Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

Hear you, sir;

What is the reason that you use me thus ?
I lov'd you ever: But it is no matter;
Let Hercules himself do what he may,
The cat will mew, and dog will have his day.

[Exit.
King. I pray thee, good Horatio, wait upon
him.
[Exit Horatio.
Strengthen your patience in our last night's speech;
[To Laertes.

We'll put the matter to the present push.-
Good Gertrude, set some watch over your son.-
This grave shall have a living monument:
An hour of quiet shortly shall we see;
Till then, in patience our proceeding be. [Exeunt.
SCENE II.-A hall in the castle.

and Horatio.

Enter Hamlet

As England was his faithful tributary;
As love between them, like the palm, might flourish;
As peace should still her wheaten garland wear,
And stand a comma 10 'tween their amities;
And many such like as's of great charge,-
That, on the view and knowing of these contents,
Without debatement further, more or less,
He should the bearers put to sudden death,
Not shriving-time allow'd.

Hor.

How was this seal'd?
Ham. Why, even in that was heaven ordinant
I had my father's signet in my purse,
Which was the model' of that Danish seal:
Folded the writ up in form of the other;
Subscrib'd it; gave't the impression; plac'd it safely,
The changeling never known: Now, the next day,
Was our sea-fight; and what to this was sequenti
Thou know'st already.

Hor. So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to't.
Ham. Why, man, they did make love to this em-
ployment:

They are not near my conscience; their defeat Ham. So much for this, sir: now shall you see Does by their own insinuation grow:

the other ;

You do remember all the circumstance?

Hor. Remember it, my lord!

Ham. Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fight-
ing,

That would not let me sleep: methought, I lay
Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly,
And prais'd be rashness for it,-Let us know,
Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well,
When our deep plots do pall: and that should
teach us,

There's a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will.
Hor.

That is most certain.

Ham. Up from my cabin,
My sea-gown scarf'd about me, in the dark
Grop'd I to find out them: had my desire;
Finger'd their packet; and, in fine, withdrew
To mine own room again: making so bold,
My fears forgetting manners, to unseal
Their grand commission; where I found, Horatio,
A royal knavery; an exact command,-
Larded with many several sorts of reasons,
Importing Denmark's health, and England's too,
With, ho! such bugs and goblins in my life,
That, on the supervise," no leisure bated,
No, not to stay the grinding of the axe,
My head should be struck off.

Hor.

Is't possible?

Ham. Here's the commission; read it at more leisure.

But wilt thou hear now how I did proceed?

Hor. Ay, 'beseech you.

Ham. Being thus benetted round with villanies,
Or I could make a prologue to my brains,
They had begun the play-I sat me down;
Devis'd a new commission; wrote it fair :
I once did hold it, as our statists do,

A baseness to write fair, and labour'd much
How to forget that learning; but, sir, now
It did me yeoman's service: Wilt thou know
The effect of what I wrote?

Hor.
Ay, good my lord.
Ham. An earnest conjuration from the king,-

[blocks in formation]

'Tis dangerous, when the baser nature comes
Between the pass and fell incensed points
Of mighty opposites.

Hor.
Why, what a king is this!
Ham. Does it not, think thee, stand me now

upon?

He that hath kill'd my king, and whor'd my mother;
Popp'd in between the election and my hopes;
Thrown out his angle for my proper life,

And with such cozenage; is't not perfect conscience,
To quit him with this arm? and is't not to be
damn'd,

To let this canker of our nature come
In further evil?

Hor. It must be shortly known to him from

England,

What is the issue of the business there.

Ham. It will be short: the interim is mine;
And a man's life no more than to say, one.
But I am very sorry, good Horatio,
That to Laertes I forgot myself;
For by the image of my cause,
The portraiture of his: I'll counts his favours:
But, sure, the bravery of his grief did put me
Into a towering passion.
Hor.

see

Peace; who comes here? Enter Osric.

Osr. Your lordship is right welcome back to Denmark.

Ham. I humbly thank you, sir.-Dost know this water-fly ?16

Hor. No, my good lord.

Ham Thy state is the more gracious; for 'tis a vice to know him: He hath much land, and fertile: let a beast be lord of beasts, and his crib shall stand at the king's mess: 'Tis a chough; but, as I say, spacious in the possession of dirt.

Osr. Sweet lord, if your lordship were at leisure, I should impart a thing to you from his majesty. Ham. I will receive it, sir, with all diligence of spirit: Your bonnet to his right use; 'tis for the head. Osr. I thank your lordship, 'tis very hot. Ham. No, believe me, 'tis very cold; the wind is northerly.

[blocks in formation]

Osr. It is indifferent cold, my lord, indeed. Ham. The phrase would be more german's to the Ham. But yet, methinks it is very sultry and matter, if we could carry a cannon by our sides; I hot; or my complexionwould it might be hangers till then. But on: Six

Osr. Exceedingly, my lord; it is very sultry,-Barbary horses against six French swords, their asas 'twere,-I cannot tell how-My lord, his majesty signs, and three liberal-conceited carriages; that's bade me signify to you, that he has laid a great wa-the French bet against the Danish: Why is this imger on your head: Sir, this is the matter,- pawned, as you call it?

