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.-Oh, 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 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;
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. But let this same be presently perform'd,

Even while men's minds are wild; lest more mis

chance,

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 prov'd most royally: and, for his passage, The soldier's music, and the rites of war,

Speak loudly for him.

Take up the bodies.-Such a sight as this
Becomes the field, but here shews 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.

OTHELLO, THE MOOR OF

VENICE.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

DUKE of VENICE.
BRABANTIO, a Senator.

Two other Senators.

GRATIANO, Brother to Brabantio.

LUDOVICO, Kinsman to Brabantio.
OTHELLO, the Moor:

CASSIO, his Lieutenant;

IAGO, his Ancient.

RODERIGO, a Venetian Gentleman.

MONTANO, Othello's Predecessor in the Government of Cyprus.

Clown, Servant to Othello.

Herald.

DESDEMONA, Daughter to Brabantio, and Wife to Othello.

EMILIA, Wife to Iago.

BIANCA, a Courtesan, Mistress to Cassio.

Officers, Gentlemen, Messengers, Musicians, Sailors, Attendants, &c

SCENE, for the first Act, in Venice; during the rest of the Play, at a Seaport in Cyprus.