The Tragedy Of Hamlet, Prince Of Denmark

1 Enter Hamlet and Horatio.
2 HAMLET.
3 So much for this, sir. Now let me see the other;
4 You do remember all the circumstance?
5 HORATIO.
6 Remember it, my lord!
7 HAMLET.
8 Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting
9 That would not let me sleep. Methought I lay
10 Worse than the mutinies in the bilboes. Rashly,
11 And prais’d be rashness for it,—let us know,
12 Our indiscretion sometime serves us well,
13 When our deep plots do pall; and that should teach us
14 There’s a divinity that shapes our ends,
15 Rough-hew them how we will.
16 HORATIO.
17 That is most certain.
18 HAMLET.
19 Up from my cabin,
20 My sea-gown scarf’d about me, in the dark
21 Grop’d I to find out them; had my desire,
22 Finger’d their packet, and in fine, withdrew
23 To mine own room again, making so bold,
24 My fears forgetting manners, to unseal
25 Their grand commission; where I found, Horatio,
26 Oh royal knavery! an exact command,
27 Larded with many several sorts of reasons,
28 Importing Denmark’s health, and England’s too,
29 With ho! such bugs and goblins in my life,
30 That on the supervise, no leisure bated,
31 No, not to stay the grinding of the axe,
32 My head should be struck off.
33 HORATIO.
34 Is’t possible?
35 HAMLET.
36 Here’s the commission, read it at more leisure.
37 But wilt thou hear me how I did proceed?
38 HORATIO.
39 I beseech you.
40 HAMLET.
41 Being thus benetted round with villanies,—
42 Or I could make a prologue to my brains,
43 They had begun the play,—I sat me down,
44 Devis’d a new commission, wrote it fair:
45 I once did hold it, as our statists do,
46 A baseness to write fair, and labour’d much
47 How to forget that learning; but, sir, now
48 It did me yeoman’s service. Wilt thou know
49 The effect of what I wrote?
50 HORATIO.
51 Ay, good my lord.
52 HAMLET.
53 An earnest conjuration from the King,
54 As England was his faithful tributary,
55 As love between them like the palm might flourish,
56 As peace should still her wheaten garland wear
57 And stand a comma ’tween their amities,
58 And many such-like ‘as’es of great charge,
59 That on the view and know of these contents,
60 Without debatement further, more or less,
61 He should the bearers put to sudden death,
62 Not shriving-time allow’d.
63 HORATIO.
64 How was this seal’d?
65 HAMLET.
66 Why, even in that was heaven ordinant.
67 I had my father’s signet in my purse,
68 Which was the model of that Danish seal:
69 Folded the writ up in the form of the other,
70 Subscrib’d it: gave’t th’impression; plac’d it safely,
71 The changeling never known. Now, the next day
72 Was our sea-fight, and what to this was sequent
73 Thou know’st already.
74 HORATIO.
75 So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to’t.
76 HAMLET.
77 Why, man, they did make love to this employment.
78 They are not near my conscience; their defeat
79 Does by their own insinuation grow.
80 ’Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes
81 Between the pass and fell incensed points
82 Of mighty opposites.
83 HORATIO.
84 Why, what a king is this!
85 HAMLET.
86 Does it not, thinks’t thee, stand me now upon,—
87 He that hath kill’d my king, and whor’d my mother,
88 Popp’d in between th’election and my hopes,
89 Thrown out his angle for my proper life,
90 And with such cozenage—is’t not perfect conscience
91 To quit him with this arm? And is’t not to be damn’d
92 To let this canker of our nature come
93 In further evil?
94 HORATIO.
95 It must be shortly known to him from England
96 What is the issue of the business there.
97 HAMLET.
98 It will be short. The interim is mine;
99 And a man’s life’s no more than to say ‘One’.
100 But I am very sorry, good Horatio,
101 That to Laertes I forgot myself;
102 For by the image of my cause I see
103 The portraiture of his. I’ll court his favours.
104 But sure the bravery of his grief did put me
105 Into a tow’ring passion.
106 HORATIO.
107 Peace, who comes here?
108 Enter Osric.
109 OSRIC.
110 Your lordship is right welcome back to Denmark.
111 HAMLET.
112 I humbly thank you, sir. Dost know this waterfly?
113 HORATIO.
114 No, my good lord.
115 HAMLET.
116 Thy state is the more gracious; for ’tis a vice to know him. He hath
117 much land, and fertile; let a beast be lord of beasts, and his crib
118 shall stand at the king’s mess; ’tis a chough; but, as I say, spacious
119 in the possession of dirt.
