Ham. Nay come, againe.

Osr.

Looke to the queene there ho. Hor. They bleed on both sides. How is it my lord?

Osr. How is't Laertes?

Laer. Why as a woodcock to mine owne springe, Osricke, I am justly kill'd with mine owne treachery. Ham. How does the queene?

King.

290

She sounds to see them bleede.

Queene. No, no, the drinke, the drinke, o my deere Hamlet, The drinke, the drinke, I am poyson'd.

Ham. O villanie! ho let the doore be lock'd,

Treacherie, seeke it out.

295

Laer. It is heere Hamlet. Hamlet, thou art slaine,

No medicine in the world can doe thee good,
In thee there is not halfe an houre of life;
The treacherous instrument is in thy hand,
Unbated and envenom'd: the foule practise
Hath turn'd it selfe on me, loe, heere I lie,
Never to rise againe: thy mother's poyson'd:
I can no more, the king, the king's too blame.

300

Ham. The point envenom'd too, then venom to thy worke.

All. Treason, treason.

Hurts the King.

305

King. O yet defend me friends, I am but hurt.

Ham. Heere thou incestuous, murdrous, damned Dane, Drinke off this potion: is thy union heere?

Follow my mother.

Laer.

He is justly serv'd,

It is a poyson temperd by himselfe :

Exchange forgivenesse with me, noble Hamlet;
Mine and my fathers death come not upon thee,
Nor thine on me.

Ham. Heaven make thee free of it, I follow thee.
I am dead Horatio, wretched queene adiew.
You that looke 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,

King dyes.

310

Dyes.

315

286 howe A hoe BC hoa DE. 287 is't D. 289 owne omitted in D. fprindge ABD. 291 fwounes F. 294 villaine, AC Villany! D. how A hoe BC How? DE. 296 Hamlet. omitted in ABC. 297 medcin AB medecine C. 298 houres life, ABC. 299 my (for thy) ABC. 303 am (for can) CF. 304 inuenom'd A. to (for too) ABC. Hurts the King. not in ABC. 307 murdrous, omitted in ABC. 308 of ABC. the Onixe ABC. 309 King dyes. not in ABC. ferued ABC. 310 temp'red D. 313 Dyes. not in ABC.

But let it be; Horatio, I am dead,

Thou liv'st, report me and my cause a right
To the unsatisfied.

I am more an antike Roman then a Dane:
Heere's yet some liquor left.

Нат.

Give me the cup, let goe, by heaven Ile have't.

As th'art a man,

O good Horatio, what a wounded name,

Things standing thus unknowne, shall I leave behind me.
If thou did'st ever hold me in thy heart,

Absent thee from felicity a while,

And in this harsh world drawe thy breath in paine,

To tell my storie.

320

325

330

March a farre off, and shout within. What warlike noise is this?

Enter Osricke.

Osr. Young Fortinbrasse, with conquest come from Poland, To th'embassadors of England gives

This warlike volly.

The potent poyson quite ore-crowes my spirit,

I cannot live to heare the newes from England,
But I doe prophesie th'election lights

On Fortinbrasse, he has my dying voyce,

335

So tell him, with th'occurrents more and lesse,

Which have solicited, the rest is silence.

And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

Dyes 340

Hor. Now cracks a noble heart: good night sweete prince,

Why dooes the drumme come hither?

Enter Fortinbras and English Ambassador, with drumme,

colours, and attendants.

Fort. Where is this sight?

Hor.

What is it ye would see?

345

If ought of woe, or wonder, cease your search.

Fort. This quarry cries on havock. O proud death,
What feast is toward in thine eternall cell,

That thou so many princes at a shot
So bloodily hast strooke?

321 liueft ABC. aright BC. caufes right D. 323 anticke A antique F. 324 liquer A. 325 hate, ABC hav't, F. 326 god A God BC. 327 fhall liue D. 331 A march ABC. and shout within not in ABC. Ofrick ABC. 335 ore-growes BC. 339 the D. occurrants AC occurants B. 340 filence. 0, 0, 0, 0. D. Dyes not in ABC. 341 cracke D. 342 finge BC. 343 Enter Fortenbraffe (Fortinbraffe), with the Embajadors. ABC. 344 you ABC. 346 His (for This) D. hauocke D. 347 infernall F. 348 fhoote, D.

