        And, in this upshot, purposes mistook
        Fall'n on the inventors' reads: all this can I
        Truly deliver.

PRINCE FORTINBRAS                         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.

HORATIO 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.

PRINCE FORTINBRAS       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,
        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.

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

 
                                       The End