120 OSRIC.
121 Sweet lord, if your lordship were at leisure, I should impart a thing
122 to you from his Majesty.
123 HAMLET.
124 I will receive it with all diligence of spirit. Put your bonnet to his
125 right use; ’tis for the head.
126 OSRIC.
127 I thank your lordship, ’tis very hot.
128 HAMLET.
129 No, believe me, ’tis very cold, the wind is northerly.
130 OSRIC.
131 It is indifferent cold, my lord, indeed.
132 HAMLET.
133 Methinks it is very sultry and hot for my complexion.
134 OSRIC.
135 Exceedingly, my lord; it is very sultry,—as ’twere—I cannot tell how.
136 But, my lord, his Majesty bade me signify to you that he has laid a
137 great wager on your head. Sir, this is the matter,—
138 HAMLET.
139 I beseech you, remember,—
140 [_Hamlet moves him to put on his hat._]
141 OSRIC.
142 Nay, in good faith; for mine ease, in good faith. Sir, here is newly
143 come to court Laertes; believe me, an absolute gentleman, full of most
144 excellent differences, of very soft society and great showing. Indeed,
145 to speak feelingly of him, he is the card or calendar of gentry; for
146 you shall find in him the continent of what part a gentleman would see.
147 HAMLET.
148 Sir, his definement suffers no perdition in you, though I know, to
149 divide him inventorially would dizzy th’arithmetic of memory, and yet
150 but yaw neither, in respect of his quick sail. But, in the verity of
151 extolment, I take him to be a soul of great article and his infusion of
152 such dearth and rareness as, to make true diction of him, his semblable
153 is his mirror and who else would trace him his umbrage, nothing more.
154 OSRIC.
155 Your lordship speaks most infallibly of him.
156 HAMLET.
157 The concernancy, sir? Why do we wrap the gentleman in our more rawer
158 breath?
159 OSRIC.
160 Sir?
161 HORATIO.
162 Is’t not possible to understand in another tongue? You will do’t, sir,
163 really.
164 HAMLET.
165 What imports the nomination of this gentleman?
166 OSRIC.
167 Of Laertes?
168 HORATIO.
169 His purse is empty already, all’s golden words are spent.
170 HAMLET.
171 Of him, sir.
172 OSRIC.
173 I know you are not ignorant,—
174 HAMLET.
175 I would you did, sir; yet in faith if you did, it would not much
176 approve me. Well, sir?
177 OSRIC.
178 You are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is,—
179 HAMLET.
180 I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with him in excellence;
181 but to know a man well were to know himself.
182 OSRIC.
183 I mean, sir, for his weapon; but in the imputation laid on him, by them
184 in his meed he’s unfellowed.
185 HAMLET.
186 What’s his weapon?
187 OSRIC.
188 Rapier and dagger.
189 HAMLET.
190 That’s two of his weapons. But well.
191 OSRIC.
192 The King, sir, hath wager’d with him six Barbary horses, against the
193 which he has imponed, as I take it, six French rapiers and poniards,
194 with their assigns, as girdle, hangers, and so. Three of the carriages,
195 in faith, are very dear to fancy, very responsive to the hilts, most
196 delicate carriages, and of very liberal conceit.
197 HAMLET.
198 What call you the carriages?
199 HORATIO.
200 I knew you must be edified by the margin ere you had done.
201 OSRIC.
202 The carriages, sir, are the hangers.
203 HAMLET.
204 The phrase would be more german to the matter if we could carry cannon
205 by our sides. I would it might be hangers till then. But on. Six
206 Barbary horses against six French swords, their assigns, and three
207 liberal conceited carriages: that’s the French bet against the Danish.
208 Why is this all imponed, as you call it?
209 OSRIC.
210 The King, sir, hath laid that in a dozen passes between you and him, he
211 shall not exceed you three hits. He hath laid on twelve for nine. And
212 it would come to immediate trial if your lordship would vouchsafe the
213 answer.
