And will this brother's wager frankly play.

Give us the foils.

Laer. Come, one for me.

Ham. I'll be your foil, Laertes; in mine ignorance Your fkill fhall like a ftar i' th' darkest night. Stick fiery off, indeed.

Laer. You mock me, Sir..

Ham. No, by this hand.

King. Give them the foils, young Ofrick. Hamlet, you know the wager.

Ham. Well, my Lord;

Your Grace hath laid the odds o' th' weaker fide. King. I do not fear it, I have seen you both: But fince he's bettered, we have therefore odds. Laer. This is too heavy, let me fee another. Ham. This likes me well; these foils have all a length? [Prepares to play.

Ofr. Ay, my good Lord..

King. Set me the ftoups of wine upon that table :If Hamlet gives the first or fecond hit,

Or quit in anfwer of the third exchange,
Let all the battlements their ordnance fire;
The King fhall drink to Hamlet's better breath:
And in the cup an Union fhall he throw, (74)

(74) And in the cup an onyx shall be throw

Kicher than that which four fucceffive Kings

In Denmark's crown have worn.] This is a various read-ing in feveral of the old copies; but union feems to me to be the true word, for several reafons. The onyx is a species of lucid ftone, of which the ancients made both columns and pavements for ornaments, and in which they likewife cut feals, &c. but, if I am not mistaken, neither the onyx, nor fardonyx, are jewels which ever found place in an imperial crown. On the other hand, an union is the fiueft fort of pearl, and has its place in all crowns and coronets. Multam enim intereft utrum unio ftatuatur in cœno, an vero fitus et infertus in corona refplenveat, fays Theodoret upon St Matthew. Befides, let us confider what the King fays on Hamlet's giving Laertes the firil hit:

Richer than that which four fucceffive Kings
In Denmark's crown have worn. Give me the cups;-
And let the kettle to the trumpets speak,

The trumpets to the cannoncer without,

The cannons to the heavens, the heavens to earth: Now the King drinks to Hamlet.-Come, begin, And you the Judges hear a wary eye.

Ham. Come on, Sir.

Laer. Come, my Lord..

Ham. One,.

Laer. No.

Ham. Judgment.

Ofr. A hit, a very palpable hit.

Laer. Well-again---

[They play.

King. Stay, give me drink, Hamlet, this pearl

is thine,

Here's to thy health. Give him the cup.

[Trumpets found. Shot goes off. Ham. I'll play this bout firft, fet it by a while.

[They play.

Come-another hit--what fay you?

Laer. A touch, a touch, I do confefs.
King. Our fon 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.
Ham. Good Madam,------

King. Gertrude, do not drink.

Queen. I will, my Lord; I pray you, pardon me.
King. It is the poisoned cup, it is too late. [Afide..
Stay, give me drink; Hamlet, this pearl is thine;
Here's to thy health.

The terms upon which the King was to throw a jewel into the cup, were, if Hamlet gave Laertes the firft hit, which Hamlet does. Therefore, if aa-union be a pearl, and an onyx a gem or ftone quite differing in its nature from pearls; the King faying, that Hamlet has earned the pearl, I think, amounts to a demonftration that it was an union-pearl, which he meant to throw into the cup.

Ham. I dare not drink yet, Madam; by and by.
Queen. Come, let me wipe thy face.
Laer. I'll hit him now.

King. I do not think't.

Laer. And yet it is almost against my conscience.

[Afide. Ham. Come, for the third, Laertes, you but dally; I pray you, pafs with your beft violence;

I am afraid you make a wanton of me.
Laer. Say you fo? come on.

Ofr. Nothing neither way.

Laer. Have at you now.

[Play

[Laertes wounds 'Hamlet; then, in fcuffling, they change Rapiers, and Hamlet wounds

Laertes.

King. Part them, they are incenfed.

Ham. Nay, come again

Ofr. Look to the Queen there, ho!

Hor. They bleed on both fides.

Ofr. How is't, Laertes ?

How is't, my

[Lord?

Laer. Why, as a woodcock to my own fpringe,

I'm justly killed with mine own treachery.

Ham. How does the Queen?

King. She fwoons to fee them bleed.

Queen. No, no, the drink, the drink

Oh my dear Hamlet, the drink, the drink,—--

I am poisoned----

[Queen diese

Ham. Oh villainy! ho! let the door be locked: Treachery feek it out----

Laer. It is here, Hamlet, thou art flain;
No medicine in the world can do thee good;
In thee there is not half an hour of life;
The treacherous inftrument is in thy hand, (75)

(75) The treacherous infirument is in thy hand,

Unbated and envenomed:] The King, in the fourth act, in the fcene betwixt nim and Laertes, fays;

So that with ease,

Unbated and envenomed: the foul practice
Hath turned itself on me. Lo, here I ly,
Never to rife again; thy mother's poifoned;
I can no more------the King, the King's to blame.
Ham. The point envenomed too?

Then venom do thy work.

All. Treafon, treason.

[Stabs the King.

King. O yet defend me, friends, I am but hurt. Ham. Here, thou incestuous, murd'rous, damned Drink off this potion: is the Union here? [Dane, Follow my mother. [King dies.

Laer. He is juftly served.

It is a poifon tempered by himself.

Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet;
Mine and my father's death come not on thee,
Nor thine on me!

[Dies.

Ham. Heaven make thee free of it! I follow thee.
I'm dead, Horatio; wretched Queen, adieu !
You that look pale, and tremble at this chance,
That are but mutes or audience to this act,

Or with a little fhuffling, you may chuse
A fword unbated, and in a pafs of practice
Requite him for

your father.

In which paffage the old Folios read,

A fword unbait ed

which makes nonfenfe of the place, and deftroys the Poet's meaning. Unhated fignfies unabated, unblunted, not charged with a button as foils are. There are many paffages in our Author, where bate and abate fignify to blunt.

But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge
With profits of the mind.

Meaf. for Meaf
That honour which fhall bate his feythe's keen edge.
Love's Labour Loft.

For from his metal was his party steeled,
Which once in him abated, all the reft
Turned on themselves like dull and heavy lead.
2 Henry IV.

So likewife Ben Johnfon, in his Sad Shepherd;
As far as her proud fcorning him could bate,
Or blunt the edge of any lover's temper.

Had I but time, (as this fell ferjeant death
Is ftrict in his arreft) oh, I could tell you----
But let it be-----Horatio, I am dead;

Thou livest, report me and my cause aright
To the unfatisfied.

Hor. Never, believe it,

I'm more an antique Roman than a Dane;
Here's yet fome liquor left.

Ham. As th'art a man,

Give me the cup; let go; by Heav'n I'll have't.
Oh good Horatio, what a wounded name,
Things ftanding thus unknown, fhall live behind me?
If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart,
Abfent thee from felicity a while,

And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,
To tell my tale. [March afar off, and fhout within.
What warlike noife is this?

Enter OSRIC.

Ofr. Young Fortinbras, with conqueft come from To the arballadors of England gives

This warlike volley.

Ham, O, I die, Horatio:

[Poland,

The potent poifon quite o'ergrows my fpirit:
I cannot live to hear the news from England.
But I do prophefy, th' election lights

On Fortinbras; he has my dying voice;
So tell him, with th' occurrents more or less,
Which have follicited.---The reft is filence. [Dies.
Hor. Now cracks a noble heart; good-night,

fweet Prince;

And flights of angels fing thee to thy rest!
Why does the drum come hither?

Enter FORTINBRAS, and English Ambaffadors, with
Drum, Colours, and Attendants.

Fort. Where is this fight?