Amb.

The sight is dismall,

And our affaires from England come too late,

The eares are senselesse that should give us hearing,
To tell him his command'ment is fulfill'd,
That Rosencrans and Guildensterne are dead:
Where should we have our thankes?

Hor.

Not from his mouth,

Had it th'ability of life to thanke you:

He never gave command'ment for their death;

You from the Pollack warres, and you from England

350

355

But since so jump upon this bloody question,

Are heere arrived, give order that these bodies
High on a stage be placed to the view,

360

And let me speake to the yet unknowing world,

How these things came about; so shall you heare
Of carnall, bloody, and unnaturall acts,

Of accidentall judgements, casuall slaughters,

Of deaths put on by cunning, and forc'd cause,
And in this upshot, purposes mistooke,
Falne on th'inventors heads: all this can I
Truly deliver.

365

For me, with sorrowe I embrace my fortune,
I have some rights of memory in this kingdome,
Which now to clame my vantage doth invite me.
Hor. Of that I shall have also cause to speake,

370

And from his mouth, whose voyce will drawe on more:
But let this same be presently perform'd,
Even while mens mindes are wilde, least more mischance
On plots and errors happen.

375

Fort.

Let foure captaines

Beare Hamlet like a soldier to the stage,

For he was likely, had he beene put on,

To have prov'd most royall; and for his passage,
The souldiers musicke and the rites of warre

380

Speake loudly for him.

Take up the bodies; such a sight as this

352 commandement BC. fulfild A. 356 commandement ABC. 357 iumpe D. 358 Pollock BC Polake D. 361 th' D. omitted in A. 363 cruell (for carnall) BCF. 365 for no (for forc'd) ABC. 367 the BCD. inuenters ABC. 371 Rites (for rights) D. to (for in) A*. 372 are (for now) D. claime BD cleime C. 373 alwayes (for also) D. 374 no (for on) ABC. 376 whiles D. Left D. 380 prooued ABC. royally: D. 381 right (for rites) ABC. 383 body D.

Becomes the field, but heere showes much amisse.
Goe, bid the souldiers shoote.

385

Exeunt marching: after the which, a peale of ordenance are shot off.

FINIS.

384 amis D. 385 marching &c. not in ABC.

NOTES.

Act. I. Sc. 1. L. 23. If it had not been my purpose to follow the original copies in every particular, I would have printed "him, along". L. 60. "sleaded (sledded)" may be a mistake, but "pollax" is certainly not.

L. 90. That "comart" is a misprint I make no doubt; perhaps the quarto of 1676 has hit right in reading "compact".

L. 114. A line is probably lost here.

L. 124. ABC have the stage-direction "It spreads his armes".

L. 158. "dare" is the genuine pret. pres. form, still usual in Shakespeare's time; "dares" the product of a later time ignorant of its nature. L. 164. Warburton observes, The old quarto has it better "eastward"; to which Steevens replies, The superiority of the latter of these readings is not, to me at least, very apparent. I find the former used in Lingua &c. 1607:

and overclimbs

Yonder gilt eastern hills.

Again, in Browne's Britannia's Pastorals, book IV, sat. IV, p. 75, edit 1616:

And ere the sunne had clymb'd the eastern hills.

Again, in Chapman's version of the thirteenth book of Homer's Odyssey:

Ulysses still

An eye directed to the eastern hill.

Sc. 2. L. 38. The poet should have written allows. Many writers fall into this error, when a plural noun immediately precedes the verb. Malone. Surely, all such defects in our author were merely the errors of illiterate transcribers or printers. Steevens. If these critics had known the grammar of the 16th century, they would have been aware, that Shakespeare was perfectly right in using the subjunctive here.

L. 39. Perhaps "commend your service": at any rate, "duty" is wrong. S. Walker, Crit. Exam. 1, 277.

L. 67. "sonne" is certainly a misprint for "sunne". Farmer questions whether a quibble between sun and son be not intended.

L. 72. "lives", the true old form of the 3d pers. plur., is arbitrarily changed by the modern editors to "live".

iwis.

L 110. B. Tschischwitz (Shakspere's Hamlet, Halle 1869) boldly substitutes for "with", "wis", which he pretends to be L. 132. Of course, canon (xavúv) is meant.