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 awhile. Come. Another hit; What say you? Laer. A touch, a touch, I do confess. King. Our son shall win. Queen. He's fat, and scant of breath. [They play. Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows: 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. King. I do not think it. Laer. And yet it is almost against my conscience. [Aside. Ham. Come, for the third, Laertes: You do but dally; I pray you, pass with your best violence; I am afeard, you make a wanton of me. Laer. Say you so? come on. Osr. Nothing neither way. [They play. 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. Ham. Nay, come again. Osr. Look to the queen there, ho! [The Queen falls. 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. 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. Osr. & Lords. Treason! treason! [Stabs the King. 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; [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 liv'st; report me and my cause aright To the unsatisfied. Hor. Never believe it; I am more an antique Roman than a Dane, 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; 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; 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 !-O proud death! What feast is toward in thine eternal cell, That thou so many princes, at a shot, 1 Amb. The sight is dismal; And our affairs from England come too late: Hor. Not from his mouth, Had it the ability of life to thank you; Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters ; Of deaths put on by cunning, and forc'd cause; Fall'n on the inventors' heads: all this can I Fort. Let us haste to hear it, And call the noblest to the audience. For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune; Hor. Of that I shall have also cause to speak, 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, Speak loudly for him.— Take up the bodies :-Such a sight as this Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss. [A dead march. [Exeunt, bearing off the dead bodies; after which, a peal of ordnance is shot off. END OF VOLUME ELEVENTH. EDINBURGH: Printed by James Ballantyne. |