same breed, that, I know, the drossy 1 age dotes on,) only got the tune of the time, and outward habit of encounter; a kind of yesty collection, which carries them through and through the most fond and winnowed opinions; and do but blow them to their trial, the bubbles are out.

Enter a Lord.

Lord. My lord, his majesty commended him to you by young Osric, who brings back to him, that you attend him in the hall: He sends to know, if your pleasure hold to play with Laertes, or that you will take longer time.

Ham. I am constant to my purposes, they follow the king's pleasure: if his fitness speaks, mine is ready; now, or whensoever, provided I be so able as now.

Lord. The king, and queen, and all are coming down.

Ham. In happy time.

Lord. The queen desires you, to use some gentle entertainment to Laertes, before you fall to play. Ham. She well instructs me. [Exit Lord. Hor. You will lose this wager, my lord. Ham. I do not think so; since he went into France, I have been in continual practice; I shall win at the odds. But thou wouldst not think, how ill all's here about my heart: but it is no matter. Hor. Nay, good my lord,

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.
This presence knows, and you must needs have
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 wronged 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,
1 Worthless.
2 Misgiving.

That I have shot my arrow o'er the house,
And hurt my brother.
Laer.
I am satisfied in nature,
Whose motive, in this case, should stir me most
To my revenge: but in my terms of honour,
I stand aloof; and will no reconcilement,
Till by some elder masters of known honour,
I have a voice and precedent of peace,
To keep my name ungor'd: But till that time,
I do receive your offer'd love like love,
And will not wrong it.
Ham.
I embrace it freely;
And will this brother's wager frankly play.-
Give us the foils; come on.
Laer.
Come, one for me.
Ham. I'll be your foil, Laertes; in mine igno-

rance

Your skill shall, like a star i' the darkest night, Stick fiery off indeed.

Laer.

You mock me, sir. Ham. No, by this hand. King. Give them the foils, young Osric.Cousin Hamlet, You know the wager?

Ham.
Very well, my lord;
Your grace hath laid the odds o' the weaker side.
King. I do not fearit:-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 length? [They prepare to play.
Osr. Ay, my good lord.
King. Set me the stoups of wine upon that
table:-

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.
Ham. Come on, sir.

Laer.

Ham.

Laer.

Ham.

Come, my lord. [They play. One.

No. Judgment.

Well,-again.

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

1 Large jugs.

2 A valuable pearl.

King.
Gertrude, do not drink.
Queen. I will, my lord;-I pray you, pardon me.
K.[Aside. It is the poison'd cup; it is too late.
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. [Aside.] And yet it is almost against
my conscience.

Ham. Come, for the third, Laertes: You do but dally;

violence;

[They play.

I pray you, pass with your best
I am afeard, you make a wanton of me.
Laer. Say you so? come on.
Osr. Nothing neither way.
Laer. Have at you now.
[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.
OST.
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, 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,-O my
dear Hamlet!

The drink, the drink;-I am poison'd! [Dies.
Ham. O villainy!-Ho! let the door be lock'd:
Treachery! seek it out.
[Laertes falls.
L. 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,2 and envenom'd: the foul practice
Hath turned 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. and 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 thy union here?
Follow my mother.
[King dies.
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,3 death,
Is strict in his arrest,) O, I could tell you,-
But let it be:-Horatio, I am dead;

Thou livest; report me and my cause aright To the unsatisfied.

1 Feeble effeminate person

2 Unblunted.

Never believe it;

Hor. 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 good Horatio, what a wounded name, Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart, [me? Absent thee from felicity awhile, 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 quite o'er-crows 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, 1 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 woe, or wonder, cease your search.
Fort. This quarry cries on havock4-0
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:
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 jumps upon this bloody question,
You from the Polack wars, and you from Eng-
land,

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 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:

1 Occurrences.

3 Officer.

2 Incited.

3 Hoap of dead gaine.

4 A word of censure.

5 Exactly,

6 Polish.

Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage;
For he was likely, had he been put on, [sage,
To have prov'd most royally: and, for his pas
The soldier's musick, 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 dead Bodies; after which, a Peal of Ordnance is shot of.

Act First.

SCENE I.-VENICE. A STREET.

Enter Roderigo and Iago.

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

That thou, Iago,-who hast had my purse,
As if the strings were thine,-shouldst know of
Iago. But you will not hear me :- [this.

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,

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,2
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,
One Michael Cassio, a Florentine,
A fellow almost cursed in a fair wife;
That never set a squadron in the field,

1 Remembered rights,

2 Circumlocution.

3 Certainly.

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;3
He, in good time, must his lieutenant be,
And I, sir, (bless the mark!) his Moorship's
ancient. 4

Rod. By heaven, I rather would have been his hangman.

Iago. But there's no remedy, 'tis the curse of service;

Preferment goes by letter, and affection,
Not by the old gradation, where each second
Stood heir to the first. Now, sir, be judge your-
Whether I in any just term am affin'ds [self,
To love the Moor.

That, doting on his own obsequious bondage, Wears out his time, much like his master's ass, For nought but provender; and, when he's old, cashier'd;

Whip me such honest knaves: Others there are, Who, trimm'd in forms and visages of duty, Keep yet their hearts attending on themselves; And, throwing but shows of service on their lords, Do well thrive by them, and when they have lin'd their coats,

[soul;

Do themselves homage: these fellows have some
And such a one do I 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 sleeve
For daws to peck at: I am not what I am.
R. What a full fortune does the thick-lips owe,1
If he can carry't thus!

Iago.
Call up her father,
Rouse him: make after him, poison his delight,
Proclaim him in the streets; incense her kinsmen,
And, though he in a fertile climate dwell,
Plague him with flies: though that his joy be joy,
Yet throw such changes of vexation on't,
As it may lose some colour.

Rod. Here is her father's house; I'll call aloud. I. Do; with like timorous accent, and dire yell, As when, by night and negligence, the fire Is spied in populous cities.

R.What ho! Brabantio! signior Brabantio, ho! Iago. Awake! what ho! Brabantio! thieves! thieves! thieves!

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

Brabantio, above, at a Window. B.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;
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?
Rod. Most reverend signior, do you know my
Bra. Not I: What are you?
[voice,
Rod. My name is-Roderigo.
Bra.

The worse welcome;

I have charg'd thee, not to haunt about my doors:
In honest plainness thou hast heard me say,
My daughter is not for thee; and now, in madness,
Being full of supper, and distempering draughts,
Upon malicious bravery, dost thou come
To start my quiet.

Rod. Sir, sir, sir, sir,-

1 Fossess.

Iago.

You are a senator. Bra. This thou shalt answer: I know thee, Roderigo. [seech you,

Rod. Sir, I will answer anything. But I be-
If't be your pleasure, and most wise consent,
(As partly, I find, it is,) that your fair daughter,
At this odd-even2 and dull watch o' the night,
Transported--with no worse nor better guard,
But with a knave of common hire, a gondolier,-
To the embrace 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 your-
If she be in her chamber, or your house, [self:
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!

[Exit from above.
Iago. 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,
(Which even now stand in act,) that, for their
Another of his fathom they have not, [souls,
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,
Which is indeed but sign. That you shall surely
find him,

Lead to the Sagittary the rais'd search;
And there will I be with him. So farewell. [Exit.
Enter below, Brabantio, and Servants, with
Torches.

Bra. It is too true an evil: gone she is;

1 A lone farm-house.

2 Midnight.

3 Approbation.

4 Wandering.

5 Name of Othello's house.