So great a day as this is cheaply bought.

MALCOLM. Macduff is missing, and your noble son. ROSS. Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier's debt:

He only liv'd but till he was a man ;

The which no sooner had his prowess confirm'd
In the unshrinking station where he fought,

But like a man he died.

SIWARD.

Then he is dead?

69

72

ROSS. Ay, and brought off the field. Your cause of

sorrow

Must not be measur'd by his worth, for then

It hath no end.

SIWARD.

ROSS. Ay, on the front.

SIWARD.

Had he his hurts before?

Why then, God's soldier be he!

77

Had I as many sons as I have hairs,

I would not wish them to a fairer death:
And so, his knell is knoll'd.

MALCOLM.

And that I'll spend for him.

SIWARD.

He's worth more sorrow,

He's worth no more;

81

They say, he parted well, and paid his score:
And so, God be with him! Here comes newer comfort.

Re-enter MACDUFF, with MACBETH'S head.

MACDUFF. Hail, king! for so thou art. Behold, where stands

The usurper's cursed head: the time is free:
I see thee compass'd with thy kingdom's pearl,
That speak my salutation in their minds;
Whose voices I desire aloud with mine;

Hail, King of Scotland !

ALL.

MALCOLM. time

Hail, King of Scotland!

84

88

[Flourish.

We shall not spend a large expense of

Before we reckon with your several loves,

And make us even with you. My thanes and kinsmen,
Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland
In such an honour nam'd. What's more to do,

92

Which would be planted newly with the time,
As calling home our exil'd friends abroad
That fled the snares of watchful tyranny;
Producing forth the cruel ministers

Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen,
Who, as 'tis thought, by self and violent hands
Took off her life; this, and what needful else
That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace
We will perform in measure, time, and place :
So, thanks to all at once and to each one,
Whom we invite to see us crown'd at Scone.

[Flourish.

96

100

104

Exeunt.

HAMLET

PRINCE OF DENMARK

INTRODUCTION

IN his Hamlet in Iceland (1898) Professor Gollancz comes to the conclusion that the tale of Hamlet in its earlier form grew up during the course of the eleventh century in the Scandinavian kingdom of Ireland. However this may have been, we find it related in the Latin Historia Danica of Saxo Grammaticus, a Danish writer of the second half of the twelfth, and the opening years of the thirteenth, century. In the fifth volume of Belleforest's Histoires Tragiques (1570) it is once again told under the title' Avec quelle ruse Amleth, qui depuis fut Roy de Daunemarch, vengea la mort de son pere Horvvendille, occis par Fengon son frere, & autre occurrence de son histoire'. The tale was translated into English from Belleforest by an unknown hand at an unknown date. The earliest edition of this Hystorie of Hamblet that has come down to us is of the year 1608, and it may be that the popularity of Shakespeare's play suggested his work to the translator. In many respects the story differs from that familiar to us. The last two chapters, for example, narrate how Hamlet, after his coronation, went into England; how the King of England secretly would have put him to death; how he slew the King of England, and returned again into Denmark with two wives; how he was there assailed by Wiglerus his uncle, and after betrayed by his last wife, called Hermetrude, and was slain; after whose death she married his enemy, Wiglerus.

That an English play on the subject of Hamlet existed as early as 1589-if not as early as 1587is certain. Together with the earliest extant edition (1589) of Greene's Menaphon appeared a letter by