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 is 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, of aught he leaves, knows, what is't to leave betimes? Let be.

Enter KING, QUEEN, LAERTES, Lords, OSRIC, and Attendants with foils, &c.

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 have done you wrong;

But pardon it, as you are a gentleman.

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;
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,
The trumpet to the cannoneer without,

The cannons to the heavens, the heaven to earth,
Now the king drinks to Hamlet. Come, begin;
And you, the judges, bear a wary eye.

heard,

How I am punish'd with a sore distraction.

What I have done,

That might your nature, honour, and exception,
Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness.
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.
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,

Let my disclaiming from a purpos'd evil
Free me so far in your most generous thoughts,
That I have shot my arrow o'er the house,

Your grace hath laid the odds o'the weaker side. King. I do not fear it: I have seen you both : But since he's better'd, we have therefore odds. Laer. This is too heavy, let me see another. Ham. This likes me well: These foils have all a [They prepare to play.

length ?

Osr. Ay, my good lord.

[Trumpets sound; and cannon shot off within.

Ham. I'll play this bout first, set it by awhile. Come. - Another hit; What say you? [They play. Laer. A touch, a touch, I do confess.

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.
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.
Osr.
Look to the queen there, ho!
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, dear Hamlet!.

O my [Dies.

[LAERTES falls.

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

[Dies.

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 of, and shot within. What warlike noise is this?

Osr. Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland,

To the ambassadors of England gives

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 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 on 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,

This warlike volley.

Speak loudly for him.

So tell him, with the occurrents, more or less, Which have solicited, The rest is silence.

Take up the bodies :

Such a sight as this

[Dies.

Hor. Now cracks a noble heart; - Good night,

Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss. Go, bid the soldiers shoot.

[A dead March.

sweet prince;

And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!

[Exeunt, bearing off the dead bodies; after which

a peal of ordnance is shot off.

Why does the drum come hither? [March within

SCENE I. - Venice. A Street. Enter RODERIGO and IAGO.

Rod. Tush, never tell me, I take it much unkindly,

One Michael Cassio, a Florentine,
A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife;
That never set a squadron in the field,
Nor the division of a battle knows

More than a spinster; unless the bookish theorick,
Wherein the toged consuls can propose

Iago. 'Sblood, but you will not hear me :

If ever I did dream of such a matter,

Abhor me.

Rod. Thou told'st me, thou didst hold him in thy hate.

Iago. Despise me, if I do not. Three great ones of the city,

Is all his soldiership. But, he, sir, had the election:
And I, - of whom his eyes had seen the proof
At Rhodes, at Cyprus; and on other grounds
Christian and heathen, -must be be-lee'd and calm'd
By debitor and creditor, this counter-caster;
He, in good time, must his lieutenant be,

In personal suit to make me his lieutenant,

Oft capp'd to him: - and, by the faith of man,
I know my price, I am worth no worse a place:
But he, as loving his own pride and purposes,
Evades them, with a bombast circumstance,
Horribly stuff'd with epithets of war;
And, in conclusion, nonsuits
My mediators; for, certes, says he,
I have already chose my officer.
And what was he?
Forsooth, a great arithmetician,

And I, (God bless the mark!) his Moor-ship's ancient.

Rod. By heaven, I rather would have been his

Do themselves homage: these fellows have some soul;
And such a one do 1 profess myself.
For, sir,

It is as sure as you are Roderigo,

Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago:
In following him, I follow but myself;
Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty,
But seeming so, for my peculiar end:
For when my outward action doth demonstrate
The native act and figure of my heart
In compliment extern, 'tis not long after
But I will wear my heart upon my skeve
For daws to peck at: I am not what I am.

Rod. What a full fortune does the thick-lips owe, If he can carry't thus!

yell,

As when, by night and negligence, the fire

Is spied in populous cities.

Rod. What, ho! Brabantio! signior Brabantio, ho!

