The Dramatic Works of William Shakspeare

And let the kettle to the trumpet speak,
The trumpet to the cannoneer without,
The cannons to the heavens, the heavens to earth,
Now the king drinks to Hamlet.-Come, begin;-
And you, the judges, bear a wary eye.
Ham. Come on, sir.

Laer. Come, my lord.

Ham. One.

Laer. No.

Ham. Judgement

Osr. A hit, a very palpable hit. Laer. Well,-again.

It is a poison temper'd by himself.Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet. [they play. Mine and my father's death come not upon thee

[is thine; King. Stay, give me drink. Hamlet, this pearl 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 awhile. 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.
[me.
Queen. I will, my lord;-I pray you, pardon
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.

[they play.

Ham. Come, for the third, Laertes. You do but I pray you, pass with your best violence; [dally; 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. Osr. Look to the queen there, ho! Hor. They bleed on both sides. How is it, my Osr. How is it, Laertes? [lord?

Laer. Why, as a woodcock to my own springe, I am justly kill'd with mine own treachery. [Osric; Ham. How does the queen?

King. She swoons, to see them bleed. [Hamlet! Queen. No, no, the drink, the drink.--Ö my dear 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. Laer. It is here, Hamlet: Hamlet, thou art No medicine in the world can do thee good, [slain; In thee there is not half an hour's life; The treacherous instrument is in thy hand, Unbated, and envenom'd: the foul practice 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. and Lords. Treason! treason! King. O, yet defend me, friends, I am but hurt.

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, 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,—

[it

Give me the cup; let go; by heaven, I'll have
O God:-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? [from Poland,

Osr. Young Fortinbras, with conquest come
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 prophecy, 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 woe, or wonder, cease your search.
Fort. This quarry cries on havoc !-O proud
What feast is toward in thine eternal cell, [death!
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 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 came about: so shall you hear
Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts;
Of accidental judgements, 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;
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 whilst mea's minds are wild; lest more mis-
On plots and errors happen.
[chance

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 dead bodies; after which
a peal of ordnance is shot off.

CORIOLANUS.

Caius Marcius Coriolanus, a noble Roman.

Titus Lartius,

Cominius,

DRAMATIS PERSONE.

Generals against the Volscians.

Menenius Agrippa, Friend to Coriolanus.

Sicinius Velutus, Tribunes of the People. Junius Brutus,

Young Marcius, Son to Coriolanus.

A Roman Herald.

Tullus Aufidius, General of the Volscians.

Lieutenant to Aufidius.

Conspirators with Aufidius.

A Citizen of Antium.

Two Volscian Guards.

Volumnia, Mother to Coriolanus.
Virgilia, Wife to Coriolanus.
Valeria, Friend to Virgilia.

Gentlewoman, attending Virgilia.

Roman and Volscian Senators, Patricians, Ediles, Lictors, Soldiers, Citizens, Messengers, Servants to Aufidius, and other attendants.

SCENE, partly in Rome, and partly in the territories of the Volscians and Antiates.

SCENE 1. ROME. A STREET.

ACT I.

1 Cit. First, you know, Caius Marcius is chief enemy to the people.

Cit. We know't, we know't.

1 Cit. Let us kill him, and we'll have corn at our own price. Is't a verdict?

[away.

Cit. No more talking on't; let it be done: away, 2 Cit. One word, good citizens.

1 Cit. We are accounted poor citizens; the patricians, good: what authority surfeits on, would relieve us: if they would yield us but the superfluity, while it were wholesome, we might guess, they relieved us humanely; but they think, we are too dear: the leanness that afflicts us, the object of our misery, is as an inventory to particularize their abundance; our sufferance is a gain to them.-Let us revenge this with our pikes, ere we become rakes: for the gods know, I speak this in hunger for bread, not in thirst for revenge.

2 Cit. Would you proceed especially against Caius Marcius? [commonalty.

Cit. Against him first; he's a very dog to the 2 Cit. Consider you what services he has done for his country?

1 Cit. Very well; and could be content to give him good report for't, but that he pays himself with being proud.

2 Cit. Nay, but speak not maliciously.

1 Cit. I say unto you, what he hath done famously, he did it to that end: though soft conscienced men can be content to say, it was for his country, he did it to please his mother, and to be partly proud; which he is, even to the altitude of his virtue.

2 Cit. What he cannot help in his nature, you account a vice in him: you must in no way say, he is covetous.

1 Cit. If I must not, I need not be barren of accusations; he hath faults, with surplus, to tire in repetition. [shouts within.] What shouts are these? The other side o'the city is risen: why stay we prating here? to the capitol. Cit. Come, come.