214 HAMLET.
215 How if I answer no?
216 OSRIC.
217 I mean, my lord, the opposition of your person in trial.
218 HAMLET.
219 Sir, I will walk here in the hall. If it please his Majesty, it is the
220 breathing time of day with me. Let the foils be brought, the gentleman
221 willing, and the King hold his purpose, I will win for him if I can; if
222 not, I will gain nothing but my shame and the odd hits.
223 OSRIC.
224 Shall I re-deliver you e’en so?
225 HAMLET.
226 To this effect, sir; after what flourish your nature will.
227 OSRIC.
228 I commend my duty to your lordship.
229 HAMLET.
230 Yours, yours.
231 [_Exit Osric._]
232 He does well to commend it himself, there are no tongues else for’s
233 turn.
234 HORATIO.
235 This lapwing runs away with the shell on his head.
236 HAMLET.
237 He did comply with his dug before he suck’d it. Thus has he,—and many
238 more of the same bevy that I know the drossy age dotes on,— only got
239 the tune of the time and outward habit of encounter; a kind of yeasty
240 collection, which carries them through and through the most fanned and
241 winnowed opinions; and do but blow them to their trial, the bubbles are
242 out.
243 Enter a Lord.
244 LORD.
245 My lord, his Majesty commended him to you by young Osric, who brings
246 back to him that you attend him in the hall. He sends to know if your
247 pleasure hold to play with Laertes or that you will take longer time.
248 HAMLET.
249 I am constant to my purposes, they follow the King’s pleasure. If his
250 fitness speaks, mine is ready. Now or whensoever, provided I be so able
251 as now.
252 LORD.
253 The King and Queen and all are coming down.
254 HAMLET.
255 In happy time.
256 LORD.
257 The Queen desires you to use some gentle entertainment to Laertes
258 before you fall to play.
259 HAMLET.
260 She well instructs me.
261 [_Exit Lord._]
262 HORATIO.
263 You will lose this wager, my lord.
264 HAMLET.
265 I do not think so. Since he went into France, I have been in continual
266 practice. I shall win at the odds. But thou wouldst not think how ill
267 all’s here about my heart: but it is no matter.
268 HORATIO.
269 Nay, good my lord.
270 HAMLET.
271 It is but foolery; but it is such a kind of gain-giving as would
272 perhaps trouble a woman.
273 HORATIO.
274 If your mind dislike anything, obey it. I will forestall their repair
275 hither, and say you are not fit.
276 HAMLET.
277 Not a whit, we defy augury. There’s a special providence in the fall of
278 a sparrow. If it be now, ’tis not to come; if it be not to come, it
279 will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all.
280 Since no man has aught of what he leaves, what is’t to leave betimes?
281 Enter King, Queen, Laertes, Lords, Osric and Attendants with foils &c.
282 KING.
283 Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me.
284 [_The King puts Laertes’s hand into Hamlet’s._]
285 HAMLET.
286 Give me your pardon, sir. I have done you wrong;
287 But pardon’t as you are a gentleman.
288 This presence knows, and you must needs have heard,
289 How I am punish’d with sore distraction.
290 What I have done
291 That might your nature, honour, and exception
292 Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness.
