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Osr. Nothing, neither way.

Laer. Have at you now.

King.

[LAERTES wounds HAMLET; then, in scuffling they change Rapiers, and HAMLET wounds LAERtes. Part them! they are incens'd.

Ham. Nay, come again.
Osr.

[The Queen falls.

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 mine own springe, Osrick; 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 Ham

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[Dies.

How? let the door be lock'd:

[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 of 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.

All. Treason! treason!

[Stabs the King.

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

Ham. Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane,

Drink off this potion:

Follow my mother.

Laer.

is thy union here?

He is justly serv'd;

It is a poison temper'd by himself.

Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet;

VI.

[King dies.

113

Mine and my father's death come not upon thee;
Nor thine on me!

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.

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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,

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Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me?
If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart,

Absent thee from felicity awhile,

And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,

To tell my story.

[Dies.

[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, more and less,
Which have solicited -The rest is silence.

[Dies.

Good night, sweet prince;

Hor. Now cracks a noble heart.
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 ye would see?

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

Fort. This quarry cries on havock. 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.

Where should we have our thanks?

Hor.

Had it th' ability of life to thank you:

Not from his mouth,

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 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:
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,

116

HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK.

Even while men's minds are wild, lest more mischance,
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 soldiers' music, and the rites of war,
Speak loudly for him.

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Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss.

Go, bid the soldiers shoot.

[A dead March. [Exeunt, marching; after which, a Peal of Ordnance is shot off.

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Knights of Lear's train, Officers, Messengers, Soldiers, and

Attendants.

SCENE, Britain.

ACT I. SCENE I.

A Room of State in King LEAR's Palace.

Enter KENT, GLOSTER, and Edmund.

Kent. I thought, the king had more affected the duke of Albany, than Cornwall.

Glo. It did always seem so to us: but now, in the division of the kingdoms, it appears not which of the dukes he values most; for equalities are so weighed, that curiosity in neither can make choice of either's moiety.

Kent. Is not this your son, my lord?

Glo. His breeding, Sir, hath been at my charge: I have so often blushed to acknowledge him, that now I am brazed to it.

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