Ham. I beseech you, remember

Osr. The king, sir, hath laid, that in a dozen [Hamlet moves him to put on his hat. passes between yourself and him, he shall not exOsr. Nay, good my lord; for my ease, in good ceed you three hits; he hath laid, on twelve for faith. Sir, here is newly come to court, Laertes: nine; and it would come to immediate trial, if your believe me, an absolute gentleman, full of most ex-lordship would youchsafe the answer. cellent differences,2 of very soft society, and great Ham. How, if I answer, no? showing: Indeed, to speak feelingly of him, he is the card' or calendar of gentry, for you shall find in him the continent of what part a gentleman would see.

Ham. Sir, this definement suffers no perdition in you;-though, I know, to divide him inventorially, would dizzy the arithmetic of memory; and yet but raw neither, in respect of his quick sail. But, in the verity of extolment, I take him to be a souĺ of great article; and his infusion of such dearth and rareness, as, to make true diction of him, his semblable is his mirror; and, who else would trace him, his umbrage, nothing more."

Osr. Your lordship speaks most infallibly of him. Ham. The concernancy, sir? why do we wrap the gentleman in our more rawer breath?

Osr. Sir?

Hor. Is't not possible to understand in another tongue? you will do't, sir, really.

Ham. What imports the nomination of this gen

tleman ?

Osr. Of Laertes ?

Osr. I mean, my lord, the opposition of your person in trial.

Ham. Sir, I will walk here in the hall: If it please his majesty, it is the breathing time of day with me: let the foils be brought, the gentleman willing, and the king hold his purpose, I will win for him, if I can; if not, I will gain nothing but my shame, and the odd hits.

Osr. Shall I deliver you so?

Ham. To this effect, sir; after what flourish your nature will.

Osr. I commend my duty to your lordship.

[Exit. Ham. Yours, yours.-He does well to commend it himself; there are no tongues else for's turn. Hor. This lapwing runs away with the shell on his head.

Ham. He did comply14 with his dug before he sucked it. Thus has he (and many more of the same breed, that, I know, the drossy age dotes on,) only got the tune of the time, and outward habit of encounter; a kind of yesty: collection, which car

Hor. His purse is empty already; all his golden ries them through and through the most fond" and words are spent.

Ham. Of him, sir.

Osr. I know, you are not ignorant

Ham. I would you did, sir; yet, in faith, if you did, it would not much approve" me ;-Well, sir. Osr. You are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is

Ham. I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with him in excellence; but, to know a man well, were to know himself.

Ost. I mean, sir, for his weapon; but in the imputation laid on him by them, in his meed he's unfellowed.

Ham. What's his weapon?
Osr. Rapier and dagger.

Ham. That's two of his weapons: but, well. Osr. The king, sir, hath wagered with him six Barbary horses: against the which he has impawned, as I take it, six French rapiers and poniards, with their assigns, as girdle, hangers, 10 and so: Three of the carriages, in faith, are very dear to fancy, very responsive to the hilts, most delicate carriages, and of very liberal conceit.

Ham. What call you the carriages?

winnowed opinions; and do but blow them to their trial, the bubbles are out.

[blocks in formation]

Hor. I knew, you must be edified by the mar-matter. gent," ere you had done.

Osr. The carriages, sir, are the hangers.

(1) The affected phrase of the time.

(2) Distinguishing excellencies.

(3) Compass or chart.

(4) The country and pattern for imitation.

(5) This speech is a ridicule of the court jargon

of that time.

(6) Mentioning. (7) Recommend. (8) Praise (9) Imponed, put down, staked. (10) That part of the belt by which the sword was suspended.

Hor. Nay, good my lord,

18

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

(11) Margin of a book which contains explanatory notes. (12) Akin.

(13) A bird which runs about immediately as it is hatched.

(14) Compliment.

(16) Frothy.
(18) Misgiving.

(15) Worthless. (17) For fond read fann'd.

[ocr errors]

will forestal' their repair hither, and say, you are not fit.

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,
At-Now the king drinks to Hamlet.-Come, begin;-
And you, the judges, bear a wary eye.
Ham. Come on, sir.

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, if aught he leaves, knows, what is't to leave betimes? Let be. Enter King, Queen, Laertes, Lords, Osric, and tendants, 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

[blocks in formation]

heard,

Fsore

How I am punish'd with '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,
And hurt my brother.

Laer.

I am satisfied in nature,

[blocks in formation]

Laer.

Ham.

Laer.

Ham.

Come, my lord. [They play. One.

Osr. A hit, a very palpaple hit. Laer.

No.

Judgment.

Well, again.

King. Stay, give me drink: Hamlet, this pearl is thine;

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

[Trumpets sound; and cannon shot off within.
Ham. I'll play this bout first, set it by a while.
Come,-Another hit; What say you? [They play.
Laer. A touch, a touch, I do confess.
King. Our son 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 poison'd cup; it is too late.

[Aside
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.

I

Osr. Nothing neither way.