293 Was’t Hamlet wrong’d Laertes? Never Hamlet.
294 If Hamlet from himself be ta’en away,
295 And when he’s not himself does wrong Laertes,
296 Then Hamlet does it not, Hamlet denies it.
297 Who does it, then? His madness. If’t be so,
298 Hamlet is of the faction that is wrong’d;
299 His madness is poor Hamlet’s enemy.
300 Sir, in this audience,
301 Let my disclaiming from a purpos’d evil
302 Free me so far in your most generous thoughts
303 That I have shot my arrow o’er the house
304 And hurt my brother.
305 LAERTES.
306 I am satisfied in nature,
307 Whose motive in this case should stir me most
308 To my revenge. But in my terms of honour
309 I stand aloof, and will no reconcilement
310 Till by some elder masters of known honour
311 I have a voice and precedent of peace
312 To keep my name ungor’d. But till that time
313 I do receive your offer’d love like love,
314 And will not wrong it.
315 HAMLET.
316 I embrace it freely,
317 And will this brother’s wager frankly play.—
318 Give us the foils; come on.
319 LAERTES.
320 Come, one for me.
321 HAMLET.
322 I’ll be your foil, Laertes; in mine ignorance
323 Your skill shall like a star i’ th’ darkest night,
324 Stick fiery off indeed.
325 LAERTES.
326 You mock me, sir.
327 HAMLET.
328 No, by this hand.
329 KING.
330 Give them the foils, young Osric. Cousin Hamlet,
331 You know the wager?
332 HAMLET.
333 Very well, my lord.
334 Your Grace has laid the odds o’ the weaker side.
335 KING.
336 I do not fear it. I have seen you both;
337 But since he is better’d, we have therefore odds.
338 LAERTES.
339 This is too heavy. Let me see another.
340 HAMLET.
341 This likes me well. These foils have all a length?
342 [_They prepare to play._]
343 OSRIC.
344 Ay, my good lord.
345 KING.
346 Set me the stoups of wine upon that table.
347 If Hamlet give the first or second hit,
348 Or quit in answer of the third exchange,
349 Let all the battlements their ordnance fire;
350 The King shall drink to Hamlet’s better breath,
351 And in the cup an union shall he throw
352 Richer than that which four successive kings
353 In Denmark’s crown have worn. Give me the cups;
354 And let the kettle to the trumpet speak,
355 The trumpet to the cannoneer without,
356 The cannons to the heavens, the heavens to earth,
357 ‘Now the King drinks to Hamlet.’ Come, begin.
358 And you, the judges, bear a wary eye.
359 HAMLET.
360 Come on, sir.
361 LAERTES.
362 Come, my lord.
363 [_They play._]
364 HAMLET.
365 One.
366 LAERTES.
367 No.
368 HAMLET.
369 Judgement.
370 OSRIC.
371 A hit, a very palpable hit.
372 LAERTES.
373 Well; again.
374 KING.
375 Stay, give me drink. Hamlet, this pearl is thine;
376 Here’s to thy health.
377 [_Trumpets sound, and cannon shot off within._]
378 Give him the cup.
379 HAMLET.
380 I’ll play this bout first; set it by awhile.
381 [_They play._]
382 Come. Another hit; what say you?
383 LAERTES.
384 A touch, a touch, I do confess.
385 KING.
386 Our son shall win.
387 QUEEN.
388 He’s fat, and scant of breath.
389 Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows.
390 The Queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet.
391 HAMLET.
392 Good madam.
393 KING.
394 Gertrude, do not drink.
395 QUEEN.
396 I will, my lord; I pray you pardon me.
397 KING.
398 [_Aside._] It is the poison’d cup; it is too late.
399 HAMLET.
400 I dare not drink yet, madam. By and by.
401 QUEEN.
402 Come, let me wipe thy face.
403 LAERTES.
404 My lord, I’ll hit him now.
405 KING.
406 I do not think’t.
407 LAERTES.
408 [_Aside._] And yet ’tis almost ’gainst my conscience.
409 HAMLET.
410 Come for the third, Laertes. You do but dally.
411 I pray you pass with your best violence.
412 I am afeard you make a wanton of me.
413 LAERTES.
414 Say you so? Come on.
415 [_They play._]
416 OSRIC.
417 Nothing neither way.
418 LAERTES.
419 Have at you now.
420 [_Laertes wounds Hamlet; then, in scuffling, they change rapiers, and
421 Hamlet wounds Laertes._]
422 KING.
423 Part them; they are incens’d.
424 HAMLET.
425 Nay, come again!
426 [_The Queen falls._]
427 OSRIC.
428 Look to the Queen there, ho!
429 HORATIO.
430 They bleed on both sides. How is it, my lord?
431 OSRIC.
432 How is’t, Laertes?
433 LAERTES.
434 Why, as a woodcock to my own springe, Osric.
435 I am justly kill’d with mine own treachery.
436 HAMLET.
437 How does the Queen?
438 KING.
439 She swoons to see them bleed.
440 QUEEN.
441 No, no, the drink, the drink! O my dear Hamlet!
442 The drink, the drink! I am poison’d.
443 [_Dies._]
444 HAMLET.
445 O villany! Ho! Let the door be lock’d:
446 Treachery! Seek it out.
447 [_Laertes falls._]
448 LAERTES.
449 It is here, Hamlet. Hamlet, thou art slain.
450 No medicine in the world can do thee good.
451 In thee there is not half an hour of life;
452 The treacherous instrument is in thy hand,
453 Unbated and envenom’d. The foul practice
454 Hath turn’d itself on me. Lo, here I lie,
455 Never to rise again. Thy mother’s poison’d.
456 I can no more. The King, the King’s to blame.
457 HAMLET.
458 The point envenom’d too!
459 Then, venom, to thy work.
460 [_Stabs the King._]
461 OSRIC and LORDS.
462 Treason! treason!
463 KING.
464 O yet defend me, friends. I am but hurt.
465 HAMLET.
466 Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane,
467 Drink off this potion. Is thy union here?
468 Follow my mother.
469 [_King dies._]
470 LAERTES.
471 He is justly serv’d.
472 It is a poison temper’d by himself.
473 Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet.
