A Hall in the Castle. | |
| |
Enter HAMLET and HORATIO. | |
| Ham. So much for this, sir: now shall you see the other; | |
| You do remember all the circumstance? | 4 |
| Hor. Remember it, my lord? | |
| Ham. 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,— | 8 |
| And prais’d 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 divinty that shapes our ends, | 12 |
| Rough-hew them how we will. | |
| Hor. That is most certain. | |
| Ham. Up from my cabin, | |
| My sea-gown scarf’d about me, in the dark | 16 |
| Grop’d 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 | 20 |
| 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, | 24 |
| 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. | 28 |
| Hor. Is ’t possible? | |
| Ham. Here’s the commission: read it at more leisure. | |
| But wilt thou hear me how I did proceed? | |
| Hor. I beseech you. | 32 |
| Ham. 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, | |
| Devis’d a new commission, wrote it fair; | 36 |
| 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 | 40 |
| The effect of what I wrote? | |
| Hor. Ay, good my lord. | |
| Ham. An earnest conjuration from the king, | |
| As England was his faithful tributary, | 44 |
| As love between them like the palm should flourish, | |
| As peace should still her wheaten garland wear, | |
| And stand a comma ’tween their amities, | |
| And many such-like ‘As’es of great charge, | 48 |
| 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. | 52 |
| Hor. How was this seal’d? | |
| Ham. Why, even in that was heaven ordinant. | |
| I had my father’s signet in my purse, | |
| Which was the model of that Danish seal; | 56 |
| Folded the writ up in form of the other, | |
| Subscrib’d it, gave ’t th’ impression, plac’d it safely, | |
| The changeling never known. Now, the next day | |
| Was our sea-fight, and what to this was sequent | 60 |
| Thou know’st already. | |
| Hor. So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to ’t. | |
| Ham. Why, man, they did make love to this employment; | |
| They are not near my conscience; their defeat | 64 |
| Does by their own insinuation grow. | |
| ’Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes | |
| Between the pass and fell-incensed points | |
| Of mighty opposites. | 68 |
| Hor. Why, what a king is this! | |
| Ham. Does it not, thinks’t thee, stand me now upon— | |
| He that hath kill’d my king and whor’d my mother, | |
| Popp’d in between the election and my hopes, | 72 |
| 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 | 76 |
| In further evil? | |
| Hor. It must be shortly known to him from England | |
| What is the issue of the business there. | |
| Ham. It will be short: the interim is mine; | 80 |
| 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 | 84 |
| The portraiture of his: I’ll count his favours: | |
| But, sure, the bravery of his grief did put me | |
| Into a towering passion. | |
| Hor. Peace! who comes here? | 88 |
| |
Enter OSRIC. | |
| Osr. Your lordship is right welcome back to Denmark. | |
| Ham. I humbly thank you, sir. [Aside to HORATIO.] Dost know this water-fly? | |
| Hor. [Aside to HAMLET.] No, my good lord. | 92 |
| Ham. [Aside to HORATIO.] 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. | |
| Osr. Sweet lord, if your lordship were at leisure, I should impart a thing to you from his majesty. | |
| Ham. I will receive it, sir, with all diligence of spirit. Your bonnet to his right use; ’tis for the head. | |
| Osr. I thank your lordship, ’tis very hot. | 96 |
| Ham. No, believe me, ’tis very cold; the wind is northerly. | |
| Osr. It is indifferent cold, my lord, indeed. | |
| Ham. But yet methinks it is very sultry and hot for my complexion. | |
| Osr. 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,— | 100 |
| Ham. I beseech you, remember— [HAMLET moves him to put on his hat. | |
| Osr. 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. | |
| Ham. 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. | |
| Osr. Your lordship speaks most infallibly of him. | 104 |
| Ham. The concernancy, sir? why do we wrap the gentleman in our more rawer breath? | |
| Osr. Sir? | |
| Hor. Is’t not possible to understand in another tongue? You will do ’t, sir, really. | |
| Ham. What imports the nomination of this gentleman? | 108 |
| Osr. Of Laertes? | |
| Hor. His purse is empty already; all ’s golden words are spent. | |
| Ham. Of him, sir. | |
