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.
Laer. My lord, I'll hit him now.

I do not think it.

•King. Laer. And yet it is almost against my conscience.

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

dally;

pray you, pass with your best violence;

I am afeard, you make a wanton of me.3

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.

King.

Part them, they are incens'd.

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 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.

The queen carouses-] i. e. (in humbler language) drinks good luck to you.

3

you make a wanton of me.] You trifle with me as if you were playing with a child.

Queen. No, no, the drink, the drink,-O my
dear Hamlet!-

The drink, the drink ;-I am poison'd! [Dies.
Ham. O villainy! Ho! let the door be lock'd:
Treachery! seek it out.
[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.
[Stabs the King-

Osr.& 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 serv'd; It is a poison temper'd by himself.—

[King dies.

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,"

Is the union here?] It should seem from this line, and Laertes's next speech, that Hamlet here forces the expiring King to drink some of the poisoned cup, and that he dies while it is at his lips.

5 That are but mutes or audience to this act,] That are either auditors of this catastrophe, or at most only mute performers, that fill the stage without any part in the action.

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.

Hor.

Never believe it;

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 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?

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;

8

So tell him, with the occurrents, more or less, Which have solicited,'-The rest is silence. [Dies. Hor. Now cracks a noble heart;-Good night, sweet prince;

6 (as this fell sergeant,] A serjeant is a bailiff, or sheriff's officer.

7 The potent poison quite o'er-crows-] Alluding to a victorious cock exulting over his conquered antagonist.

8 --

the occurents,] i. e. incidents. • Which have solicited,] Solicited for excited.

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 havock!1-O proud

death!

What feast is toward in thine eternal cell,2

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 come about: So shall
you hear

Ꭶ

'This quarry cries on havock!] To cry on, was to exclaim against. I suppose, when unfair sportsmen destroyed more quarry game than was reasonable, the censure was to cry, Havock. JOHNSON.

or

2 What feast is toward in thine eternal cell,] An Allusion to the Choa, or feasts of the dead, which were anciently celebrated at Athens, and are mentioned by Plutarch in The Life of Antonius. his mouth,] i. e. the king's.

3

Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts;
Of accidental judgments, 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 no more: But let this same be presently perform'd,

Even while 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 prov'd most royally: and, for his passage, The soldier's musick, 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."

4 Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts;] Of sanguinary and unnatural acts, to which the perpetrator was instigated by concupiscence, or, to use our poet's own words, by "carnal stings." The speaker alludes to the murder of old Hamlet by his brother, previous to his incestuous union with Gertrude.

5 Of deaths put on-] i. e. instigated, produced.,

some rights of memory in this kingdom,] Some rights, which are remembered in this kingdom.

7 If the dramas of Shakspeare were to be characterised, each by the particular excellence which distinguishes it from the rest,