474 Mine and my father’s death come not upon thee,
475 Nor thine on me.
476 [_Dies._]
477 HAMLET.
478 Heaven make thee free of it! I follow thee.
479 I am dead, Horatio. Wretched Queen, adieu.
480 You that look pale and tremble at this chance,
481 That are but mutes or audience to this act,
482 Had I but time,—as this fell sergeant, death,
483 Is strict in his arrest,—O, I could tell you,—
484 But let it be. Horatio, I am dead,
485 Thou liv’st; report me and my cause aright
486 To the unsatisfied.
487 HORATIO.
488 Never believe it.
489 I am more an antique Roman than a Dane.
490 Here’s yet some liquor left.
491 HAMLET.
492 As th’art a man,
493 Give me the cup. Let go; by Heaven, I’ll have’t.
494 O good Horatio, what a wounded name,
495 Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me.
496 If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart,
497 Absent thee from felicity awhile,
498 And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,
499 To tell my story.
500 [_March afar off, and shot within._]
501 What warlike noise is this?
502 OSRIC.
503 Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland,
504 To the ambassadors of England gives
505 This warlike volley.
506 HAMLET.
507 O, I die, Horatio.
508 The potent poison quite o’er-crows my spirit:
509 I cannot live to hear the news from England,
510 But I do prophesy th’election lights
511 On Fortinbras. He has my dying voice.
512 So tell him, with the occurrents more and less,
513 Which have solicited. The rest is silence.
514 [_Dies._]
515 HORATIO.
516 Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince,
517 And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.
518 Why does the drum come hither?
519 [_March within._]
520 Enter Fortinbras, the English Ambassadors and others.
521 FORTINBRAS.
522 Where is this sight?
523 HORATIO.
524 What is it you would see?
525 If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search.
526 FORTINBRAS.
527 This quarry cries on havoc. O proud death,
528 What feast is toward in thine eternal cell,
529 That thou so many princes at a shot
530 So bloodily hast struck?
531 FIRST AMBASSADOR.
532 The sight is dismal;
533 And our affairs from England come too late.
534 The ears are senseless that should give us hearing,
535 To tell him his commandment is fulfill’d,
536 That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead.
537 Where should we have our thanks?
538 HORATIO.
539 Not from his mouth,
540 Had it th’ability of life to thank you.
541 He never gave commandment for their death.
542 But since, so jump upon this bloody question,
543 You from the Polack wars, and you from England
544 Are here arriv’d, give order that these bodies
545 High on a stage be placed to the view,
546 And let me speak to th’ yet unknowing world
547 How these things came about. So shall you hear
548 Of carnal, bloody and unnatural acts,
549 Of accidental judgements, casual slaughters,
550 Of deaths put on by cunning and forc’d cause,
551 And, in this upshot, purposes mistook
552 Fall’n on the inventors’ heads. All this can I
553 Truly deliver.
554 FORTINBRAS.
555 Let us haste to hear it,
556 And call the noblest to the audience.
557 For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune.
558 I have some rights of memory in this kingdom,
559 Which now to claim my vantage doth invite me.
560 HORATIO.
561 Of that I shall have also cause to speak,
562 And from his mouth whose voice will draw on more.
563 But let this same be presently perform’d,
564 Even while men’s minds are wild, lest more mischance
565 On plots and errors happen.
566 FORTINBRAS.
567 Let four captains
568 Bear Hamlet like a soldier to the stage,
569 For he was likely, had he been put on,
570 To have prov’d most royally; and for his passage,
571 The soldiers’ music and the rites of war
572 Speak loudly for him.
573 Take up the bodies. Such a sight as this
574 Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss.
575 Go, bid the soldiers shoot.
576 [_A dead march._]
577 [_Exeunt, bearing off the bodies, after which a peal of ordnance is
578 shot off._]