1 Cit. Soft; who comes here?
Enter Menenius Agrippa.

2 Cit. Worthy Menenius Agrippa; one that hath always loved the people.

1 Cit. He's one honest enough; 'would all the rest were so!

Men. What work's, my countrymen, in hand?

Where go you [you. With bats and clubs? The matter? Speak, I pray 1 Cit. Our business is not unknown to the senate; they have had inkling, this fortnight, what we intend to do, which now we'll show 'em in deeds. They say, poor suitors have strong breaths, they shall know, we have strong arms too.

Men. Why, masters, my good friends, mine Will you undo yourselves? [honest neighbours, 1 Cit. We cannot, sir, we are undone already. Men. I tell you, friends, most charitable care Have the patricians of you. For your wants, Your suffering in this dearth, you may as well Strike at heaven with your staves, as lift them Against the Roman state; whose course will on The way it takes, cracking ten thousand curbs Of more strong link asunder, than can ever Appear in your impediment: for the dearth, The gods, not the patricians, make it; and Your knees to them, not arms, must help. Alack, You are transported by calamity

Thither where more attends you; and you slander The helms o'the state, who care for you like fathers When you curse them as enemies.

1 Cit. Care for us!-True, indeed!--They

ne'er cared for us yet. Suffer us to famish, and
their storehouses crammed with grain; make edicts
for usury, to support usurers; repeal daily any
wholesome act established against the rich; and
provide more piercing statutes daily, to chain up
and restrain the poor. If the wars eat us not up,
they will; and there's all the love they bear us.
Men. Either you must

Confess yourselves wondrous malicious,
Or be accus'd of folly. I shall tell you

A pretty tale; it may be, you have heard it;
But, since it serves my purpose, I will venture
To scale't a little more.

1 Cit. Well, I'll hear it, sir: yet you must not think to fob off our disgrace with a tale: but, an't please you, deliver.

Men. There was a time, when all the body's

members

Whereby they live: and though that all at once,
You, my good friends,' (this says the belly,) mark
1 Cit. Ay, sir; well, well.
[me,-
Men. Thou all at once cannot
See what I do deliver out to each;
Yet I can make my audit up, that all
From me do back receive the flower of all,
And leave me but the bran.' What say you to't?
Cit. It was an answer. How apply you this?
Men. The senators of Rome are this good belly,
And you the mutinous members: for, examine,
Their counsels, and their cares; digest things rightly,
Touching the weal o'the common; you shall find,
No public benefit, which you receive,
But it proceeds, or comes, from them to you,
And no way from yourselves-What do you think?
You, the great toe of this assembly?—

1 Cit. I the great toe? Why the great toe? [est,
Men. For that, being one o'the lowest, basest, poor-
Of this most wise rebellion, thou go'st foremost :
Thou rascal, that art worst in blood, to run
Lead'st first to win some vantage,

Rebell'd against the belly; thus accus'd it :----
That only like a gulf it did remain
I'the midst o'the body, idle and inactive,
Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing [ments
Like labour with the rest; where the other instru-But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs;
Did see, and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel,
And mutually participate, did minister
Unto the appetite and affection common
Of the whole body. The belly answered,-

1 Cit. Well, sir, what answer made the belly?
Men. Sir, I shall tell you.-With a kind of smile,
Which ne'er came from the lungs, but even thus,
(For, look you, I may make the belly smile,
As well as speak,) it tauntingly replied
To the discontented members, the mutinous parts
That envied his receipt ; even so most fitly
As you malign our senators, for that
They are not such as you.

1 Cit. Your belly's answer. What!
The kingly-crowned head, the vigilant eye,
The counsellor heart, the arm our soldier,
Our steed the leg, the tongue our trumpeter,
With other muniments and petty helps
In this our fabric, if that they-

Men. What then?

'Fore me,

[then?

this fellow speaks!--what then? what 1 Cit. Should by the cormorant belly be reWho is the sink o'the body,[strain'd,

Men. Well, what then?

Your most grave belly was deliberate,
Not rash like his accusers, and thus answer'd.
'True is it, my incorporate friends,' quoth he,
That I receive the general food at first,
Which you do live upon and fit it is;
Because I am the store-house, and the shop
Of the whole body but if you do remember,
I send it through the rivers of your blood, [brain;
Even to the court, the heart,-to the seat o'the
And, through the cranks and offices of man,
The strongest nerves, and small inferior veins,
From me receive the natural competency

Rome and her rats are at the point of battle,
The one side must have bale.-Hail, noble Marcius!
Enter Caius Marcius.