| Osr. I know you are not ignorant— | 112 |
| Ham. I would you did, sir; in faith, if you did, it would not much approve me. Well, sir. | |
| Osr. You are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is— | |
| Ham. I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with him in excellence; but, to know a man well, were to know himself. | |
| Osr. I mean, sir, for his weapon; but in the imputation laid on him by them, in his meed he’s unfellowed. | 116 |
| Ham. What’s his weapon? | |
| Osr. Rapier and dagger. | |
| Ham. That’s two of his weapons; but, well. | |
| Osr. 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. | 120 |
| Ham. What call you the carriages? | |
| Hor. I knew you must be edified by the margent, ere you had done. | |
| Osr. The carriages, sir, are the hangers. | |
| Ham. 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? | 124 |
| Osr. 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. | |
| Ham. How if I answer no? | |
| Osr. I mean, my lord, the opposition of your person in trial. | |
| Ham. 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. | 128 |
| Osr. Shall I re-deliver you so? | |
| Ham. To this effect, sir; after what flourish your nature will. | |
| Osr. I commend my duty to your lordship. | |
| Ham. Yours, yours. [Exit OSRIC.] He does well to commend it himself; there are no tongues else for ’s turn. | 132 |
| Hor. This lapwing runs away with the shell on his head. | |
| Ham. He did comply with his dug before he sucked it. Thus has he—and many more of the same bevy, that I know the drossy 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. | 136 |
| Ham. I am constant to my purposes; 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. | |
| Ham. In happy time. | |
| Lord. The queen desires you to use some gentle entertainment to Laertes before you fail to play. | 140 |
| Ham. She well instructs me. [Exit Lord. | |
| Hor. You will lose this wager, my lord. | |
| Ham. I do not think so; since he went into France, I have been in continual practice; I shall win at the odds. But thou wouldst not think how ill all’s here about my heart; but it is no matter. | |
| Hor. Nay, good my lord,— | 144 |
| Ham. It is but foolery; but it is such a kind of gain-giving as would perhaps trouble a woman. | |
| Hor. If your mind dislike any thing, obey it; I will forestal their repair hither, and say you are not fit. | |
| Ham. 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? Let be. | |
| |
Enter KING, QUEEN, LAERTES, Lords, OSRIC, and Attendants with foils, &c. | 148 |
| King. Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me. [The KING puts the hand of LAERTES into that of HAMLET. | |
| Ham. Give me your pardon, sir; I’ve done you wrong; | |
| But pardon ’t, as you are a gentleman. | |
| This presence knows, | 152 |
| 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. | 156 |
| 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. | 160 |
| 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, | 164 |
| Let my disclaiming from a purpos’d evil | |
| Free me so far in your most generous thoughts, | |
| That I have shot mine arrow o’er the house, | |
| And hurt my brother. | 168 |
| Laer. 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, | 172 |
| Till by some elder masters, of known honour, | |
| I have a voice and precedent of peace, | |
| To keep my name ungor’d. But till that time, | |
| I do receive your offer’d love like love, | 176 |
| And will not wrong it. | |
| Ham. I embrace it freely; | |
| And will this brother’s wager frankly play. | |
| Give us the foils. Come on. | 180 |
| Laer. Come, one for me. | |
| Ham. I’ll be your foil, Laertes; in mine ignorance | |
| Your skill shall, like a star i’ the darkest night, | |
| Stick fiery off indeed. | 184 |
| Laer. You mock me, sir. | |
| Ham. No, by this hand. | |
| King. Give them the foils, young Osric. Cousin Hamlet, | |
| You know the wager? | 188 |
| Ham. Very well, my lord; | |
| Your Grace hath laid the odds o’ the weaker side. | |
| King. I do not fear it; I have seen you both; | |
| But since he is better’d, we have therefore odds. | 192 |
| Laer. This is too heavy; let me see another. | |
| Ham. This likes me well. These foils have all a length? | |
| Osr. Ay, my good lord. [They prepare to play. | |
| King. Set me the stoups of wine upon that table. | 196 |
| 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; | 200 |