Laer. Have at you now.

King.

[They play.

[Laertes wounds Hamlet; then, in scuffling, they change rapiers, and Hamlet wounds Laertes.

Part them, they are incens'd. Ham. Nay, come again. [The Queen falls. Look to the queen there, ho! Hor. They bleed on both sides :-) -How is it, my

Osr.

lord?

[blocks in formation]

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,-O my dear
Hamlet!

The drink, the drink;-I am poison'd! [Dies.
Ham. O villany!-Ho! let the door be lock'd:
Treachery! seek it out.
[Laertes falls

Laer. It is here, Hamlet: Hamlet, thou art slain,
No medicine in the world can do thee good,
In thee there is not half an hour's life;
The treacherous instrument is in thy hand,
Unbated, and envenom'd: the foul practice

Drinks good luck to you. (8) Boy. The foil without a button, and poisoned at the point.

[merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors]

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,

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 come about: So shall
Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts;
[King dies. 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.

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. Heaven make thee free of it! I follow thee.
I am dead, Horatio:-Wretched queen, adieu!-
You that look pale and tremble at this chance,
That are but mutes or audience to this act,
Had I but time (as this fell sergeant,2 death,
Is strict in his arrest,) O, I could tell you,-
But let it be:-Horatio, I am dead;

Thou liv'st; report me and my cause aright
To the unsatisfied.

Hor.

Never believe it;

I am more an antique Roman than a Dane,
Here's yet some liquor left.

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 a while,

And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,
To tell my story.-

[March afar off, and shot within.
What warlike noise is this?"
Osr. Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from
Poland,

To the ambassadors of England gives
This warlike volley.

Ham.

O, I die, Horatio;

;

The potent poison quité o'er-crows3 my spirit;
I cannot live to hear the news from England:
But I do prophesy the election lights
On Fortinbras; he has my dying voice
So tell him, with the occurrents, more or less,
Which have solicited,The rest is silence. [Dies.
Hor. Now cracks a noble heart ;-Good night,
sweet prince;

And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!
Why does the drum come hither? [March within.
Enter Fortinbras, the English Ambassadors, and

others.

Fort. Where is this sight?
Hor.
What is it, you would see?
If aught of wo, or wonder, cease your search.
Fort. This quarry cries on havoc !"-O proud
death!

What feast is toward in thine eternal cell,
That thou so many princes, at a shot,
So bloodily hast struck?

1 Amb.
The sight is dismal;
And our affairs from England come too late:
The ears are senseless, that should give us hearing,
To tell him, his commandment is fulfill'd,
That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead:

(1) Mixed. (2) A sergeant is a sheriff's officer.
(3) O'ercomes. (4) Incidents. (5) Incited.
Heap of dead game.

Let us haste to hear it,

you

hear

Fort.
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 mis-
chance,

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 music, and the rites of war,
Speak loudly for him.-

Take up the bodies:-Such a sight as this
Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss.
Go, bid the soldiers shoot.
[A dead march.
[Exeunt, bearing off the bodies; after which, a
peal of ordnance is shot off.

If the dramas of Shakspeare were to be characterised, each by the particular excellence which distinguishes it from the rest, we must allow to the tragedy of Hamlet the praise of variety. The incidents are so numerous, that the argument of the play would make a long tale. The scenes are interchangeably diversified with merriment and solemnity: with merriment that includes judicious and instructive observations; and solemnity not strained by poetical violence above the natural sentiments of man. New characters appear from time to time in continual succession, exhibiting various The pretended madness of Hamlet causes much forms of life, and peculiar modes of conversation. mirth, the mournful distraction of Ophelia fills the heart with tenderness, and every personage produces the effect intended, from the apparition that, in the first act, chills the blood with horror, to the fop in the last, that exposes affectation to just contempt.

The conduct is, perhaps, not wholly secure against objections. The action is, indeed, for the most part, in continual progression; but there are some scenes which neither forward nor retard it. Of the feigned madness of Hamlet there appears no adequate cause, for he does nothing which he might not have done with the reputation of sanity. He plays the

(7) A word of censure when more game was destroyed than was reasonable.

(8) i. e. The king's. (9) By chance.
(10) Polish.

R

[graphic]

madman most, when he treats Ophelia with so much easily be formed, to kill Hamlet with the dagger rudeness, which seems to be useless and wanton and Laertes with the bowl. cruelty. The poet is accused of having shown little reHamlet is, through the whole piece, rather an in-gard to poetical justice, and may be charged with strument than an agent. After he has, by the stratagem of the play, convicted the king, he makes no attempt to punish him; and his death is at last effected by an incident which Hamlet had no part in producing.

equal neglect of poetical probability. The apparition left the regions of the dead to little purpose: the revenge which he demands is not obtained, but by the death of him that was required to take it; and the gratification, which would arise from the The catastrophe is not very happily produced; destruction of a usurper and a murderer, is abated the exchange of weapons is rather an expedient of by the untimely death of Ophelia, the young, the necessity, than a stroke of art. A scheme might beautiful, the harmless, and the pious.

« PreviousContinue »