Iago. Awake! what, ho! Brabantio! thieves! thieves! thieves!

Look to your house, your daughter, and your bags! Thieves! thieves!

BRABANTIO, above, at a window.

Bra. What is the reason of this terrible summons? What is the matter there?

Rod. Signior, is all your family within?

Iago. Are your doors lock'd?

Bra.

Why? wherefore ask you this?

Iago. 'Zounds, sir, you are robb'd; for shame, put on your gown;

Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul;
Even now, very now, an old black ram
Is tupping your white ewe. Arise, arise;
Awake the snorting citizens with the bell,
Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you:
Arise, I say.

Bra.

What, have you lost your wits?

Most grave Brabantio,

In simple, and pure soul I come to you.

Iago. 'Zounds, sir, you are one of those, that will not serve God, if the devil bid you. Because we come to do you service, you think we are ruffians: You'll have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse: you'll have your nephews neigh to you you'll have coursers for cousins, and gennets for germans.

Bra. What profane wretch art thou?

lago. I am one, sir, that comes to tell you, your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs.

Bra. Thou art a villain.
Iago.
You are a senator
Bra. This thou shalt answer; I know thee, Ro-
derigo.

Rod. Sir, I will answer any thing. But I bescech you,

If't be your pleasure, and most wise consent,
(As partly, I find, it is,) that your fair daughter,
At this odd-even and dull watch o'the night,
Transported - with no worse nor better guard,
But with a knave of common hire, a gondolier,
To the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor, -
If this be known to you, and your allowance,
We then have done you bold and saucy wrongs;
But, if you know not this, my manners tell me,
We have your wrong rebuke. Do not believe,
That, from the sense of all civility,

I thus would play and trifle with your reverence :
Your daughter, - if you have not given her leave,
I say again, hath made a gross revolt;

Tying her duty, beauty, wit, and fortunes,
In an extravagant and wheeling stranger,
Of here and every where: Straight satisfy yourself:

If she be in her chamber, or your house,

Let loose on me the justice of the state

For thus deluding you.

Bra.

Strike on the tinder, ho!

Give me a taper; call up all my people:
This accident is not unlike my dream;
Belief of it oppresses me already :
Light, I say! light!

Iago.

[Exit, from above.

Farewell; for I must leave you :

It seems not meet, nor wholesome to my place,
To be produc'd (as, if I stay, I shall,)
Against the Moor: For, I do know, the state, -
However this may gall him with some check, -
Cannot with safety cast him; for he's embark'd
With such loud reason to the Cyprus' wars,

Another of his fathom they have not,
To lead their business: in which regard,
Though I do hate him as I do hell pains,
Yet, for necessity of present life,
I must show out a flag and sign of love,

find him,

Lead to the Sagittary the rais'd search;

For the sea's worth. But, look! what lights come

yonder?

And hath, in his effect, a voice potential

will rust them.

That the magnifico is much beloved;

As double as the duke's; he will divorce you, Or put upon you what restraint and grievance The law (with all his might, to enforce it on,) Will give him cable.

Oth.

Let him do his spite: My services, which I have done the signiory, Shall out-tongue his complaints, 'Tis yet to know, (Which, when I know that boasting is an honour, I shall promulgate,) I fetch my life and being From men of royal siege; and my demerits May speak, unbonneted, to as proud a fortune As this that I have reach'd: For know, Iago, But that I love the gentle Desdemona,

I would not my unhoused free condition

Good signior, you shall more command with years, Than with your weapons.

Bra. O thou foul thief, where hast thou stow'd my daughter?

Damn'd as thou art, thou hast enchanted her:
For I'll refer me to all things of sense,
If she in chains of magick were not bound,
Whether a maid - so tender, fair, and happy;
So opposite to marriage, that she shunn'd
The wealthy curled darlings of our nation,
Would ever have, to incur a general mock,
Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom
Of such a thing as thou: to fear, not to delight.
Judge me the world, if 'tis not gross in sense,