Laer. Say you so? come on.
Osr. Nothing, neither way.
Laer. Have at you now!

King.

[Laertes wounds Hamlet; then, in scuffling, they change rapiers, and Hamlet wounds Laertes. Part them; they are incensed.

Ham. Nay, come, again.

[The Queen falls.

Look to the queen there, ho!

Osr.
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.

310

She swounds to see them bleed.

Queen. No, no, the drink, the drink,-O my dear Ham

let,

The drink, the drink! I am poison'd.

[Dies.

[Laertes falls.

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
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!

320

Then, venom, to thy work.

All. Treason! treason!

[Stabs the King.

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

Ham. Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane, Drink off this potion: is thy union here?

Laer.

Follow my mother.

[King dies. 330

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.

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 livest; report me and my cause aright
To the unsatisfied.

Hor.

Ham.

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

As thou 'rt a man,
Give me the cup: let go; by heaven, I 'll have 't.

O good Horatio, what a wounded name,

340

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.

350

[March afar off, and shot within. What warlike noise is this?

Osr. Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Po

Ham.

land,

To the ambassadors of England gives

This warlike volley.

O, I die, Horatio;

The potent poison quite o'ercrows 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, 360
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, and the English Ambassadors, with
drum, colours, and Attendants.

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?

First. Amb.

Hor.

The sight is dismal;

And our affairs from England come too late:

370

The ears are senseless that should give us hearing,
To tell him his commandment is fulfilled,
That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead:
Where should we have our thanks?

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;

380

Fort.

hear

And let me speak to the yet unknowing world
How these things came about: so shall
Of carnal, bloody and unnatural acts,.

you

Of accidental judgements, casual slaughters,
Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause,
And, in this upshot, purposes mistook

Fall'n on the inventors' heads: all this can I
Truly deliver.

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,

Fort.

390

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 mis

chance

On plots and errors happen.

Let four captains
Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage;
For he was likely, had he been put on,

400

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 bodies:
after which a peal of ordnance is shot off.

Glossary.