| 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, | 204 |
| The trumpet to the cannoneer without, | |
| The cannons to the heavens, the heavens to earth, | |
| ‘Now the king drinks to Hamlet!’ Come, begin; | |
| And you, the judges, bear a wary eye. | 208 |
| Ham. Come on, sir. | |
| Laer. Come, my lord. [They play. | |
| Ham. One. | |
| Laer. No. | 212 |
| Ham. Judgment. | |
| Osr. A hit, a very palpable hit. | |
| Laer. Well; again. | |
| King. Stay; give me drink. Hamlet, this pearl is thine; | 216 |
| 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.—[They play.] Another hit; what say you? | |
| Laer. A touch, a touch, I do confess. | 220 |
| King. Our son shall win. | |
| Queen. He’s fat, and scant of breath. | |
| Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows; | |
| The queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet. | 224 |
| Ham. Good madam! | |
| King. Gertrude, do not drink. | |
| Queen. I will, my lord; I pray you, pardon me. | |
| King. [Aside.] It is the poison’d cup! it is too late. | 228 |
| 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. | |
| King. I do not think’t. | 232 |
| Laer. [Aside.] And yet ’tis almost ’gainst my conscience. | |
| Ham. 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. | 236 |
| Laer. Say you so? come on. [They play. | |
| Osr. Nothing, neither way. | |
| Laer. Have at you now. [LAERTES wounds HAMLET; then, in scuffling, they change rapiers, and HAMLET wounds LAERTES. | |
| King. Part them! they are incens’d. | 240 |
| Ham. Nay, come, again. [The QUEEN falls. | |
| Osr. Look to the queen there, ho! | |
| Hor. They bleed on both sides. How is it, my lord? | |
| Osr. How is it, Laertes? | 244 |
| 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. She swounds to see them bleed. | 248 |
| Queen. No, no, the drink, the drink,—O my dear Hamlet! | |
| The drink, the drink; I am poison’d. [Dies. | |
| Ham. O villany! Ho! let the door be lock’d: | |
| Treachery! seek it out. [LAERTES falls. | 252 |
| 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, | 256 |
| 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. | 260 |
| Ham. The point envenom’d too!— | |
| Then, venom, to thy work. [Stabs the KING. | |
| All. Treason! treason! | |
| King. O! yet defend me, friends; I am but hurt. | 264 |
| Ham. Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Danes, | |
| Drink off this potion;—is thy union here? | |
| Follow my mother. [KING dies. | |
| Laer. He is justly serv’d; | 268 |
| 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. | 272 |
| 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, | 276 |
| 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 | 280 |
| To the unsatisfied. | |
| Hor. Never believe it; | |
| I am more an antique Roman than a Dane: | |
| Here’s yet some liquor left. | 284 |
| Ham. As thou’rt a man, | |
| Give me the cup: let go; by heaven, I’ll have ’t. | |
| O God! Horatio, what a wounded name, | |
| Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me. | 288 |
| 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. | 292 |
| What war-like noise is this? | |
| Osr. Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland, | |
| To the ambassadors of England gives | |
| This war-like volley. | 296 |
| 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 prophesy the election lights | 300 |
| On Fortinbras: he has my dying voice; | |
| 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, | 304 |
| 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? | 308 |
| Hor. What is it ye 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, | 312 |
| That thou so many princes at a shot | |
| So bloodily hast struck? | |
| First Amb. The sight is dismal; | |
| And our affairs from England come too late: | 316 |
| The cars 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? | 320 |
| 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, | 324 |
| 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 | 328 |
| 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 forc’d cause, | 332 |
| 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, | 336 |
| 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. | 340 |
| 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 mischance | 344 |
| 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, | 348 |
| To have prov’d 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 | 352 |
| 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. | |