Mar. Thanks.-What's the matter, you dissen-
tious rogues,

That, rubbing the poor itch of your opinion,
Make yourselves scabs?

1 Cit. We have ever your good word. [flatter Mar. He that will give good words to thee, will Beneath abhorring.-What would you have, you [you,

curs,

That like nor peace, nor war? the one affrights
The other makes you proud. He that trusts you,
Where he should find you lions, finds you hares;
Where foxes, geese. You are no surer, no,
Than is the coal of fire upon the ice,
Or hailstone in the sun. Your virtue is,
To make him worthy, whose offence subdues him,
And curse that justice did it. Who deserves great-
Deserves your hate: and your affections are [ness,
A sick man's appetite, who desires most that,
Which would increase his evil. He that depends
Upon your favours, swims with fins of lead,
And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang ye! Trust
With every minute you do change a mind: [ye?
And call him noble, that was now your hate,
Him vile, that was your garland. What's the mat-
That in these several places of the city
You cry against the noble senate, who,
Under the gods, keep you in awe, which else [ing?
Would feed on one another?-What's their seek-
Men. For corn at their own rates; whereof, they
The city is well stor'd.

[ter,

[say,

Mar. Hang 'em! They say?

They'll sit by the fire, and presume to know
What's done i'the capitol: who's like to rise,
Who thrives and who declines: side factions, and
give out

Conjectural marriages: making parties strong,
And feebling such as stand not in their liking,
Below their cobbled shoes. They say, there's grain
Would the nobility lay aside their ruth, [enough!
And let me use my sword, I'd make a quarry

With thousands of these quarter'd slaves, as high
As I could pick my lance.
Men. Nay, these are almost thoroughly persuaded;
For though abundantly they lack discretion,
Yet are they passing cowardly. But, I beseech
[you,
What says the other troop?
Mar. They are dissolv'd. Hang 'em! [verbs;
They said, they were an hungry; sigh'd forth pro-
That, hunger broke stone walls; that, dogs must eat;
That, meat was made for mouths; that, the gods sent
Corn for rich men only. With these shreds [not
They vented their complainings; which being an-
And a petition granted them, a strange one [swer'd,
(To break the heart of generosity,
[caps
And make bold power look pale,) they threw their
As they would hang them on the horns o'the moon,
Shouting their emulation.

Men. What is granted them?
[doms,
Mar. Five tribunes, to defend their vulgar wis-
Of their own choice. One's Junius Brutus,
Sicinius Velutus, and I know not-'Sdeath!
The rabble should have first unroof'd the city
Ere so prevail'd with me: it will in time
Win upon power, and throw forth greater themes
For insurrection's arguing.

Men. This is strange.

Mar. Go, get you home, you fragments!
Enter a Messenger.

Mess. Where's Caius Marcius?
Mar. Here: what's the matter?

Mess. The news is, sir, the Volces are in arms. Mar. I am glad on't; then we shall have means Our musty superfluity. See, our best elders. [to vent Enter Cominius, Titus Lartius, and other senators; Junius Brutus, and Sicinius Velutus.

1 Sen. Marcius, 'tis true, that you have lately The Volces are in arms.

Mar. They have a leader,

Tullus Aufidius, that will put you to't.
I sin in envying his nobility:
And, were I any thing but what I am,
[ would wish me only he.

Com. You have fought together.
Mar. Were half to half the world by
Upon my party, I'd revolt, to make
Only my wars with him: he is a lion
That I am proud to hunt.

1 Sen. Then, worthy Marcius,

Attend upon Cominius to these wars.
Com. It is your former promise.
Mar. Sir, it is;

[told us:

And I am constant.-Titus Lartius, thou

the ears, [and he

Shalt see me once more strike at Tullus' face:
What, art thou stiff? stand'st out?

Tit. No, Caius Marcius;

I'll lean upon one crutch, and fight with the other, Ere stay behind this business.

They have press'd a pow'r, but it is not known
Whether for east, or west: the dearth is great:
The people mutinous: and it is rumour'd,
Cominius, Marcius your old enemy,
(Who is of Rome worse hated than of you,)
And Titus Lartius, a most valiant Roman,
These three lead on this preparation

Whither 'tis bent: most likely, 'tis for you:
Consider of it.

1 Sen. Our army's in the field:

We never yet made doubt but Rome was ready To answer us.

Auf. Nor did you think it folly,

To keep your great pretences veil'd, till when They needs must show themselves; which in the

hatching,

« Previous Continue »

Books

The Dramatic Works of William Shakspeare: From the Text of Johnson ..., Volume 5